Who does the work?

Friday morning I was in the gym early, walking the treadmill. Oh, I could turn on a TV, but why would I do that with the great view of Kailua life? Instead, I watched a city maintenance crew raking leaves in the parking lot. There was something strange about the crew, but I couldn't put my finger on it - they were raking, instead of blowing - that was a little unusual. They were working hard and without stopping to chat or anything, but that wasn't really strange. So, what was it?

Then I knew - they were all white guys. I've got so used to Filipino gardeners here, that to see white guys doing this kind of work was odd. I wondered why there were no brown guys on the crew, why I never see white-guy gardeners anywhere else. I see Filipino guys (and even women) mowing and raking and sweeping and weeding and trimming trees all around town, kind of blending in with the rust-red lava-rock walls and the tropical hedges. Could it be that it's because these white guys work for the County? They have these jobs, the bottom of the ladder by which to enter Civil Service with it's excellent pay, benefits and job security, and I wonder if only white guys can qualify on the written exam or whether the brown guys are excluded in some more subtle way. They must know about these jobs and want them too, and they too must be able to read and write.

What's the story?