Opinion ID: 772395
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Deviation from Standard Procedure

Text: 47 In support of his fourth pretext argument, Bass presented evidence indicating that the Fire and Rescue Division departed from its standard procedure when it interviewed the applicants for the Training Instructor positions. Tom Preston, who developed the interview process for the Training Instructor and Group Supervisor positions, testified that interview scores were not intended to be determinative, and the interview policy specifically stated that scores were not to be totaled and that the interview was only one component to be considered. The policy, which was identified in deposition by Valle, included the following instructions: 48 NOTE: Do not total scores. This process is intended to develop a profile, highlighting a candidate's areas of strength and weakness. This process was designed as one component to be used in conjunction with other criteria to determine a final selection. 49 The Division violated these written procedures by totaling the scores and relying exclusively upon the interviews. An employer's violation of its own normal hiring procedure may be evidence of pretext. See Hill v. Seaboard Coast Line R.R., 885 F.2d 804, 811 (11th Cir. 1989). We believe that this is especially true where, as here, an employer disregards all but one of the factors and qualifications generally taken into consideration and relies solely on a factor which was designed to create leeway for the promotion of people of a certain race. 50 Furthermore, other facts surrounding the interview process used in selecting the Training Instructors indicate that the process was suspect. For example, the interviewers, who were the sole decisionmakers, received no training or guidelines to help them evaluate which candidates were best qualified for the Training Instructor positions. The interviewers were supposed to evaluate the applicants' responses to certain situations to determine which candidates would make the best Training Instructors, yet the interviewers were never even informed of what duties a Training Instructor had. Although Middleton testified that he had at some time received training in the interview process itself, he said he received no training with respect to the specific qualifications to look for when interviewing the Training Instructor applicants. Valle, another member of the Training Instructor interview panel, testified that he knew very little about firefighter training at the time he served on the panel. Meeks, the final member of the Training Instructor interview panel, testified that she had no knowledge of firefighting or training when she served on the panel. Furthermore, despite the fact that the panel members were called upon to judge the applicants' qualifications to be Training Instructors, Middleton, who chose the other two panel members, testified that he [t]ried to select people who had little or no involvement with the training function. 51 We recognize that a defendant may terminate an employee for a good or bad reason without violating federal law and [w]e are not in the business of adjudging whether employment decisions are prudent or fair. Damon v. Fleming Supermarkets of Florida, Inc., 196 F.3d 1354, 1361 (11th Cir. 1999). We are, however, in the business of adjudging whether an employer violated Title VII by improperly making employment decisions on account of race. In this case, the selection process employed by the Division, when viewed in light of the other evidence of the County's race- conscious hiring and promotion efforts, constituted circumstantial evidence that the Division was acting with race in mind while selecting Training Instructors. 52