Oakland Fire hiring fiasco part 2 - Oakland Fire chief picks his own son?

Oakland Fire chief hand picks his own son in the hiring process?

OAKLAND, Calif. (CFN)-- Earlier this week, the Oakland Fire Department passed out more than 8,000 applications. Only the first 1,000 would be accepted that was only the start of this ill conceived hiring process.

Some people began lining up three days ahead of time just to turn in applications for the 23 available positions.

Hundreds of people spent a cold Friday night near Oakland's City Hall forming a organized line, hoping to become firefighters.

Then the Oakland fire department perverted the process by hand selecting specific people out of the line resulting in a near riot! And of those few selected during the process...

The Oakland Fire Chief Daniel D. Farrell's son!

Applicants claimed that some minority applicants, specifically African-American and women, were hand picked over others which sems to be shown in the news videos, There also have been rumors that relatives of high-ranking City Hall officials or people with connections to the fire department were singled out to submit applications.

"That's not true," said Farrell, adding that people who were chosen were in the "right place at the right time."

"With the crowd pushing forward, we tried to get some people from the right side of the crowd, some from the left side of the crowd and some from the middle of the crowd. There were no defined lines," he said.

Farrell admitted that one of his two sons in the lines was picked, while the other was not.

"I didn't personally pick him. He was picked by someone else," he said.

Many of those who came to turn in their applications were turned away, while most others were hand picked out of the line, causing unrest with the obvious favoritism displayed towards certain candidates.

It was suspected that factors such as hiring goals leading to race and sex selection, and favoritism might have come into play.

"It seems like there were people who knew firefighters and they were more likely to be picked than someone who didn't know someone out there," applicant Eddie Grant said.

Others, the lucky special few, said they were content with the selection process.

"I feel like that unfair, but I got picked so I got to be honest, I'm happy about it. And I don't care anymore, cause I got picked," applicant Mohammed Ahmed said.

Oakland officials denied foul play, but said they feel the process didn't go smoothly as planned.

In an interview with NBC11, Oakland human resources official Jacquelyn Edwards said: "Our goal was to attempt to find some kind of way to mitigate between -- and this is kind of a life issue -- between the people that follow instructions, that do what they're asked to do�� and the people that make it up." ( Official Physco Babble?)

Video proof: The hand selection of specific applicant's can be clearly seen in the various news videos including the Chief Daniel D. Farrell pointing out who got in, Including his own son! and 13 more city employee relatives...Video-1, Video-2, Photo- 3

Edwards said she did not think there was any favoritism in the process.

Would-be Oakland firefighters will continue the controversial process in January
In response to the critics, the city is offering a second chance to those that were turned away at the Oakland Fire Department's Training Center on Jan. 12 at 8:30 a.m.

Officials said the 1,000 people selected took written tests Saturday.