Racial issues in the Chicago Fire Department boiled over Wednesday at a City Council meeting where aldermen proposed an overhaul of department disciplinary procedures and Mayor Richard Daley accused minority council members of siding with lawyers representing black firefighter candidates in a discrimination suit against the city.
The City Council also voted unanimously to condemn racial and ethnic slurs in the wake of a series of offensive transmissions broadcast recently over Fire Department radio airwaves.
An angry Daley asserted that a group of 11 Latino and African-American aldermen overstepped the bounds of propriety when they met Tuesday with lawyers for black firefighter candidates who sued the city in 1998 in a case now being decided by a federal judge.
“We know lawyers want to make money off the city of Chicago,” Daley steamed. “Don’t front for them. You represent the people. You don’t represent lawyers. Remember that.”
Daley later said the attorneys are seeking $19 million from the city–down from $85 million initially–to settle the suit, which alleges that the city’s handling of a 1995 firefighter test was unfair.
“We are not taking sides,” said Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd), one of the aldermen who met with Matthew Piers, a lawyer for the plaintiffs in the case. “We are just trying to get information about the lawsuit.”
“While the mayor may not be happy with lawyers, I’m grateful for them, for the good work that they’ve done for African-Americans historically, and other groups that have been discriminated against,” said Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th), whom Daley singled out after seeing her chuckle following his remarks. “The mayor and I profoundly disagree.”
The city offered to settle the case before trial by hiring 132 black firefighters and paying their attorneys’ fees, Piers said. But the city did not offer to pay damages.
The plaintiffs rejected that proposal because, Piers said, they want at least $19 million in back pay. None of that money would go to their attorneys, he said.
Meanwhile, Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th) introduced a measure that would create an independent panel to recommend discipline for firefighters who commit rules violations.
Modeled after the Chicago Police Board, the fire panel would take the disciplinary process largely out of the department’s hands and “begin to do structural, long-term changes” by ensuring that discipline is imposed whenever appropriate, Lyle said.
Daley endorsed the concept, saying that the Police Board “has done a good job.”
In other action:
Ald. Edward Burke (14th) proposed an ordinance, modeled after a New York state law, that would allow only self-extinguishing cigarettes to be sold in the city. “We have a very real opportunity here to reduce the number of fire deaths in our city,” said Burke, a longtime tobacco foe.
Ald. Thomas Tunney (44th), the council’s only openly gay member, and several colleagues introduced a resolution calling for council opposition to a federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages.
Daley introduced an ordinance that would repeal more than 35 provisions in the city’s code that are obsolete, unconstitutional or duplicated elsewhere in the code.
The City Council passed a measure that revises the city’s curfew ordinance. Unless engaged in 1st Amendment activities, such as protests and election-night rallies, youngsters 16 or younger will not be permitted to be out without a parent or guardian after 10:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday or after 11:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
