A retired Kansas City Fire Department Battalion Chief is set to get $850,000 for dropping his lawsuit claiming he was denied promotion because of his race and gender.

Daniel McGrath retired in January. He is white. Former Fire Chief Donna Lake gave McGrath’s 2022 deputy chief job to a Black captain, who McGrath claims was less qualified.

The lawsuit alleges that Lake indicated her intention to pass McGrath and other candidates for promotion by telling a subordinate, “the days where the Fire Department was run by older white men were over.”

Lake was the first woman and only woman to lead the department. She is also white. The Kansas City Star published a series of investigative articles during her tenure that documented how Black and women firefighters were discriminated against for years within the fire department.

1776 Coalition Sponsored Is Israel’s fate tied to Syria? Syria has fallen, but we are still far from seeing the last of the hostages returned. Our brave soldiers must fight to secure Israel’s borders, rid the region of emboldened attackers all over the Middle East, and adapt to the escalating threats from Syria, but Israel doesn’t have enough supplies to properly win this war. Can you support our IDF sons and daughters as they continue fighting for the Survival of the Promised Land?.

According to The Star, the U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation into the Department’s employment policies. As the government does not usually comment on investigations, it is unclear what the status of the investigation is. According to an interview with a former firefighter, this investigation was still ongoing this summer.

Lake and the elected leaders of the city promised to reform hiring, promotion and working conditions within the department that were unfairly discriminatory towards women and non-white males.

In August, the city settled two lawsuits filed by white battalion commanders who claimed they were also passed over for a deputy chief position.

Two payouts related

Mark Little and Christopher McDaniel each received $350,000, so the total payouts for this hiring dispute would total $1.5M if McGrath’s settlement is approved by the City Council as expected next Monday. The city’s risk management and law departments recommended approval.

McGrath’s lawyers argued for a higher settlement amount, saying that it should reflect how much money their client would have received as pension payments if he had retired at a higher rank.

Little and McDaniel are still working at the fire department, and they could get promoted before retiring.

McGrath’s represents the latest settlement in a string of costly settlements relating to discrimination in the Fire Department, which the city has paid in less than two year.

The council approved this fall a $1.3million settlement for a 61 year old Kansas City firefighter/paramedic. She endured years and years of abuse and mistreatment from male coworkers and superiors, because she was female, lesbian, and older than her peers at the time she graduated the fire academy.

A male coworker was charged for urinating in her office when she was not there.

Kansas City paid $800,000.00 to settle a lawsuit brought by a division assistant chief who claimed she had been harassed for three years prior to her resignation.

The Star 2020 investigation revealed that The Star had found the city to have paid $2.5 million in discrimination judgments, lawyer fees, and court costs over the previous 20 years.

Recent agreement between the city and firefighters union on a five-year contract would limit the ability of future department members to bring discrimination suits.

Arbitration is the only way to adjudicate most of the discrimination claims against those hired in Local 42 after May next year. Experts claim that this process favors employers.

This would not be the case for battalion leaders, as they have their own union. Higher ranks are not represented by a union.