A Dallas firefighter who lives in Denton has filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the Denton Fire Department and the city of Denton, alleging that the department discriminated against him by not hiring him in 2006 and routinely discriminates against all black applicants.

David Johnson filed the suit Monday in the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Sherman.

Johnson referred comment Tuesday to his attorneys, Kevin Wiggins and Tracey Wallace. Neither responded to telephone messages asking for comment.

“The hiring system is implemented by the fire chief exercising undue authority to make biased and inconsistent determinations with little or no oversight,” the suit alleges. “Because of the undue discretion of the fire chief, the City of Denton Fire De­partment does not hire African-Americans as firemen.”

The suit claims the practice represents a pattern of discrimination against blacks and asks the federal judge to certify it as a class-action suit. That would allow other re­jected black applicants to join the suit.

“The City of Denton Fire Department has virtually all Caucasian employees. Fur­ther, all of the City of Denton Fire De­part­ment’s firemen are Caucasian,” the lawsuit states.

According to city records, three African-Americans work at the department. None is a firefighter. Eight Hispanics work there, six of them firefighters. The department also has one American Indian firefighter on the roster, and 166 Caucasian employees, 148 of them firefighters.

Johnson took the December 2005 test, according to city records. He scored 92, with 87 applicants scoring higher than he did. His application was thrown out. The application should have contained a witness’ signature to his authorization for a background check, and that space was blank.

City Attorney Ed Snyder said Tuesday that the city received the suit just that day and he had not had time to analyze it, so he could not comment.

“But we don’t think it has any merit,” Snyder said.

Denton civil rights activist Carolyn Phillips wrote a letter in 2006 expressing concern over Johnson’s not being hired. Snyder replied in a Nov. 8, 2006, letter, which Phillips turned over to the <ITAL> Denton Record-Chronicle.

Snyder wrote that “the fact remains that the ‘witness’ portion of the background authorization was blank on this person’s application, and that all candidates with blanks were eliminated without regard to race or ethnicity, as evidenced by the fact that white and female applicants were rejected on this basis as well.”

“The integrity of the selection process absolutely demands that the rules be applied equally, without any bias or special consideration due to race or ethnicity, no matter how much we all wish to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of the Denton Fire Department,” Snyder’s letter reads. “Based upon this data, there can be no legitimate dispute that the hiring process was well and truly color blind.”

Fire Chief Ross Chadwick has been criticized for years because there are no black firefighters in the Denton department. Last year he hired Quentin Brown, who is black and a former New Orleans fire captain, as a recruiter. Chadwick and Brown both said at the time and continue to say that Brown’s focus is to get qualified black applicants to come to Denton.

Chadwick did not return a telephone message Tuesday asking for comment.

Civil service rules for the fire department mandate a strict procedure for hiring firefighters. After scoring the test, officials create a list based on grades. According to the civil service rules, the highest scorer will be hired unless the background check or physical agility test eliminates that applicant.

Chadwick said in a recent interview that department officials and the Denton Fire Fighters Association, which has a contract with the city to speak for the firefighters, are constantly looking for ways to increase the chances of black firefighters to be hired. They voted recently to relax the rules to the degree that, instead of simply taking the highest scorer on the list, the highest 15 scorers will be looked at for a position and any of the 15 could be hired, based on experience and ability.

Chadwick said this would allow a black applicant to have a better chance at being hired.

But the lawsuit alleges that the department has “written and unwritten policies and practices for hiring that allow biased and inconsistent determinations to the detriment of African-Americans.”

The suit alleges that officials manipulate the criteria to allow them to hire whomever they please.

“Pre-selected candidates are given previous tests to study that include [material not on study guides that appear in the test], thus guaranteeing higher scores than African American applicants,” the suit alleges.

The city attorney said Tuesday that no one ever receives a copy of old tests.

The suit asks that Johnson and anyone else who joins the suit be awarded “lost wages including back pay, front pay and lost fringe benefits,” including anything that might have been part of a 401(k) pension plan, compensatory and punitive damages and attorney fees.

DONNA FIELDER can be reached at 940-566-6885. Her e-mail address is dfielder@dentonrc.com .