Kansas City to pay Black electrician $1 million in discrimination lawsuit settlement
Kansas City will pay $1 million to a former city water department electrician who sued claiming racial discrimination.
It was the largest of four lawsuit settlements the Kansas City Council approved on Thursday in a 12-0 vote.
The three other settlements together totaled about $323,500. One stemmed from a crash with a Kansas City fire truck; two were also discrimination cases.
The settlements were the latest in a series of payouts from the city to resolve claims, many from water department employees.
Thursday’s $1 million settlement goes to Ronald Williams, who filed his lawsuit in 2018 in Jackson County Circuit Court. Williams, a maintenance electrician, alleges he was punished for contradicting a white electrician and was not allowed to take a class that could have earned him a promotion. The lawsuit says the city violated the Missouri Human Rights Act while Williams worked for the Water Services Department from 2011 to February 2017.
In another discrimination case, the city will pay $75,000 to settle a lawsuit with Keith Bowman, a former water department meter reader.
That lawsuit, filed in 2019 in Jackson County Circuit Court, alleges Bowman endured discrimination, illegal retaliation and a hostile work environment in violation of the Missouri Human Rights Act. It accuses the city of giving white employees preferential treatment.
The city will also pay $150,000 to settle a lawsuit with Neheema Clarke, a cadet with the Kansas City Fire Department.
That lawsuit, filed in 2021 in Jackson County Circuit Court, accuses the city of race and gender discrimination. In the lawsuit, Clarke said that she received negative comments about her hair and that other cadets would touch her hair, making her feel uncomfortable and “like an exhibit.”
The Star published an investigation into the fire department last year that found a pattern of systemic racism had been tolerated for decades. Months later, the city’s new contract with the fire department focused on improving racial diversity and fairness within the department.
The injury lawsuit stems from a November 2020 crash between a Kansas City fire truck driver and the driver of a 2012 Mazda at 39th Street and Benton Boulevard. The city will pay $98,500 to settle that case.
In court records, the city denied most of the allegations in all of the cases.
In April, a former Kansas City water department employee accepted a $500,000 offer to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit.
This story was originally published June 16, 2022 at 4:57 PM.
