Kansas City to look for outside lawyers to remedy fire department discrimination
Kansas City will look for outside legal counsel to investigate and root out discrimination in its fire department, the City Council decided on Thursday.
Council members voted unanimously, with no debate, in favor of legislation directing the city’s legal department to find independent lawyers to review the way the Kansas City Fire Department implements the city’s anti-discrimination rules and offer recommendations to mitigate the city’s risk.
It will be up to City Council to eventually approve the contract and funds.
The vote comes after The Star’s year-long investigation detailed decades of systemic racism and sexism tolerated by KCFD and City Hall officials. The three-part series, 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. Of the 48 highest-ranking firefighters, only three are Black.
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.
In a council committee last week, members voted unanimously to support the hiring of independent counsel and another piece of legislation asking City Manager Brian Platt to come up with a plan to create a “chief equity officer” position to oversee the city’s efforts to improve the culture for its employees. The officer would oversee all city departments, not just KCFD.
Council members have been hesitant in recent months to commit new funds to projects and priorities given the economic crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. But Councilwoman Katheryn Sheilds, who chairs the city’s finance committee, supported putting the equity officer position in next year’s budget, which the council must approve this spring.
“I think there are a lot of hard decisions there, but clearly this is a critical role,” Shields told the committee last week.
The next day, the full council unanimously approved the new position.
A coalition of local civil rights groups backed the proposal to hire outside counsel in a statement issued before the committee vote last week, saying it was “imperative” the KCFD undergo an independent investigation in the wake of The Star’s report. The group — made up of the Urban Summit local chapters of the National Black United Front, Urban League and Southern Christian Leadership Conference — said any delay would place “Black firefighters at risk for being subjected to additional harassment and intimidation.”
“The exposé clearly identified the fire department as a racist institution,” the group said. “Any delay in taking steps to eradicate the department’s discriminatory practices has the effect of putting the council’s imprimatur on systemic racism and further erodes public trust in those we elected to represent our interest.”
When the series published, Fire Chief Donna Lake said in a statement that the issues facing KCFD are “a microcosm” of the larger community and society, and just as the rest of the world struggles to improve equity and inclusion, “KCFD must rise to do the same.” She said issues that have resulted in racism and discrimination “cannot go unaddressed.”
Last week, Platt circulated the department’s plan to improve its culture, including reaffirming zero-tolerance for discrimination, analyzing the promotion processes to identify barriers for Black and female firefighters and issuing a request for proposals to look for vendors to handle the department’s entrance and promotional exams.
“Every person who steps forward to serve this City as a member of KCFD has every right to a workplace free from any sort of discrimination or harassment,” said Lake, the department’s first female chief. “Our elected officials, city leadership, the media and the public should question our past practices and have every right to expect change.”
