Another lawsuit claims Kansas City’s water department fails to address discrimination
A former Kansas City water department employee has accepted a $500,000 offer to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit — the latest in a series of payouts by the city to resolve claims of water agency workers.
Craig Moye, a Black man who worked maintenance at the Water Supply Division Plant at 1 Northwest Briarcliff Road, said he was harassed, passed over for promotions because of his race, treated differently from his white colleagues and retaliated against, all in violation of the Missouri Human Rights Act.
City Council members will vote on whether to approve the settlement.
“Numerous employees have witnessed and reported the racist behavior and culture at (Kansas City’s) Water Services Department, but (Kansas City) has not taken any action to correct the work environment,” Moye said in his lawsuit, which was filed in 2017, just before he was let go from the job.
Moye, 41, who started working for the water department in 2006, recounted multiple racially discriminatory comments made by white co-workers. He said that in 2016 a white colleague said in front of him and other Black employees that one co-worker was “already Black enough and didn’t need to tan,” then added, “he must be trying to get Black like Africans.”
The lawsuit also alleged that Moye and other Black colleagues were “repeatedly grabbed and shoved into offices by white co-workers” attempting to intimidate them so they would not report discrimination in the workplace.
When he and others reported these comments to management, Moye said they were ignored.
Once he made the reports, Moye said, he was retaliated against. Upper management encouraged his direct supervisors to “write up” Moye and assigned him “unfair and unreasonable time limits to complete tasks,” according to the lawsuit.
Moye said he was also assigned dangerous work, such as handling electricity despite having no prior training in that field. He filed a union grievance.
In April 2017, one of the supervisors who assigned Moye the electrical tasks started recording Moye while at work, which Moye said is against union policy. Moye detailed in his lawsuit that he raised a hand over his head to try to communicate to the supervisor to stop recording.
The next day, according to court records, two supervisors filed a police report alleging Moye harassed them. The supervisor then filed for a protection order against Moye, saying in court said that he felt threatened by Moye’s “gang sign.” Moye said this was a misinterpretation of the motion he made with his hand. The harassment claim against Moye was eventually dropped.
Moye, who said he was ultimately fired in retaliation, called the city’s conduct “outrageous,” saying it “evidenced an evil motive or conscious disregard” for his rights.
In court filings the city denied most of Moye’s allegations, though they did confirm that a white employee commented on a co-worker’s skin color. He was issued a “letter of counseling” in response.
Neither Moye, city spokespeople or Moye’s attorney could immediately be reached for comment Monday.
Growing number of discrimination lawsuits
Moye, like other Black water department employees before him, said he was also passed over for opportunities in training programs and promotions based on race. Instead, he said, white employees with less experience were picked to attend a training. Those employees were later promoted.
This decision was part of an “ongoing and continuous pattern” by the city, he said.
The city acknowledged that some employees chosen for the training program had less experience than those not chosen.
Moye’s case is the latest in a series of claims against the water department that stretch back to 2008.
A jury in February 2020 awarded former electrician Ronald Williams nearly $800,000 after it found the city discriminated against the worker, who is Black. The city retaliated against him after he complained, the jury found.
The lawsuit, filed in 2018 earlier in Jackson County Circuit Court, alleged the city violated the Missouri Human Rights Act during Williams’ employment and that one of Williams’ supervisors said, on more than occasion, that “African American electricians were incompetent.”
Williams also said he was punished for contradicting a white electrician and was not allowed to take a class that could have earned him a promotion. He accused the city of treating white employees better and of creating a hostile work environment by not letting black electricians ride together in work trucks while white electricians could. White electricians were also allowed to leave the plant to buy supplies — Black electricians were not, the lawsuit said.
In 2015, Kansas City Water Services chemist LaDonna Nunley, who had worked for the department for 24 years, sued the city, claiming a sexually hostile workplace.
Nunley in court records said she had been treated unfairly because she is Black, was passed over for promotion by younger white employees and was retaliated against because she complained.
During trial testimony, Nunley’s attorney said the city failed to investigate multiple vulgar comments made over the years. The Kansas City Council agreed in 2017 to settle the lawsuit claim for $500,000.
In 2013, Mable Ramey-Moore, who is African-American, filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after she was let go by the city in May 2013. Ramey-Moore worked as an assistant to the director in water services from 1995 until March 2012, when she was laid off, at which point she also claimed discrimination. In 2014, the city agreed to a $750,000 settlement.
In 2012, Shonda Marshall, an African-American woman who had worked 23 years for the water department, filed suit alleging she was repeatedly passed over for promotions that went to less qualified white males. The City Council eventually voted to settle her claim for $282,500.
Longtime water department lab supervisor Wilbur Dunnell, known locally as “Dr. H2O” for his educational videos with school children, also sued, saying that white employees were unfairly promoted ahead of black employees to management positions.
