San Angelo Firefighters Challenge Questions on Driver Promotional Examination

On July 10, 2015, about 37 San Angelo firefighters took the Driver Promotional Examination, a test the San Angelo Fire Department last gave in 2011. Based on the outcome of the exam, three lucky individuals will receive a promotion to drive the engines and the aerial apparatus of aerial trucks, said Chief Brian Dunn with the San Angelo Fire Department.

A few months ago, Dunn said the city council approved 50 driver positions for SAFD, and that left the agency with three immediate openings.

However, that determination was put on hold because some of the firemen did not agree with the answers to six questions on the test, so The Civil Service Commission held a meeting Tuesday afternoon to discuss and determine the validity of those questions. Chief Dunn, the assistant fire chief, Scott Farris, and 10 firemen attended the meeting to either explain why they disagreed with the answers to these questions, or to argue why those questions should remain unchanged, which is their right, Dunn said.

“It’s kind of a checks and balances,” Dunn explained. “If they don’t think an answer is correct, it gives them an opportunity to challenge that question.”

Three members of the commission addressed the questions one by one, heard arguments for why they should be changed, and finalized the meeting by throwing out one of the questions all together and changing two of them based on the arguments provided. To determine this outcome, the panel reviewed how firefighters came to their answers based on the study material.

“[Panel members] look at what was written in the book and see if there’s any conflicting information that can affect the outcome of the answer,” Dunn noted.

With the changes, Dunn said the test scores have to be recalculated and divided by 99 rather than 100 since one question was removed. How that will affect the overall scores, he could not say at this time. However, there should be enough candidates to fill the three open positions and to go on a valid list of candidates for any open positions that may come up within the next 10 months. Dunn stated that the test scores are good for one year.