City Pays $12M to Parks Staff in Bias Case; Minority Employees Cited Past Efforts Favoring Whites

By ARI PAUL

The Bloomberg administration announced Feb. 26 that it will pay $12 million in compensatory damages and back pay to current and former Department of Parks and Recreation workers who claimed in a Federal class action lawsuit that they suffered racial discrimination.

MARK ROSENTHAL: 'Stern ran a plantation.'

It has also implemented several programs to ensure a fair promotional process in the agency.

During a press conference at the downtown headquarters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Legal Defense and Educational Fund, lawyers and plaintiffs declared the settlement a victory. The lawsuit was filed in 2001 and alleged that the department under then-Commissioner Henry Stern unlawfully passed over seasoned African-American and Latino workers for pay raises and promotions, giving them to younger provisionals who were nearly exclusively white and graduates of prestigious colleges and universities.

'Defended Indefensible'

"I think that this case raises a fundamental question which really needs an answer," said Lewis Steel, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the case. "And that question is: Why doesn't the City of New York enforce its own anti-discrimination laws, which are actually stronger than the Federal laws? Why don't they do that instead of defending fiercely for nine years a racial discrimination case that had a massive amount of evidence in support of it?"

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow INEQUITY REDRESSED: Bronx-based Recreation Director Robert Wright received a salary cut upon promotion, in contrast to his white colleagues. He believed the settlement in the case was a step forward, saying, 'We really enjoy the Parks Department. It's more than just a job to us. It's our lives.'

In September 2006 U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin ruled that there was significant evidence to go forward with the case, including an instance where "a Caucasian applicant with the lowest interview scores was selected over an African-American applicant with the highest score."

Judge Chin also cited testimony in depositions that established that when black employees were promoted, they received lesser salaries than white colleagues with the same job responsibilities, with the black Center Manager of the East 54th St. Recreation Center receiving $8,000 less than her white counterpart at Asser Levy. The black manager, Elizabeth Rogers, was eventually replaced by a white colleague who was paid more than $3,000 more.

Denied Advancement

Paula Loving, who was present at the press conference, had been the Citywide Coordinator of the agency's Work Experience Program, but was not allowed to apply for a new position as Director of WEP, which was given to a less-senior white employee. Judge Chin noted that Ms. Loving had been described by a supervisor as "smart, ambitious, reliable, a good communicator, and a very good worker." But the Director position was never posted, preventing her from applying for it, and it was filled initially by a white employee with significantly less experience in the WEP program. The job subsequently went to a white employee with less than a year on the job who had been hired right out of college.

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow JUSTICE AT LAST: Paula Loving, the former Citywide Coordinator of the Parks Department's Work Experience Program who was passed over for a promotion in favor of a less-qualified white employee, was one of the plaintiffs in lawsuit alleging systemic racial discrimination under then-Commissioner Henry Stern.

A key element of the suit was the charge that Mr. Stern relied heavily on a program he called "Class Of" to fill executive positions with employees who were just a year or two removed from college because of a racial bias against more-experienced minority staffers who were serving in positions that traditionally had been the springboard to those jobs.

Cited Bias

The U.S. Justice Department, which cited Mr. Stern for bias in 2002 - the year after he ended his tenure - had noted that virtually no white employees in Parks reported to black supervisors, and that whites, who comprised less than half the workforce, received 70 percent of the promotions. The DOJ attributed the disparity to the separate promotion track it said was created for members of "Class Of'' - which looked to recruit graduates of elite colleges - and the agency's "systematically failing to provide a fair and open selection process for promotions."

There are 3,500 members of the class action. The Parks department will set up an annual review of all promotions, create a training program for those seeking management positions and a board that will monitor department practices for the next three years. Counting legal fees and other costs, the settlement totaled nearly $21 million.

Several plaintiffs in the case spoke of a "good old boys' network" at the department under Commissioner Stern where younger, less-experienced white employees were tapped for promotions without any public notice of vacancies or opportunities to compete for jobs. They said this unfairly excluded African-American and Latino employees from moving up within the ranks.

Claims Retaliation

Parks employee and plaintiff Odessa Portlette recalled how she was one of the workers relocated to a basement for making public complaints about discrimination. She also said that the black managers did not have office space while the white ones did.

"The Parks Department was a plantation for numerous years under Henry Stern," said Mark Rosenthal, who as president of Local 983 of District Council 37 represents Motor Vehicle Operators, Parks Enforcement Patrol Officers and seasonal employees in the department. "It's much better right now under the Bloomberg administration. I can see the difference."

The fund's director-counsel and president, Theodore Shaw, welcomed the settlement and the monetary awards, but added that hearing the testimonies of African-American and Latino department workers made his "blood boil."

"In the scheme of things, it is a modest compensation for the discrimination that our clients suffered," Mr. Shaw said. "And there are some things that can't be undone; some things that can't be compensated for in dollars and cents. When you work daily in a job situation where you are being discriminated against and treated unfairly, [when] you're being subjected to injustice and you go home and you carry that home every night to your family and to your household, it can eat you up. It can do a kind of emotional and psychological damage that many people have no idea of its consequences. And so while we are proud to reach this point, we really commend those who stood up, with the understanding that we really can't make up completely for what they experienced."

Robert Wright, a Recreation Director in The Bronx, was pleased by the ruling, and noted that the plaintiffs didn't demand that they all be promoted but that they have the same opportunity to compete for management positions.

'More Than a Job'

"We really enjoy the Parks Department," said Mr. Wright, who received a pay cut upon promotion, in contrast to his white colleagues. "It's more than just a job to us. It's our lives."

The department will still use some of the hiring and promotion practices it implemented under Commissioner Stern's administration. The city stopped short of admitting that the department did what the plaintiffs charged.

"This agreement should not be construed as an admission of wrongdoing by the Parks Department," said Law Department Labor and Employment Chief Georgia Pestana in a statement. "The city defended the Parks Department in this litigation for almost a decade, because we do not believe it discriminated or retaliated against its African-American and Hispanic employees. Nonetheless, the city must evaluate the risks presented by a lengthy, multi-phased trial and seek to attain a result in its best interests. We believe this proposed settlement achieves that objective."

Mr. Rosenthal scoffed at the claim that the city was not acknowledging past bias. "They wouldn't have settled for this kind of money if they were not guilty," he said.