Published: November 20, 2008 11:10 pm      

NIAGARA FALLS: Williams: Racial tension growing

Human rights chair resigns, says equal discipline needed

The chairman of the Niagara Falls Human Rights Commission announced his resignation Thursday while painting a disturbing picture of race relations among the city’s workforce.

Rick Williams, who has headed the commission for the past five years, said he is stepping down at the end of November because of personal family issues. His replacement will have the task of investigating what Williams feels is an unbalanced system of disciplining employees who cross the line.

“The (racial) issues are not going away and I feel they are not being handled right by the city administration,” Williams told his commission members at their meeting Thursday evening.

Williams met earlier in the day with reporters to shed light on current racial issues within the city’s Department of Public Works that he believes is affecting the workforce. Specifically, Williams thinks the city is afraid of disciplining members of the Niagara Falls Six, a group of black workers suing the city for racial discrimination. Williams claims there’s been cases where members of the Six have made racial remarks to non-minority workers, but it has gone undisciplined.

“This administration will not discipline the (Six) because of the lawsuit,” said Williams, who is white. “These guys are out of control and the administration is afraid to deal with them. I just wish the city would go to court, do what they have to do and get this lawsuit settled. It’s causing a lot of issues within the workforce.”

Williams said he obtained a letter sent to the Niagara Falls City Council in August from a seasonal DPW employee complaining of discriminative behavior among minority workers, including members of the Six. According to the letter, the white worker had to endure comments following his job interview about there being “too many white people working for the city” and that “no more were needed.” The worker, who Williams declined to identify, said he was also called “slavemaster” by minority workers in reference to him overseeing several black youth workers.

An investigation into the claims made in the letter was brief and yielded no disciplinary action against the alleged offenders, Williams said.

In comparison, Williams said James Curtis, a veteran DPW employee who put a sign with the words “whites only” above a work drinking fountain, has been unfairly singled out as the source of the racial problems. Curtis, who has admitted to putting the sign up and said it was meant to be a joke, was initially charged with a Hate Crime, but has since pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree aggravated harassment, a class A misdemeanor.

Curtis will be sentenced Jan. 7 and the city is conducting its own investigation into whether he deserves to be fired. He is currently suspended.

“I believe Jim is taking the brunt of the last 10 to 15 years of racial problems,” said Williams who works for the Water Authority and is a member of the local Steelworkers Union. “He is not the only one making mistakes. There’s a double-standard being done here. I want the people of Niagara Falls to understand that this is a two-way street.”

Williams insists both minorities and non-minorities on the city’s workforce are guilty of inappropriate behavior such as making racial jokes and comments. However, since the sign incident, the perception is that only minorities are being victimized.

“The way people are talking is like every white employee is a racist and that’s not true,” Williams said. “I want people to know we’re not racist.”

After hearing of Williams’ remarks, Mayor Paul Dyster defended his administration’s system of dealing with discipline and incidents among all employees, regardless of race. He also hinted that Williams’ criticism of his administration’s methods may be politically motivated, pointing out Williams campaigned against him when he ran for mayor in 2003.

While Dyster acknowledged there’s a “supercharged” atmosphere within the DPW since the sign incident, he said any act of inappropriate behavior is being documented and dealt with in an equal fashion.

“Nobody is exempt,” the mayor said.

Former City Administrator Bill Bradberry, who will replace Williams as human rights chairman, sided with Dyster.

“The administration tries to treat everybody the same,” he said.

However, Bradberry praised Williams’ for his dedication and interest involving human rights issues, saying he’s never seen someone with as much passion for what the commission is trying to accomplish. As for taking over as chairman, Bradberry said “it’s an honor, a challenge and an opportunity.”

For his last official meeting Thursday, Williams invited three representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI to meet with commission members and discuss issues of concern. He also challenged his colleagues to continue fighting for the rights of all city employees and residents.

“I feel I’ve taken the commission as far as I can go,” he said. “I feel very comfortable leaving. I think Bill Bradberry is going to take the human rights commission to the next level.”