LE Sgt Test Screw Up 8-5-08

Allow me to be the first person to post a topic about how screwed up today's LE Sgt Test was..

We all had to sit in a room for several hours (for a 20 minute test) with little or no explanation on what the problems were ..

10-12 people allegedly got to do the test a second time around because of "technical problems" therefore granting them an obvious advantage over all of the others who only had one shot. Those who got do-overs had ample time to digest the questions and formulate answers.

JS should be jobless after embarassing both herself and our agency with her transparent incompetency (not to mention that she appeared to be under the influence to say the least).

Today's test was nothing short of a disaster, and an example of both poor planning and judgment. I know that PBSO could of done better, and hope that EVERY CANDIDATE in the next groups get a fair shake and efficient delivery of their testing.

I can certainly understand why you and others are upset with the manner in which the process was administered, but we should not be jumping to any premature conclusions about any advantages that some candidates may or may not have had. This process was probably one of the most poorly administered tests in a long time, and unfortunately, this is not the first time that it has happened at PBSO. There needs to be some strict accountability for what has happened here, rather than just a bunch of steam and hot air.

Give the sheriff an opportunity to look into what happened. He understands the sacrifice that most, if not all, of the candidates made in order to compete in this process. If nothing else, he is very fair and he is not going to validate a process where the playing field was not level.

If there was an advantage with those 10-12 candidates getting a second opportunity at answering the same scenarios, then this portion of the process will have to be done again with newly created scenarios. There is no other way around it. If, however, the audio portion of the presentation was recorded, and there's just no video to view (from the first presentation), then the audio-taped response should suffice. If there is no audio or video, and the agency would have to rely upon the candidates' second performance, then all of the candidates will have to perform this phase again. My only concern at this point is that those 10-12 candidates will have been through this process twice, while everyone else has only done it once.

Those in the second group of the process were at the school from 8:00 this morning and did not get released until around 6:00 tonight. That hardly seems fair to them, especially since the first group was released around 12:00 noon. The morning group was delayed by a couple of hours in starting their scenarios. The second group was delayed by well over eight hours and they went into their performances knowing that there was problems with the process because of the finger pointing between civilian managers and because of the lack of professionalism. If it wasn't bad enough, there was another example of failed leadership when it came time to acknowledging that there was an A/V problem with the first group. Those candidates in the second group can hardly say that they had the same opportunity as the first group in going into this assessment phase with a positive attitude and clear focus on the work that needed to be done.

The first post makes several strong points that are difficult to argue with. We should expect more than this from PBSO, and when people fail to deliver, there should be accountability in the form of consequences.

Another problem...

Hypothetically, if one group is graded based on video and audio while another only on audio, then the whole idea of standardization goes out the window again. Being able to see how the subject presents him or herself would certainly effect the grade. After all, you are being evaluated based on your presentation and so much can be communicated visually...

I just don't see a simple solution or fix here...

I don't know about anyone else but there is no way in heck I am going through that again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oouuuphhff!!!

She needs to go...manager pay and a take home for this?

I enjoyed her explanation of, "It's not PBSO's fault...we bid out to a Chicago firm who sub-bid to a local business that didn't know how
to use the equipment"....

That should have been in the bid....NO SUB BIDDING. Wow, who would have thought that the winning bidder wasn't going to FLY DOWN from Chicago and work the process....sheesh!

Well, I believe it would make it your fault, for not insuring that the process was inspected, and double checked.

I remember her saying that the NONE of the equipment was turned on in 15 of the candidates rooms, which means there is no audio recording of their scenarios... making the entire process unusable.

I'm sure our wonderful PBA has already wrote the MOA for it.

I have complete faith in the Sheriff doing the right thing. The Sheriff has really made it his mantra to be fair, honest, and straight forward. The guy is smart, he's not going to validate anything that will be called into question.

It wasnt just the 10 or 12 that got to go twice, most the candidates in the first wave got to sit with the first question about twenty minutes Ive been told. Is that really correct?

I think the last poster was correct, lots of rumors will fly, the best thing to do first is for the boss to dispel those, investigate, get all the facts, and be fair about it as he has demonstrated time and again with other issues.

We have it pretty good here and we owe much of it to the boss. I am not happy with the process glitch either but let the boss do his job and I think every one will be satisfied.

Okay, let's gear up for another run of this assessment process! New scenarios will be developed and we'll try this again people! Lets get some leadership down there on the next go around, please. Should be easy next time. All have seen the process at least once, and some have seen it twice.

Even though I did not take part in this promotional process, I feel for all of you. I for one am completely sick and tired of the incompetant civilian's who seem to run PBSO. This place allows them to get away with murder. From H.R., motorpool, commo, steno, etc, they treat us bad and are allowed to get away with it. I will never understand why this is an accepted practice her at PBSO.

[NIGHTRIDER]

I have complete faith in the Sheriff doing the right thing. The Sheriff has really made it his mantra to be fair, honest, and straight forward. The guy is smart, he's not going to validate anything that will be called into question.

It wasnt just the 10 or 12 that got to go twice, most the candidates in the first wave got to sit with the first question about twenty minutes Ive been told. Is that really correct?

I think the last poster was correct, lots of rumors will fly, the best thing to do first is for the boss to dispel those, investigate, get all the facts, and be fair about it as he has demonstrated time and again with other issues.

We have it pretty good here and we owe much of it to the boss. I am not happy with the process glitch either but let the boss do his job and I think every one will be satisfied.

Awesome statement!! I have been here through 5 administrations. This is the best to date. The boss will do whatever it takes to make it right. Have faith brothers and sisters!!

I was in the same situation 31 years ago w/different dept. The final solution was that everyone involved took another sgt test and the candidates got to pick their highest score of the two.

Most of the "victim" group filed grievances after the initial scores were posted; the city agreed, and the initial solution would wipe their slate and give them a 2nd test. I was in the victim group, but had the highest score so I filed a grievance. The non-victim group filed grievances complaining that the other group got two chances while they got only one, so they finally settled on the best of two scores solution. There was more than one sgt's position that would be filled via this test, so even if you weren't #1, being close was important..