I am not sure which was worse, Mayor Michael Passero's withdrawal this week of job offers to two qualified minority firefighter candidates, who had been hired by his predecessor, or his poor excuse afterward to work toward diversity of the fire department by encouraging youths to become interested in the profession.   

That's the kind of talk and no action that has left the city fire department, in 2016, a remarkably white institution, a lopsided culture where Passero spent a long career as a union firefighter, before running for mayor.

Over the many decades that have passed since federal orders mandated diversification of the department, little has changed, despite lip service like the kind the new mayor trotted out this week, while doing the opposite.

Indeed, on Thursday I tracked down the young black city resident who is not only interested in being a firefighter but who worked hard to apply for and ultimately get chosen for the job.

Instead of going to the firefighting academy next month, as he had been promised in a job offer letter signed by both outgoing Mayor Daryl Finizio and then mayor-elect Passero, 22-year-old Dakwan Alger, a 2011 graduate of New London High School, is adrift.

In fact, Alger, who has been a student at Three Rivers Community College, can't go back to school this coming semester since he missed the deadline to register for classes, thinking he would be going to the firefighting academy instead.

Nice way to encourage the youth of the city to get interested in firefighting: Sign a letter offering a job, encourage them to cancel other plans, then withdraw it.

Alger, who struck me as a pleasant and smart young man in our short conversation, said he was devastated when he was called in this week and told the job offer was being withdrawn. He said he didn't understand why and was too flustered to ask good questions.

He said he had been especially proud to have been offered the job, knowing that he scored well on aptitude tests and in interviews and believed he was selected not just because he was a minority.

In fact, Alger was in the top two-thirds of the final batch of 17 applicants, narrowed from more than 100 that applied for the firefighting jobs.

Former Mayor Finizio, in selecting six new firefighters, chose three from among the group who were already qualified and three from the group who needed firefighting training.

For both sets of three hires, he rejected a city tradition of choosing from among the top three candidates in test scores, known colloquially as the "rule of three."

The use of the rule of three in government hiring has generally declined in practice in recent years, especially since President Obama forbade its use in federal hiring with a 2010 memo.

Mayor Finizio said at the time of his six hires, which included three minorities, that city personnel policy specifically allows the rule of three to be disregarded, especially when diversifying the police and fire department is an issue.

His hires infuriated Passero from the moment they were announced, people familiar with the process say, because the new mayor thought the old mayor was rushing to make a point before he left office.

Passero says he only co-signed the letters promising jobs to those who needed training at the fire academy as a compromise to keep Finizio from swearing them in immediately as firefighters.

Still, Finizio, who got the city Personnel Board to also sign off on his firefighting hires, chose from among candidates who scored well and also met other hiring goals, like favoring city residents.

After all, what company would insist that only top test scorers be hired, while ignoring other important job considerations, like how well an applicant answers interview questions.

Mayor Passero, when I reached him at the end of what he said was the worst couple of days so far in office, said rejecting the job offers was the best of bad choices he was given.

He said the hiring process was flawed, not just because of the rule of three but for other reasons that he said were identified in a memo, requested by the city risk manager, by lawyers for the city's insurance company.

Passero said he could not release a copy of the letter because it is protected as attorney/client communication.

Another of the reasons for withdrawing the job offers, he said, was that the fire chief was not properly included in the hiring process. He said the city charter, which gives the mayor authority to hire, also prohibits using race and religion in hiring decisions.

The mayor's decision to withdraw the job offers, he said, was to protect the city from liability in the event some candidate were to challenge the hiring process.

That strikes me as a poor excuse, given the late hour, with job offers already made to qualified candidates. So far, no one has complained, or threatened a lawsuit in the month since the appointments were announced.

The technical flaws in the hiring procedure seem slight and inconsequential, nothing to impress a jury. But I am not a lawyer.

I would think the people Mayor Passero rejected, on the other hand, would have good reason to sue, especially since his actions have the effect of perpetuating a mostly white culture in the city fire department.

The new mayor blames the old mayor for putting him in the firefighting hiring box without good choices.

He also said the lack of diversity in the city fire department has troubled him deeply over the last 20 years, and he plans to make it his legacy to correct it.

I hope he succeeds.

I know there is one young black man in the city today who can rightly claim the mayor's promises of diversity may be worth not more than his signature on a letter of a failed job offer.

This is the opinion of David Collins

d.collins@theday.com

Twitter: @DavidCollinsct