FIRE COMMUNICATIONS TECHNICIAN I

ANNOUNCED FOR:
NASSAU COUNTY FIRE COMMISSION
SALARY: $41,117 -$85,294 (under the current collective bargaining agreement)

Receives, transmits, and monitors emergency messages using radio-telephone equipment in accordance with the regulations of the Federal Communications Commission and procedures established by the Office of the Fire Marshal; performs related duties as required.

Must be met on or before the closing date:

Training and Experience

Graduation from high school.

Necessary Special Requirement: Verified by Hiring Agency

In addition to the above, candidates must meet the following requirement: per Article XVII, Section 1704a, of the Nassau County Charter "shall have at least three years of service as a volunteer firefighter and be a current active volunteer firefighter in the county at the time of hire."

NOTE: Candidates successful on the written examination may, after a conditional offer of employment, be subject to a medical examination including speech and hearing tests.
NOTE: SEE ITEMS NOS. 1 AND 2 OF GENERAL INFORMATION.HOW TO APPLY:
ONLINE APPLICATIONS are available at www.nassaucivilservice.com The advantages of filing electronically include the storage of submitted applications in your personal user account and application processing fee payment by credit/debit card.
Additionally, our Examination Announcements webpage includes a link entitled Job Descriptions and Job Interest Cards, which offers the opportunity to view class specifications and fill out a form so that you may receive an email notification when an open competitive examination for a particular title is announced in the future.
PLEASE NOTE: Computers are available to file electronic applications in our office at 40 Main Street, 2nd Floor, Hempstead, NY from 9:00 AM to 4:45 PM, Monday thru Friday. In accordance with our goal of making the Nassau County Civil Service Commission a paperless agency, no hard copy application is available.
RESIDENCY: SEE ITEM NO. 5 OF GENERAL INFORMATION.
FEE: NON-REFUNDABLE Processing Fee must be submitted for each separately numbered examination for which you apply. This fee must be paid by credit or debit card.
CAREFULLY REVIEW THE MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS ON THIS ANNOUNCEMENT TO ENSURE THAT YOU MEET THEM, AS THIS IS A NON-REFUNDABLE PROCESSING FEE. Applications submitted without proper payment will be rejected without review.
APPLICATION FEE WAIVER: A waiver of application fee will be allowed if you are unemployed and primarily responsible for the support of a household. In addition, a waiver of application fee will be allowed if you are determined eligible for Medicaid, or receiving Supplemental Security Income payments, or Public Assistance (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families/Family Assistance or Safety Net Assistance) or are certified Job Training Partnership Act/Workforce Investment Act eligible through a State or local social service agency. Active-duty military service members and military veterans shall be exempt from the payment of application fees. All claims for application fee waiver are subject to verification.If you can verify eligibility for application fee waiver, when prompted to submit the application processing fee, choose the Fee Waiver option. Follow the directions regarding downloading and submitting the required fee waiver form.
SPECIAL TEST ACCOMMODATIONS: If you have eithera temporary or permanent disability andarein need of reasonable test accommodations, and/or are in need of an alternate examination date due to a conflict with either a Religious Observance or Military Service Commitment, please answer "yes" to the appropriate question(s) in the application.
NOTE: SEE ITEM NO. 6 OF GENERAL INFORMATION REGARDING ADDITIONAL CREDITS FOR VETERANS, AND FOR CHILDREN/SIBLINGS OF FIREFIGHTERS/POLICE OFFICERS WHO QUALIFY UNDER SECTIONS 85A/85B OF CIVIL SERVICE LAW. IF YOU BELIEVE YOU QUALIFY FOR SUCH CREDITS, ANSWER "YES" TO THE APPLICABLE QUESTION(S) IN THE APPLICATION.
VACANCIES: SEE ITEM NO. 4 OF GENERAL INFORMATION FOR INFORMATION REGARDING VACANCIES AND BACKGROUND CHECK REQUIREMENTS FOR APPOINTMENT TO CERTAIN POSITIONS.
NOTE: More than two no-responses to canvass letters will result in the removal of a candidate from the eligible list.
TOTAL TIME ALLOWED FOR EXAMINATIONS HELD ON THIS DATE MAY NOT EXCEED EIGHT HOURS.
SUBJECT OF EXAMINATION: A written test designed to evaluate knowledge, skills and /or abilities in the following areas:
Coding/decoding information - These questions test for the ability to follow a set of coding rules. Some questions will require you to code information by converting certain information into letters or numbers. Other questions will require you to decode information by determining if the information that has already been converted into letters or numbers is correct. Complete directions will be provided; no previous knowledge of or training in any coding system is required.
Understanding and interpreting written material - These questions test for the ability to understand and interpret written material. You will be presented with brief reading passages and will be asked questions about the passages. You should base your answers to the questions only on what is presented in the passages and not on what you may happen to know about the topic.
Following directions (maps) -These questions test your ability to follow physical/geographic directions using street maps or building maps. You will have to read and understand a set of directions and then use them on a simple map.
Retaining and comprehending spoken information from calls for emergency services- These questions test for your ability to retain specific information that is heard in calls for emergency service, such as a street address, or to comprehend spoken information from emergency service calls, such as determining the location of a site in relation to landmarks. Simulated 911 calls will be played on audio CD. Immediately following each call, candidates are given audio instructions identifying which questions they are to answer within the test booklet. The questions that candidates are directed to answer for each simulated call will not be in sequential order. Candidates will need to retain and comprehend the information and instruction provided in this portion of the test to respond appropriately to the questions asked and to determine which questions to answer. The time allotted to answer these questions will be limited. At the end of each answer period, the CD will automatically play the next call. Note paper will be provided. Candidates will be permitted to take notes and to refer to them when answering the questions.
Radio operations and dispatching procedures - These questions test for knowledge of two-way radio systems and operations and may cover dispatching procedures when appropriate.
Test guide: The New York State Department of Civil Service has not prepared a test guide for this examination. However, candidates may find information in the publication 'General Guide to Written Tests' helpful in preparing for this test. This publication is available online at: https://www.cs.ny.gov/testing/testguides.cfm.
NOTE: Unless otherwise notified, candidates are permitted to use quiet, hand held, solar or battery powered calculators. Devices with typewriter keyboards such as computers, spell-checkers, personal digital assistants, address books, language translators, dictionaries, and any similar devices are prohibited.
PERFORMANCE TEST: A performance test will also be held at a later date, to be announced. The written test will be a ranking test and the performance test will be a qualifying (pass/fail) test. You must pass both the written and performance tests to be considered for appointment. You will not be called to the performance test unless you have passed the written test. Since the performance test is qualifying (pass/fail), if you pass the performance test your final score for the examination will be the score that you achieve on the written test.
Candidates may be invited to the performance test in the order of the scores they achieve on the written test. Nassau County reserves the right to give the performance test to only as many candidates as are needed to fill available vacancies.
The test will be administered on a conventional personal computer (PC). You will be using a conventional PC keyboard, but you will not be using a mouse.
THE SUBJECT OF PERFORMANCE TEST: The test consists of three parts, each preceded by a separate practice session. It will test your ability to enter the kinds of information that dispatchers and related personnel must process for fire, police, and emergency medical services. You will not need any specific information prior to the test; rather, complete on-screen instructions will tell you all that you need to know in order to take the test. In order to pass, you must enter the data at a rate of at least 6,000 keystrokes per hour (which is equal to typing approximately 20 words per minute), with an accuracy rate of at least 97.5%.
NOTE: If you have not received notice within three days of the examination date of January 27, 2024, call the Commission (572-2713).
IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CANDIDATE TO NOTIFY THIS COMMISSION, IN WRITING, OF ANY CHANGE OF NAME, MAILING/LEGAL/EMAIL ADDRESS, OR PHONE NUMBER: INDICATE EXAMINATION NUMBER AND TITLE, AND YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER.
DISABLED VETERANS: Visit our homepage at www.nassaucivilservice.com to view information (including a downloadable credit request form) on a recent amendment to the New York Constitution regarding the award and use of additional credits for certain disabled veterans on civil service examinations.

