Objectivity Questioned

Knopp Calls Investigative Panel a 'Kangaroo Court'

By Lauren Garrison Article Launched: 03/29/2007 11:42:46 AM EDT

The first special meeting of the Common Council subcommittee investigating the possibility of racism in the Fire Department has left some participants questioning the panel's objectivity.

The subcommittee, which was formed in late November 2006 in response to the revelation of a videotape containing footage of firefighters using racial slurs in casual conversations at the Broad River firehouse, is led by council member Phyllis Bolden, D-District B, who is also the chairman of the Health, Welfare and Public Safety Committee. The committee also includes council President Michael Coffey, D-At Large; Majority Leader Carvin Hilliard, D-District B; Personnel Committee Chairman Herb Grant, D-District A; Joanne Romano, R-At Large; and William Krummel, D-District E.

At the beginning and conclusion of the March 22 hearing, several members of the subcommittee stated that their intention was simply to obtain an accurate picture of the Fire Department culture and to determine whether allegations of racism were true or not. None of them intends to use the investigation as a "witch hunt," said Grant.

Others who attended the hearing, however, have their doubts. In response to Grant's statement, a Norwalk firefighter in the audience, who did not give his name, demanded to know why the subcommittee had invited two members of the Bridgeport Firebird Society a brotherhood of black firefighters to speak, as they do not have an inside view of what goes on in the Norwalk Fire Department. If the subcommittee's objective is truly to determine what happened, he said, why not ask the Norwalk firefighters who saw it firsthand?

The existence of the videotape was revealed to the media in mid-November by Scot Wilson, a black firefighter who at the time was suspended from duty and facing possible termination for reporting to work while under the influence of alcohol for a fifth time. Wilson had brought the videotape to Fire Chief Denis McCarthy's attention months earlier, but McCarthy had chosen not to view it when Wilson said he did not plan to press charges against those using the racist language, which was not directed at him or any other member of the department.

On Nov. 21, McCarthy issued a public apology, accepting full responsibility for failing to respond in a "more aggressive" manner. "I allowed the disciplinary nature of my meeting with an employee to distract me from the claims he was making," McCarthy said. "That was a grave error in my judgment."

In their statements at the hearing, Ron Mackey, the president of the Bridgeport Firebird Society, and Donald Day, the director of the Northeast Region of the International Association of Black Professional Fire Fighters, condemned McCarthy's lack of action in the Wilson case, as well as his record in recruiting women and minorities to the Westport Fire Department, where he previously served as chief. In Westport, Mackey said, McCarthy "had no supervision of blacks, Latinos and women. None whatsoever." Mackey called for McCarthy to be severely punished for ignoring Wilson's claims of racism in the department for more than a year. Day criticized the entire force, saying, "The Norwalk Fire Department is so blinded by color, it can't see the racism."

Fire Commissioner Carol Andreoli and former Fire Chief Sanford Anderson, who also attended the hearing, agreed with the anonymous firefighter. "I didn't feel that it was objective because they didn't give members of the [Norwalk] Fire Department the opportunity to speak," Andreoli said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "They brought in people from other communities who lacked the knowledge of properly assessing the information and overlooked the people who were involved on a daily basis."

Anderson's sentiments were similar. "One of the things I disagree with is that [the subcommittee] had people come in from Bridgeport to express their opinions," he said in a phone interview Wednesday. "I thought that was totally uncalled for. They should have contacted people within Norwalk. People in Bridgeport don't know what the situation is in Norwalk."

In addition to Mackey and Day, former Mayor Alex Knopp and Anderson were invited to speak at the hearing. Knopp, in particular, underwent a lengthy question-and-answer session. On Tuesday, he said he found the subcommittee to be "very insulting, disrespectful, hostile and unfair."

The subcommittee's treatment, Knopp said, "shows that the group has already made up its mind to act as a kind of 'kangaroo court' to try to damage my future political standing." For example, he said, "when the committee chair won't let me finish reading my statement and tries to cut me off, that's a sure sign that there's no real interest in hearing what I had to say." Knopp noted that "even the mayor apologized to me afterwards for what happened" during the hearing.

On Wednesday, Mayor Richard Moccia confirmed this, saying he told Knopp he "was sorry that he had to go through that. Nobody likes to be cross-examined. It was part of the process." Moccia said he was not saying "that the committee was wrong to ask the questions" but that he "just felt kind of bad that Alex was up there for so long answering questions."

In interrogating Knopp, subcommittee members focused extensively on a letter that Wilson sent on Sept. 6, 2005, to McCarthy and carbon copied to Knopp and several others in the city government. Knopp said he chose not to read this letter, explaining, "In light of the volume of mail received in my office, I rarely, if ever, spent time reading letters that were addressed and written to other city department heads and would have relied on the recipient to let me know if it contained noteworthy material. This was especially true in matters involving the Fire and Police departments where I always tried to respect the chain of command beginning with the chief."

Knopp also noted, "I want to make it very clear that at no time was any videotape ever offered to me, made known to me, presented to me or played for me. I had no knowledge that a videotape ever existed until its alleged contents were reported in the media" after he had left office. "As far as I know, Mr. Wilson never asked directly to meet with me or to explain to me directly and personally his experience with discrimination," he said.

In their follow-up questions and comments, subcommittee members were skeptical of Knopp's statement that he had not read Wilson's letter and had not been aware of the situation. "I find it hard to believe [the letter] did not get to your attention," said Grant.

In his prepared statement, Knopp also spoke of his decision to appoint Anderson, who had been with the Fire Department for 46 years at that time, as chief "to honor Sandy for his great service to Norwalk." When the decision was announced in 2004, Knopp said, he made it clear that the appointment was for one year only, as he envisioned hiring a chief who would stay with the department for a decade at minimum in order to oversee the implementation of many changes he had initiated.

Later in the meeting, Anderson, who was the city's first and only black fire chief, stated that he had asked to return as chief for another year but had been denied the opportunity by Knopp. Bolden asked Anderson if he believed Knopp's decision was a racist one. Anderson said he did not. "I think they thought I could do the job," he said, and reasoned that he had knowingly signed a contract for only one year.

Bolden also inquired if Anderson had been aware of any racism in the department during his time as chief, to which Anderson replied, "No, it was very quiet," with the exception of "some small incidents."

Despite Anderson's expressed belief that he had not been the victim of racism, Bolden said in a telephone interview Monday that Knopp's refusal to allow Anderson another year as chief was "race discrimination and age discrimination." Shortly after retiring as the city's chief, she said, Anderson was hired to lead the Greenwich Fire Department, proving that he would have been capable of continuing on as chief in Norwalk for many years had he been allowed.

Bolden said she plans to conduct at minimum two additional meetings during the first and second weeks of April at which all Norwalk firefighters are invited to give their own accounts.

Of the tense exchanges that occurred at the first hearing, Moccia said he doesn't want to second-guess the committee or Knopp. "I think it's unfortunate that we've come to this. I hope that the committee is coming to an end and understands that there is no racism in our Fire Department. There might have been errors in judgment in the past, as Chief McCarthy has said, but that's it."

Anderson agreed that the incident with Wilson and the videotape is in the past and should be kept there. "There's nothing [the subcommittee] can really do now but look forward to see how they should handle [something like this] in the future," he said. Anderson noted that making difficult decisions is up to the chief. "Chief McCarthy made a decision the way he wanted to, because this is what he thought was right. People can agree with him or not. I feel like he was justified in doing what he did. As a chief, you have to make decisions sometimes, and I have to respect the decision he made.