Concern about the city of Springfield’s
hiring practices for first responders has sparked a trio of new
legal actions.
Last week, Ward 2 Ald. Frank McNeil asked the
U.S. Department of Justice to launch a formal investigation into
hiring and promotional practices in the police and fire
departments.
This week, three top-ranked firefighter
applicants rejected by the Civil Service Commission in July and
August filed lawsuits against commission members in state court.
Two of those applicants, Michael Vespa and Dustin Vicari, had
received conditional offers of employment on Aug. 11, only to
receive notices of rejection on Aug. 17.
Also, at press time, David Rose — the
Washington, D.C attorney who helped negotiate the 2000 consent
decree in which city officials pledged to increase minority hiring
on police and fire departments — said he will file a motion
asking the federal court to enforce the existing decree.
The police and fire departments have lagged in
minority representation for decades. While the city of Springfield
is approximately 13 percent black, African-Americans make up only 4
percent of the police department’s 272-officer force, and
less than 2 percent of the 197 firefighters at SFD. The 2000
consent decree — the result of a lawsuit filed by the
Springfield branch of the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People — was meant to help remedy that situation.
However, recent recruiting efforts have failed
to improve demographic disparities, especially at the fire
department, which certifies new firefighter candidates only once
every two years. In July, the Civil Service Commission cut Michael
Newman, the only African-American ranked in the top band of applicants, from the eligibility
list, citing unspecified problems with his background check.
Newman, who had passed background checks to
earn jobs with the Department of Corrections and Wells-Fargo Bank,
as well as top-secret clearance with the U.S. Navy, asked the
commission to tell him what he had done that precluded him from
being a firefighter. After initially refusing to release the
information, city officials weeks ago said Newman could have the
information, but that he must first sign a waiver.
On Aug. 24, city officials met with Rose, who
was in town to meet with Newman and a few other rejected
applicants. In that meeting, Rose says, Corporation Counsel Jenifer
Johnson told him the waiver would require an applicant to simply
promise not to sue the city for releasing the information. When
Rose asked if applicants would be required to waive claims under
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Johnson said no.
But the next morning, when someone faxed Rose
the final draft, he saw that the waiver indeed demands exactly such
a release.
“It’s very strange to meet with
somebody and have the person tell you what the document means, and
then receive a copy and it doesn’t say what she said it
means,” Rose says. Johnson was unavailable for comment.
The waiver’s all-encompassing demands
have motivated Rose to ask the court for help. “It’s
pretty clearly contrary to the purposes of the consent
decree,” he says. “I have an obligation to the court
and to my clients to try to enforce the decree, and this is about
as patent a non-compliance as I can imagine.”
The waiver specifies that neither the applicant nor the applicant’s “affiliates,
legal representatives, estates, successors, assigns, heirs,
administrators, personal representatives [or] executors” can sue
or file any sort of complaint against the city, its current or former
employees, elected officials or civil service commission members.
Furthermore, if a court rules that the waiver is ineffective and sides
with the applicant, the applicant “agrees not to accept any
monetary damages or other relief. . . . ”
Newman interprets the sweeping language as a
lack of confidence among city officials.
“Personally, myself, if I was legit in
my actions, I wouldn’t be worried about all that
happening,” he says. “It seems very cowardly on their
part.”
The waiver is less specific on the matter of
what information the city will disclose, promising only to
“release the area(s) where negative information was obtained.
. . . ”
“Basically, they’re telling me
they’ll tell me what they want me to know, after which I can
do nothing,” Newman says.
Ald. McNeil didn’t wait for the waiver
to be drafted before he asked the Department of Justice to
investigate. In a two-page letter dated Aug. 24, McNeil summarized
Springfield’s history of racial strife, focusing on
Newman’s rejection, the ongoing federal lawsuits filed by
city employees claiming racial discrimination, and the settlement
the city paid former police officer Renatta Frazier and her
attorney to dismiss her lawsuit claiming a racially hostile work
environment.
McNeil sent the letter “more or less out
of frustration” with the pattern of events.
“Clearly there’s something wrong.
I think it’s going to take some bold steps to resolve the issues that we have in Springfield. And the
approach we’re taking to some degree is piecemeal, and it seems
that when we get one piece fixed, another piece breaks. So I’d
rather see us do a major overhaul rather than a piecemeal
renovation,” he says.
So far, he has received no response to his
letter. Meanwhile, Newman remains mystified about why he was
disqualified. Bill Clutter, an investigator hired by Newman’s
attorney, Jon Gray Noll, questions how the city’s background
investigators prioritized information.
“We received Newman’s Department
of Corrections personnel file, and we were the only ones who
requested a copy of it,” Clutter says. “If this were
truly a thorough background investigation, you would’ve
thought they would have interviewed people he listed as references.
None of those people had been interviewed by anyone from the city
of Springfield. It begs the question why they can pick and choose
information to determine suitability.”
Noll also represents Vespa and Vicari, two
white applicants dismissed after passing the background check.
“It seems to be somewhat arbitrary and
capricious, the way they’re moving people from band
one,” Clutter says.
This article appears in Sep 1-7, 2005.