1. APPLYING: Inquiries should be directed to the Executive Director, Nassau County Civil Service Commission. The Commission does not accept responsibility for non-delivery or delivery delays of emails due to issues with your email account. The Commission reserves the right to reject for lateness or to accept applications filed after the advertised filing period.
2. TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE: The burden of establishing qualifications to the satisfaction of the Commission shall be upon the applicant. For the purpose of meeting the training and experience requirement of any examination, no credits shall be given for any work experience which is determined by the Commission to have been gained or acquired in violation of the provisions of the Civil Service Law.
Where required, certificates, licenses, and military separation papers (DD214) must be submitted with your application. Proof of claimed education, (copy of your high school diploma, Military, GED, New York State or comparable Equivalency Diploma) may be required to be submitted with the application. If education beyond high school is required, official transcripts must be submitted directly to us by the school
College education is considered at the rate of 30 credits completed per year.
For open competitive qualifications only, paid experience, if other than on a full time basis will be prorated.
Volunteer experience may be accepted if verifiable, and the experience claimed must have been in a structured program. Documentation signed by an official of the agency indicating hours per week, level of work, etc. must be provided.
Where additional experience may be substituted for an academic degree/diploma, the interpretation of the note, generally, is that for a full substitution, the underlying educational requirement for a Master's degree must be a Bachelor's degree; for a Bachelor's degree, it must be a High School Diploma/High School Equivalency Diploma; for a High School Diploma, it must be satisfactory completion of tenth or eighth grade education, as appropriate.
3. THE EXAMINATION: You must bring the official notice for admittance to the examination. Approved candidates will be notified when and where to appear for examination. If an application is rejected, the candidate will be notified.
CANDIDATES APPLYING FOR EXAMINATIONS ADMINISTERED BY OTHER JURISDICTIONS WITHIN, AND INCLUDING, NEW YORK STATE SHOULD CONTACT THIS OFFICE NO LESS THAN TWO WEEKS BEFORE THE DATE OF THE WRITTEN TEST AS IT OTHERWISE MAY NOT BE POSSIBLE TO MAKE ARRANGEMENTS. FAILURE TO PROVIDE SUCH INFORMATION MAY RESULT IN DISQUALIFICATION FROM ONE OR MORE EXAMINATIONS IN THE SERIES.
Candidates may be fingerprinted at the time of the examination and subsequent thereto, as required.
Total time allowed for examinations held on a particular date may not exceed eight hours.
Alternate examination date requests must be made to this Commission as soon as the conflict/problem arises; documentation is required, and will be reviewed against established criteria. In the event of illness, written verification from a professional health care provider is required. Generally, the alternate date that examinations can be administered is no later than the Friday following the original test date.
The Commission reserves the right, after this announcement is issued, to subdivide the examination and/or require a specific passing mark in one or more of such subdivisions in order that a candidate be considered further for eligibility. Notice of such arrangement will b...