We applaud the town of Swampscott police and fire departments and Town Meeting members with voting to cut ties with restrictive state civil service hiring procedures.
Long the standard for police and fire hiring in Massachusetts, civil service is an antiquated system that Fire Chief Graham Archer sarcastically described as “filling out the most bubbles correctly” to determine who gets a town public safety job.
The town’s 60 firefighters and police officers voted by a 4 to 1 margin on Nov. 14-15 to stop using civil service for hiring and Town Meeting voted on Nov. 16 to stop using the hiring system.
A challenge to the vote by a Town Meeting member questioning a $5,000 contractual payment to each public safety employee amounts to nothing more than an insult to the integrity and professionalism of men and women who put their life on the line every day to keep Swampscott safe.
Parting ways with civil service is the first step on a march forward by the town to ensure inclusion and diversity are watch words in the town hiring process.
Swampscott public officials, residents and organizations joined most of the nation in taking up the rallying cry for racial equity in the wake of George Floyd’s murder on May 25. Town public safety employees and Town Meeting members understand action, not just words, must redefine what racial equity means in Swampscott.
In parting ways with civil service, the police and fire departments have cast off an antiquated hiring system that sets restrictive hiring parameters. Abandoning civil service sets the stage for the Select Board and town public employee unions to begin mapping out an inclusive hiring process that allows the town to look beyond its borders for strong candidates and ensures hiring is really a fair process.
By voting to abandon civil service, the town has broken from the past in a year when confronting past wrongs with new perspectives has become a national calling.
