Springfield, IL  (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Former Springfield fire chief Allen Reyne took the public comment microphone Tuesday to tell aldermen the new vendor providing a psychological personality test for prospective firefighters is doing the city a disservice.

Reyne, quoting a question from the test, said, “‘If I see a co-worker doing something unethical or illegal, I will tell my immediate supervisor,'” said Reyne. “If you answered Strongly Agree, you got that question wrong,” apparently because firefights should not think in terms of strong opinions. “Those subjective questions are why the majority of the 220 people of the 350 who took that exam are no longer eligible.”

The matter is of concern to Ald. Ralph Hanauer. “I think we need to get a list of people that took the prior test, find out what their scores were, and compare them on this to see,” said the alderman, “because if, collectively, if they’ve all dropped substantially, we’ve got a problem.

“We are going to lose good candidates.”

That, argued Reyne, is already happening.