Spring civil service exams are slated to wrap today for the El Dorado police and fire departments and the El Dorado Civil Service Commission is expected to meet to certify the results.
The tests, which include three components -- written exams, oral interviews and physical fitness/agility training --, have been ongoing for several days.
The EFD kicked off the cycle on April 6 with physical fitness/agility tests.
The EFD and ECSC continued Monday morning with written and oral exams for new-hire candidates. The tests were administered in the El Dorado Municipal Auditorium.
The police department conducted its written exams for entry-level and promotional candidates at 6 p.m. Monday at EPD headquarters.
The fire department simultaneously administered written exams for promotional candidates in the auditorium.
The EPD scheduled its physical fitness/agility training session for Tuesday.
Police Chief Kenny Hickman said the EPD had planned to move activities indoors due to heavy rain that began on Monday and were forecast for the area on Tuesday.
Today, both departments and civil service commissioners will conduct oral interviews for promotional candidates.
The interviews will begin at 8 a.m. with the fire department and following a lunch break, the interviews will pick back up at 12:30 p.m. with the police department.
The final interview for the day is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. and the ECSC will meet at 5 p.m. to certify the scores.
Just prior to administering written exams Monday evening, civil service commissioners convened for a meeting.
The group heard about ongoing challenges the police and fire department face in finding qualified candidates and steps they are taking to address the issue.
Fire Chief Chad Mosby said 20 entry-level applicants had signed up for the 2024 spring civil service exams and nine took the written tests and sat down for oral interviews Monday morning.
He said the EFD, like the EPD, are continuing efforts to improve recruitment and retention.
Mosby said targeted marketing via social media "has been a good avenue" for the EFD to attract candidates, adding that word-of-mouth is still an effective recruitment tool.
Since the state of Arkansas lowered the minimum age for fire recruits to 18 in 2019, Mosby said the EFD has boosted its presence at job/career fairs, particularly for high-schoolers, and the move has "helped us garner good applicants."
"What we do now with advertising and getting the word out has helped us go from having two or three applicants to nine, 10 or a dozen," Mosby said.
The EFD has also paid close attention and adapted to hiring/recruiting trends, he noted.
For instance, he said veteran firefighters have noticed that young recruits seem to relate better to younger firefighters.
"One of the things we've seen with applicants is that they don't want to see old guys. They want to speak to younger guys," Mosby said.
"It can be manpower-intensive. Sometimes when you're short-staffed, it takes someone off their off-day to go to job fairs," he continued.
In 2023, three rounds of civil service exams were administered to help fill open positions in the police department and build a deep eligibility list of candidates for the fire department.
Typically, two civil-service testing cycles are held in El Dorado each year, one in the spring, as required by law, and the other in the fall.
However, the EPD requested a third batch of tests last summer to help fill several vacancies.
The EFD, which was mostly or fully staffed when the testing cycles were held, participated in all three testing periods to bolster its eligibility list.
Eash department has 52 positions for uniformed personnel.
Entry-level candidates who pass the civil service exams remain on the EFD and EPD's respective eligibility lists for a year after the results of the exams are certified.
Mosby said the EFD has hired 16 firefighters since the spring 2023 civil service exams were administered.
Half of them have since left the EFD for various reasons, he said.
Mosby said he expects the EFD to have five vacancies by the end of April, noting that two firefighters are slated to retire by then.
He noted that two firefighters left in recent months to join the EPD, one went to work for the Ouachita County Medical Center and another is leaving to join the military.
"A couple of others left for higher-paying jobs. We're facing the same challenges. We were fully staffed for about three weeks," he said with a laugh.
Another issue Mosby, Hickman and ECSC members have cited is that the pool of qualified candidates tends to dwindle as the hiring process advances.
Hickman noted that 11 entry-level candidates signed up for the written exam on Monday but he did not know how many would show up to take the test or how many would pass all three phases of civil service testing.
Mosby also pointed out that entry-level candidates do not always successfully complete pre-employment evaluations.
"They get to (the Arkansas Fire Training Academy) or (emergency medical technician) school and they don't make the grade to stay in the program and we can't send them again back for a year," explained Mosby.
Added Hickman, "I can relate to Chief Mosby. When he's been fully staffed, we've had several openings."
Since the last two testing cycles in July and October of 2023, Hickman said the EPD has not had "as much out-go or in-come."
"We had to separate with three (officers) because they were not a good fit. Two had come from other (law enforcement) agencies," Hickman said.
He said a few EPD officers who left in search of other career opportunities have returned to the department in recent months.
Hickman noted that the EPD is revamping its field officer training program so that new-hires will have a more "centralized, consistent training" experience.
"We want to make sure that training doesn't get put in the back seat, where it does sometimes in the fray of things when it gets busy," Hickman told civil service commissioners.
Hire another firefighter
Per a request from Mosby, the ECSC co-signed an action that was by the city's Finance Committee on March 28.
The committee approved a request by the EFD to allot funding to temporarily add a 53rd slot for uniformed personnel.
Mosby explained that a firefighter is expected to leave soon on a long-term military deployment that could last for eight to 12 months or longer.
The EFD will retain the firefighter's position while he is gone but will not pay him a salary during his deployment because he will be paid by the U.S. military at that time.
"We want to hire someone while he's gone and once he returns, that extra slot goes away through attrition," Mosby explained.
The ECSC approved the measure, pending final approval by the El Dorado City Council.