Long Beach May Change Hiring Rules : Diversity: Women and minorities could get more promotions under new system, officials say. But some criticize proposals.

Despite efforts to roll back affirmative action programs elsewhere in the state, Long Beach is considering changing hiring rules that some officials say could help minorities and women get promoted faster.

Hiring officials are asking for more discretion to promote workers with less experience and those who do not score among the highest on examinations. Officials have also proposed making it easier for applicants from other cities to fill supervisory positions in the city’s Police and Fire departments.

“If you’re going to hold management responsible for [promoting more minorities and women], give us more flexibility,” said William Storey, the city’s director of hiring and affirmative action and author of the proposed changes.

However, some employee representatives and civil service officials say the changes could discourage senior workers without necessarily promoting their minority and women colleagues. The proposals could even open doors to discrimination and favoritism, they said.

“You need to be careful that those changes don’t turn into preferential treatment programs,” Civil Service Director George A. Mitchell said. “I don’t want Long Beach to do anything which would appear incorrect in the name of affirmative action.”

The proposals surfaced last year in an update to the City Council on the number of women and minorities in the Long Beach Police Department. According to the report, only nine minorities and six women were among 102 officers promoted to lower-level supervisory positions from 1989 through 1994.

If the city’s Civil Service Commission approves the changes, the City Council could vote to institute them as soon as next month. But council members are divided on the issue.

“I don’t think you have to stack the deck any higher than it’s already stacked,” said Councilman Les Robbins. He added that the changes could lead to lower standards and minority hiring quotas.

But Councilwoman Jenny Oropeza said she would welcome changes in the city’s hiring practices.

“I am for tweaking the [promotions] system a little,” Oropeza said. “It’s very important to have . . . diversity in our work force and [among] those who deal with the public in particular.”

The Civil Service staff recently conducted a study to see whether minorities and women would receive more promotions if seniority points were eliminated. Based on a breakdown of different groups’ years of experience working for the city, the study determined that women and Asians could receive more promotions at the expense of blacks and Latinos, who would receive fewer.

Perhaps the most controversial proposal would eliminate seniority as a basis for choosing the most qualified candidate for a promotion. City officials and employee unions have clashed on that point for years.

On one hand, hiring director Storey said, managers could promote better--and more diverse--workers if they were allowed to choose regardless of experience.

But seniority has long been the prize of city unions. “What is the point of being on the job this long if your training . . . is not going to afford you the opportunity to advance?” asked Gloria A. Carter, local president of the California Public Workers union.

Perhaps the next most divisive proposal would allow department heads to promote someone other than the top three candidates--as determined by city examinations--without consulting Civil Service commissioners.

City affirmative action officer Dolores Maldonado Barrows dismisses charges that the changes could invite discrimination. She said the city receives very few complaints about its hiring system for entry-level positions, which allows managers to hire with less regard for who scores highest on tests.

Civil Service director Mitchell has instead proposed allowing managers to promote from the top five candidates rather than the top three. Such a compromise could allow flexibility without undermining the intent of exams, which are aimed at determining who are the most qualified applicants, he said.

“There’s a reason for competition,” Mitchell said. “Our tests are not perfect . . . but we can certainly ascertain the top five in a group.”

Another proposal targeted toward the Police and Fire departments would require the city to train employees to take the departments’ rigorous promotional exams. Both departments’ employee unions oppose that proposal, saying individuals should take the initiative to train on their own.

The unions also oppose the proposal to make promotions to supervisory positions open to employees of other cities. They say that although it could widen the pool of minority and women applicants, the change could hurt morale within the departments.

But Storey has heard the complaints for years, having long proposed similar changes to the city’s hiring system.

“All we’re saying is these are some things that might help,” Storey said. “You never know unless you try.”