By Kristen Johnson
The News & Observer
DURHAM, N.C. — The city of Durham will no longer pay a nearly $1 million settlement it agreed to last fall to compensate firefighter applicants for an unintentionally racist test, the city attorney said Friday.
The reversal comes after the U.S. Department of Justice dismissed its action against the Durham Fire Department that had alleged the hiring test unfairly disqualified 16 Black applicants from becoming firefighters.
The city settled with the Department of Justice in the civil rights lawsuit in October, agreeing to pay $980,000 in compensation and to offer the applicants other hiring opportunities subject to approval by a federal judge.
But with the dismissal of the suit under the Trump administration, the city no longer has to pay the money or offer any hiring relief to the affected job candidates.
The city acknowledged last year that the written test used between 2015 and 2024 to screen job candidates was “unintentionally discriminatory” and agreed to stop using it.. The test had 100 multiple-choice questions on reading, math, writing, and map reading and 30 questions on interpersonal competency and human relations. An additional section had 28 questions measuring reasoning skills.
In the lawsuit, the Department of Justice found that 37% of African Americans failed the test compared to 11% of white applicants. The test was not tailored to the job of entry-level firefighter, and failing it kept applicants from getting interviews.
Thursday’s action came along with the dismissal of four other “Biden era” lawsuits accusing fire and police departments of discrimination based on tests for jobs and promotions, according to a White House news release.
The move is part of President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI plan and his commitment to prioritizing merit in job hiring practices instead of “divisive race-based obsessions,” the release stated. The administration’s decision is also related to a fight over the use of “disparate impact,” which is when a neutral policy hurts a group of people, to prove discrimination.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the release that the suits endangered public safety and lowered standards for police and fire departments.
New hiring practices in Durham
Durham City Attorney Kimberly Rehberg said the hiring process in the city was fair and that no other department has been investigated for disparate-impact discrimination recently. She added that the city would continue to have fair opportunities for employment despite “however the federal government may want to characterize the dismissal of this case.”
“Although the DOJ dismissed its action against the City of Durham, the Durham Fire Department remains committed to hiring highly qualified applicants who reflect the diversity of the city,” Rehberg said in an email.
She said the Durham Fire Department replaced the test once it learned of its disproportionate impact on applicants.
“Those efforts are ongoing, and DFD administrators, City human resources professionals, and attorneys in my office are working diligently to develop a new job-appropriate, unbiased, Durham-focused, screening examination that does not negatively impact applicants from any protected group,” Rehberg said.
Mayor Leonardo Williams said the city honors diversity.
“While appreciating the decision directed by the DOJ to not be dictated by [consent] decree on our hiring practices financially, as Mayor, I am proud to lead a council where we have equity embedded in our values,” Williams said. “We honor diversity and merit is always abundant within it.”
When asked if he agreed with the federal government’s decision and if it was fair, Williams added that this was an “opportunity for us to define how we right past wrongs.”
“This happened well before my time as mayor,” he said. “However, I am responsible for ensuring that these practices do not happen again in the future.”
The News & Observer contacted the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division for a comment but did not receive a response.
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