New York (CNN) -- A federal judge has ordered that an official monitor be put in place to prevent discrimination in the hiring of New York City firefighters. 

U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis said the city needs "to comprehensively reassess its policies and practices, to analyze the evidence showing the effect of those policies and practices, and to rationally consider how they can be changed to achieve a firefighter hiring process that is -- in actual practice and effect -- fair and open to all." 

The order requires the city to take remedial steps to fix discriminatory hiring practices and puts the court monitor in place for at least the next 10 years to make sure those steps are taken. 

Garaufis cited "the clear evidence of disparate impact that Mayor (Michael) Bloomberg and his senior leadership chose to ignore was obvious to anyone else who looked." 

"Instead of facing hard facts and asking hard questions about the City's abysmal track record of hiring black and Hispanic firefighters, the Bloomberg Administration dug in and fought back," the judge said in his ruling. 

Mark LaVorgna, a spokesman for the mayor, said the city intends to appeal the decision. 

Litigation against the city's firefighter hiring practices began in 2007, when the U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint alleging the Fire Department of New York's hiring exams negatively affected black and Hispanic applicants. 

"Four years of litigation and two adverse liability rulings later, the City still doesn't get it," Garaufis said. "The City's senior leaders have routinely denied that they are responsible or doing anything to remedy nearly forty years of discrimination." 
What is his first name?
Mayor (Michael) Bloomberg