By Bradley Olson
The Houston Chronicle
HOUSTON — The Houston Fire Department is reviewing its recruiting practices after it was discovered that a former fire cadet who resigned after tying a noose and making inflammatory comments in front of black firefighters was readmitted to the fire academy.
The cadet, who city officials declined to name, is expected to join the department in August, if he successfully completes his training at the academy.
The revelation prompted further outrage from community activists and City Council members who on Wednesday rebuffed Mayor Bill White’s attempt to hire an outside investigator and continued to demand an independent probe.
White acknowledged that the Department of Justice has asked to collaborate with the city in its efforts to improve how it resolves allegations of race or gender-based impropriety and that he will “assess the situation as it goes along.”
“We need a fact-finder,” said City Councilwoman Jolanda Jones, who said she also spoke to someone from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division but declined to elaborate. She requested a federal investigation earlier this month after two female firefighters found racist and misogynistic graffiti near their quarters at a department fire station this month. “I just want to know what the problems are. That’s it. Once we figure out what the problems are, we can decide to what to do.”
Supervisors did little
The graffiti incident, as well as two allegations of noose-like knots found in firehouses, have inflamed tensions within the Fire Department and left city officials struggling to craft an authoritative response as the details of racially charged incidents continue to be aired in public.
Documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle show that firefighters Jane Draycott and Paula Keyes had made numerous complaints of harassment in the weeks leading up to July 7, when the racial and misogynistic slurs were scrawled in their dorm and on a picture of Draycott and her daughter, who had been killed in a car accident.
The documents show supervisors were aware of the incidents but did little to intervene.
City and Fire Department officials said they are reviewing recruiting practices in light of the cadet’s rehiring and will begin to include a candidate’s history with the department in the screening process. The cadet resigned last year after an investigation was triggered when he and two friends made a hangman’s noose during a knot-tying class in February 2008, officials said. The cadet cinched the noose around a sports drink bottle, held it up and made a joke to a black friend in the class. Fire Department officials declined to detail what he said, but sources familiar with the incident said other firefighters who witnessed his actions found it inflammatory.
He resigned before the investigation was completed and re-entered the recruiting process last year. It was not until he arrived at the fire academy that department officials were aware of his previous resignation, said Assistant Fire Chief Kevin Alexander. At that point, he was allowed to continue working toward becoming a firefighter. Background investigations conducted as part of the screening process for cadets did not turn up any information that would question his ability to perform, Assistant Chief Karen Dupont said.
“I don’t even know what to say,” said Otis Jordan, president of the Houston Black Firefighters Association, a fire captain who has been highly critical of the department’s handling of various incidents. “It’s just another example of how the good old boys just keep doing business how they’ve always done business.”
Contract vote delayed
White said he did not know the facts of the cadet case but intended to continue his effort to hire an outside firm to examine how the city handles allegations of workplace racism and sexism.
City Council on Wednesday delayed for two weeks consideration of a contentious $190,000 contract to hire two law firms to complete that task after council members questioned the close ties Thompson and Horton LLP and Lemond and Lemond LLC had to senior city officials. Council members also expressed concerns that the probe did not appear to be independent enough.
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