A retired Kansas City Fire Department battalion chief is set to receive an $850,000 settlement for dropping a lawsuit that claims he was denied a promotion due to his race and gender.
Daniel McGrath, who is white, retired in January. Former Fire Chief Donna Lake gave the deputy chief’s job that McGrath was seeking in 2022 to a Black fire captain who McGrath alleges was less qualified.
The lawsuit claims that Lake signaled her intentions to pass over McGrath and others for promotion when she allegedly told a top subordinate that “the days of the Fire Department being ran by older white men are over.”
As context, Lake, who is white, was the department’s first and so far only woman fire chief. During her tenure, The Kansas City Star published an investigative series of articles documenting how women and Black firefighters had for decades been victims of discrimination within the fire department.
Based on The Star’s reporting, the U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation of the department’s employment practices. The status of the probe is unknown, as the government typically does not comment on investigations. But this one was ongoing as of this summer, according to a former firefighter who was interviewed several months ago.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/kc-pay-850-000-firefighter-042000206.html