| Accusations of racial discrimination polarize fire department | ||
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| NEW HAVEN — The first in an expected series of racial discrimination complaints has been filed in connection with two scuttled promotional tests in the fire department. Firefighter Frank Ricci filed his complaint with the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities claiming that the city denied him promotion in the fire department because he is white. A complaint with the CHRO often is the first step in filing a federal civil rights lawsuit. His complaint likely won’t be the last. Ricci is among about 20 mainly white firefighters who hired New Haven attorney Karen Lee Torre to challenge the city’s actions. Torre said her office was in the process of filing 19 more complaints Tuesday. A group of black firefighters has retained attorney John Williams of New Haven, who has pledged to file his own CHRO complaints against the fire union for its position in the promotional flap. The white firefighters maintain the city manipulated the civil service process in an effort to appease the African-American community in New Haven. "This isn’t just about discrimination," said Ricci. "This is about abuse of power and the administration’s willingness to betray the public trust for votes." The controversy surrounds two fire department promotional tests that were administered last fall and later thrown out by the civil service commission after the city raised concerns that too few minorities were in line for promotion. In the process, tensions divided the department along racial lines and sparked accusations of favoritism, cheating, racism and reverse discrimination. Torre described the CHRO complaint as the first stage in holding the city administration "accountable for its blatant lawlessness and political cowardice." City officials, meanwhile, have defended their actions and those of the civil service commission, saying that throwing out the tests will be upheld as legal and moral. "He (Ricci) was not discriminated against. He and all the others who took the tests were treated equally," said Corporation Counsel Thomas Ude. "The outcome of the civil service commission vote was not based on trying to favor members of any racial or ethnic group but to ensure that everybody was treated equally." Williams has said he would file CHRO complaints against Fire Fighter Local 825 on behalf of some black firefighters. Last month, the rank and file authorized the union to sue the city to determine whether the city charter and civil service rules were violated when the tests were thrown out. Some minority firefighters accused the union of talking sides in the contentious issue and said they didn’t want their union dues to subsidize a lawsuit they oppose. |
| İNew Haven Register 2004 |