Kansas City seeks equity officer to combat bias following Star investigation

Kansas City officials will develop a plan to hire a new high-ranking official to root out disparities and promote equity at City Hall, the City Council decided Thursday.

Council members voted unanimously with little debate to direct City Manager Brian Platt to present a plan to create and fund a chief equity officer position and establish a task force to investigate city practices to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion.

Councilwomen Ryana Parks-Shaw and Melissa Robinson co-sponsored the legislation, along with a proposal to hire outside counsel to review the fire department’s compliance with the city’s discrimination rules, which the City Council will consider next week. The two pieces of legislation come after a year-long investigation by The Star revealed decades of systemic racism and sexism targeting firefighters.

The series, which published in December, found that Black firefighters have been harassed and put in danger, kept from sought-after stations through unwritten rules of segregation and passed over for promotions.

In a city where 30% of residents are Black, only 14% of the fire department is. At the upper ranks, firefighters of color are even more underrepresented.

Black firefighters are kept out of busy, inner-city fire stations, which are the most sought-after posts because firefighters respond to far more calls and gain experience that can help them get promoted. Some of those historically white stations haven’t had a Black captain in at least a decade.

Female firefighters have reported severe sexual harassment, and after receiving a special sales tax for two decades, the fire department still hasn’t outfitted all of its fire stations to accommodate women.

Kansas City officials said in December they were disturbed by The Star’s findings and vowed to find solutions.

Quickly, the City Council brought Chief Donna Lake in to answer questions, and Platt instructed Lake to work on plans to address the issue.

On Wednesday, Platt released Lake’s plans, which include considering new firms to handle the department’s promotional exams and rooting out disparities in assignments and promotions. At the same time, the council’s Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee passed Parks-Shaw and Robinson’s two pieces of legislation unanimously.

Lake told The Star on Wednesday that KCFD would continue to work with the City Council and Platt. She said she thought hiring an equity officer would benefit both her department and the city as a whole.

This story was originally published January 7, 2021 at 5:37 PM.

Allison Kite

The Kansas City Star

816-234-4088

Allison Kite reports on City Hall and local politics for The Star. She joined the paper in February 2018 and covered Midterm election races on both sides of the state line. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism with minors in economics and public policy from the University of Kansas.