Published: November 17, 2009 12:51 am      

CITY COUNCIL: Six settlement approved, new policies coming

Race case ends as city joins AG’s office in new deal

On a day when the City of Niagara Falls put an end to a long-standing racial discrimination case it entered into a new agreement aimed at improving the way it deals with bias, harassment and other issues in the workplace.

City council members on Monday voted to accept a $240,000 settlement with the so-called Niagara Falls Six, bringing closure to a nearly seven-year-old lawsuit in which six city workers had claimed that they were victimized by a pattern of racial discrimination that existed within the Department of Public Works. Approval of the deal will allow the six plaintiffs - Joseph Paulk, Emmett Cox, Richard Hill, William Wilson, Bruce Palmer and Hugh Leftwich - to collect $28,000 each from the city. The six workers also will receive $5,000 apiece in lost wages. Their attorney, Richard Wyssling,will get $42,000 under the agreement.

“I’m just glad it’s over with,” said Palmer, one of the members of the Niagara Falls Six who attended the council meeting. “It’s been a long seven years.”

The plaintiffs filed their lawsuit against the city in 2003. They originally sought $16 million in compensation and also were adamant about forcing political leaders to take a closer look at the city’s hiring practices and policies on discrimination and harassment.

Wyssling said that while his clients are satisfied with the level of compensation they will receive under the settlement, they have more satisfaction in knowing that their efforts drew public awareness to a number of racially charged issues that have been a problem in the city for many years.

“Obviously, it’s a quarter of a million dollars,” Wyssling said following the council’s decision. “It’s a significant amount when you think about it as a whole. We hope that it teaches the people in power that they have to do something about the African American situation in this community.”

To date, the expenses for outside legal counsel hired to defend the city’s position in court has exceeded $119,000. Mayor Paul Dyster said one of his goals when he entered office was to bring about a satisfactory resolution for both parties and he believes that was accomplished with the settlement.

“This is a day we’ve looked forward to for a long time,” he said.

On a day when the lawsuit came to an end, representatives from the state Attorney General’s Office visited City Hall to announce a new agreement covering the city’s discrimination policies and procedures.

Council members agreed to support a recommendation from the Attorney General calling for reforms to be made over the next three years to policies related to discrimination and equal opportunity in the workplace. The agreement grew out of meetings officials from the Attorney General’s Office had in recent months with city employees and residents who filed complaints alleging that the city was not properly addressing matters of discrimination and harassment in public employment and, in some cases, was fostering racial tension on the job.

Representatives from the city and the attorney general’s office insisted that the timing of the new arrangement was coincidental and was not directly related to the situation involving the Niagara Falls Six.

“Every employer has the obligation to maintain a fair and effective system for addressing and preventing incidents of discrimination and harassment,” Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a statement released by his office. “Government employers are not exempt. Without effective measures for curbing and preventing discrimination, real and perceived incidents of bias can create workplace tension and fester into a crisis of mistrust and hostility. As public servants, government officials have a special responsibility to ensure equal opportunity and I applaud the City of Niagara Falls for adopting these new reforms.”

The new reforms include:

• Hiring of an Equal Employment Opportunity Compliance officer to oversee compliance with discrimination laws and equal opportunity employment policies. Dyster said funds have been included in the budget to hire someone to fill the position and a search is currently underway.

• Revising discrimination and harassment policies to include stricter reporting requirements, timelines for addressing complaints and oversight and review by the EEO officer.

• Training of supervisors and employees on discrimination and harassment laws and new policies and procedures.

• Development of an equal employment opportunity plan.

• Review, under the supervision of the EEO officer, all discrimination complaints filed since Jan. 1, 2008 to ensure all claims have been addressed properly under the law.

Bill Bradberry, president of the Niagara Falls branch of the NAACP and chairman of the Niagara Falls Human Rights Commission, welcomed the agreement as a “small step” for the city that could represent a “giant leap” for its citizens. He added that the key to its success will be follow-through, saying now that changes have been put to paper they must be put into practice.

“I think we all have to understand that this is just the beginning,” he said. “We have a long way to go.”

Councilman Charles Walker agreed, saying the city must dedicate a sufficient number of staff members to ensure that the new recommendations are followed properly.

“This is not something that two or three people can do,” he said.