NEW HAVEN-- A state judge has upheld an arbitration award overturning the six-month suspension of a city firefighter who used a racial epithet when introducing the United Negro College Fund at a meeting.
In a ruling issued this month, Superior Court Judge Patty Jenkins Pittman denied the city’s request to vacate a 2005 decision by the state Board of Mediation and Arbitration.
The arbitration panel concluded that Firefighter Carole LaCroix didn’t act "intentionally" when she twice used the word "nigger" in place of "negro" when she was called upon to introduce representatives of different charities during fund raising efforts at firehouses in 2003. The Board of Fire Commissioners suspended her for six months.
In her decision, Pittman ruled that the arbitration board was within its authority to overturn the suspension and that it was not within the court’s authority to interfere with the arbiters’ conclusions.
Corporation Counsel Thomas W. Ude said the city was disappointed and has not decided whether to take the case to appellate court. The ability of a department to discipline someone when they use a racial epithet is an "important issue," he said.
LaCroix’s attorney, Norm Pattis, said he fully expects the city to appeal and said he plans his own visit to court in early 2006 to file a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city for unequal protection under the law.
"This case was never about Carole LaCroix. The case was always about race politics," said Pattis.
"There’s far worse shenanigans going in that department than Carol LaCroix’s slip of the tongue. I don’t know why they sized her up as an easy mark."
LaCroix’s remark created somewhat of a conflagration in October 2003.
The NAACP called for her firing and the fire chief, Michael Grant, recommended her termination.
LaCroix had been told to escort representatives from charities to different firehouses to solicit donations. When she introduced the United Negro College Fund, she referred to the organization as the "United Nigger College Fund."
When people asked her what she said, she repeated it.
Pattis maintains — and the arbitration board agreed — that LaCroix merely fumbled over her words because she was inexperienced in public speaking and was nervous. Her diagnosed dyslexia also was a contributing factor, Pattis said.
The city argued that the arbitration board exceeded its authority in vacating the discipline, drew faulty conclusions based on the facts in evidence and improperly gave weight to its opinion that LaCroix didn’t mean to use the word.
Fire department rules against disrespectful language and conduct prejudicial to the reputation of the department, with which she was charged, do not differentiate whether the conduct was intentional.
İNew Haven Register 2006