Cedar Falls IA Appoints Public Safety Officers Instead of Firefighter

CEDAR FALLS, IA -- Cedar Falls Civil Service Commission this week approved eight new Public Safety Officer candidates over the objections of the firefighters’ union.

Scott Dix, Cedar Falls Fire Local 1366 president, sent a letter to the commission opposing certification of the job candidates because he said they didn’t meet the physical standards needed for a firefighter.

Despite Dix’s objection, commission members Robert Frederick and Sue Armbrecht voted Wednesday to approve the list. Commission member John Clopton wasn’t present because of illness.

The commission approves the hiring and promotion of municipal employees. The list was made up of eight candidates from 32 original applicants.

“It is the purview of the city’s government to determine what positions it needs,” Frederick said. “The overall role of the Civil Service Commission and the civil service process is to ensure that all viable candidates for jobs have an equal opportunity to compete.”

Dix said since PSOs are doing the work of firefighters they should be held to the same standard as other Cedar Falls firefighters and go through a more rigorous physical fitness test.

“They’ve changed the actual use of the PSOs,” Dix said. “They were supplemental, auxiliary. Now they’ve simply decided they’re no longer going to hire firefighters.”

The physical tests for Cedar Falls Firefighters have changed over the years.

New PSOs go through the Cooper Test of physical fitness. “It’s designed for law enforcement and does not take any (firefighting) activities into account,” Dix said. “My gear weighs 63 pounds before I even pick up a tool.”

The test has been used in Ames to test prospective firefighting candidates, and is used by Cedar Falls to test prospective PSOs. The test in Cedar Falls includes a timed 1.5 mile run, push-ups, sit-ups and sit and reach. In Ames, the sit and reach portion is replaced with a 300-meter run.

“It’s very similar to what the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy uses,” said Ames Fire Chief Rich Higgins.

In Cedar Falls and Ames, the Cooper Test is only the beginning of a series of tests, physical and academic, prospective firefighter and PSO candidates need to pass, along with a background and medical test.

Dix said in his letter a Candidate Physical Agility Test, or CPAT, should be used to test prospective candidates, although neither Ames nor Cedar Falls Fire Department use the full test.

“We’ve never done the full CPAT; we’ve done a modified version, kind of an in-house fire department physical ability test,” Higgins said. “We’re in the process of re-evaluating that right now.”

The Waterloo Fire Department doesn’t use the CPAT either. It uses a modified combat challenge that includes stair climb with high-rise bundle, rope hoist of a donut roll of hose, simulated forced entry, advance of charged hose and a simulated victim drag.

“The CPAT test is very expensive to administer,” said Waterloo Fire Chief Pat Treloar. “If you’re truly doing it right the equipment’s extremely expensive.”

Prior to Waterloo’s test, candidates also have to a complete an academic test and go before a board for an interview.

Cedar Falls Fire Chief John Bostwick said the CPAT is discriminatory and doesn’t test females and minorities fairly. The CPAT includes a stair climb, hose drag, equipment carry, ladder raise and extension, forcible entry, search simulation, rescue simulation, ceiling breach and ceiling pull.

“It’s not inclusive,” Bostwick said.

Women often have problems passing the CPAT even after training because of different muscle make-up, Bostwick said.

“They’re perfectly capable of doing all of the fire ground activities, it’s just the CPAT itself is built for a guy who already knows how to be a firefighter,” Bostwick said.

Both the Ames and Cedar Falls departments require candidates become Firefighter 1 certified, which involves a test, sometimes online, to teach candidates the basics of fighting fires.

“Some come in with firefighting experience, some come in with no firefighting experience,” Higgins said. Regardless of experience all candidates have to pass the preliminary tests for both departments.

Dix’s letter is the latest chapter in his work to get more full-time firefighters hired.

“We need to be staffed like Waterloo does,” Dix said. “We need at least the minimum number we had 30 years ago, and we’re over a dozen short from that.”

When the PSO program began three years ago it was supplemental, but now it’s replacing firefighters, Dix said.

“What’s next is probably going to be legal,” Dix said. “(We’ll) be looking at (the election) for next year as a long-term solution, but in the short term we’ll be looking at this legally.”

There are 21 full-time firefighters working with four PSOs at the fire department, and another 35 PSOs working for the city of Cedar Falls.

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