Another Globe editor in trouble? | Office tower developer eyes big housing play in Boston burbs| Wu's stealth changes to how Boston firefighters are hired | Boston at a crossroads/by Martyn Roetter

Disabled vets need not apply: The Wu administration has effectively barred disabled veterans from competing for half of all firefighter openings as it escalates efforts to diversify the Boston Fire Department, critics contend

Michael Connelly clearly thought he had a good chance to get hired as a Boston firefighter, and why wouldn’t he?

After serving four years in the Air Force, Connelly excelled in a high-stress job as a Boston Fire Department dispatcher.

The West Roxbury resident frequently worked on radio duty, acting as the key liaison between firefighters in the field and department brass, including on a memorable May day last year.

As Connelly worked the radio amid a six-alarm fire that ripped through three triple-deckers, he also dealt with car accident fires in tunnels and other blazes in underground T stations.

He scored a 99 out of 100 on the department’s firefighting exam. At the very least, he expected to get a real interview.

What Connelly got was this: A ten-minute conversation over Zoom with the Boston Fire Department’s diversity chief, after which he was ghosted by the department he had spent years working for.

A military veteran with a disability incurred during his years in the Air Force, Connelly has filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, arguing that Boston Fire Department brass have attempted to diversify the force’s ranks at the expense of veterans like him.

In a change quietly put into effect last summer, Boston Fire officials dramatically overhauled the hiring process so that as many as half of all new firefighter jobs are no longer covered by traditional civil service rules, where test scores and preferences for military veterans push candidates to the top.

Overall, as of 2024, a little over three-quarters of Boston firefighters were white, per The Boston Globe, down from 80 percent at the start of the decade.

Now, under the new rules, city fire officials can hire half of all firefighters from a hybrid pool of nontraditional candidates, including the 18 to 25-year-old graduates of the Boston Fire Department cadet program, most of whom are not veterans.

In July, Boston Fire Commissioner Paul Burke and a top state human resources official quietly signed a memorandum of understanding ironing the new rules into place. Previously, the number of so-called hybrid hires had been capped at one-third since the Boston Fire Department launched its cadet program in 2020.

“It’s been a career path for 60 years - they changed it without telling anyone,” said one Boston Fire Department insider.

The result? Military veterans, including those with disabilities like Connelly, are competing for significantly fewer jobs, with a lottery system introduced for those with the top entrance exam scores.

After coming up short repeatedly in the fire department’s lottery for open firefighting jobs, a frustrated Connelly decided to try his luck in the fire department’s hybrid hiring system.

From what he read of the process, a committee would be formed to review all aspects of his application.

Instead, Connelly was granted that ten-minute Zoom interview with Michael Gaskins, the Boston Fire Department’s head of diversity recruitment.

Gaskins, who was previously the Boston Police Department’s diversity chief and holds a degree from Berklee College of Music, does not have any firefighting experience.

Connelly is not alone in his frustrations.

A number of other disabled veterans are now gearing up to file complaints with MCAD as well, Patrick Bryant, an attorney working with Connelly and InnoVets, a veterans advocacy group, told Contrarian Boston.

Bryant maintains that department officials are using the cadet program and the hybrid hiring process as a misguided way to diversify the ranks of Boston firefighters by limiting opportunities for veterans. Instead, Boston Fire officials should boost outreach to minority veterans.

“The City has long sought to appoint firefighters through methods that do not obligate it to recognize the service of military veterans, including those disabled as a result of their service,” Bryant wrote, in a letter to state Civil Service Commission officials seeking an investigation.

Another Globe mystery: Sudden suspension of award-winning Globe video editor ignites newsroom speculation

First, the Globe’s top editor, Nancy Barnes, makes one of the quickest exits in history from the head of a major metro newspaper.

On a Friday in mid-December, Barnes told staffers that she would be leaving after barely three years on the job. A week later, she was gone.

Now Tim Rasmussen, a senior assistant managing editor for visual journalism and news product design, has been suddenly suspended, newsroom sources say.