AK Firefighter Awarded $780K in Lawsuit Against City

A firefighter in Alaska has been awarded nearly $780,000 after his successful lawsuit against the Anchorage Fire Department.

According to Alaska Pubic Media, veteran firefighter Jeff Graham, who has been with the department for over 20 years, filed suit alleging he was passed over for a promotion to be an engineer because of his race and age.

Although the lawsuit started with the discrimination allegation, it ended with a jury verdict against the city for breach of contract, and a judge awarded Graham $778,951 in November.

Graham, who is Korean-American, said he tested well on the first exams to become an engineer but claimed after failing the more subjective oral exam that the testers were biased against him.

"It's really about the old boys club that is the Anchorage Fire Department," Graham's attorney, Jeff Jarvi, said. "It's over 90 percent white men, and they can pick and choose who they want to pick and choose regardless of whether they're the most qualified person for the job."

The initial testing occurred in 2012 and Graham filed the lawsuit in 2015 before it went to trial this past summer. Jarvi was not allowed to present some evidence of discrimination, resulting in the case resting largely on problems with how Graham was treated as an employee.

"We wish they'd been able to hear the whole case, for sure, because we think there are some broader and more important issues out there than just a simple breach of contract," Jarvi said.

Jodie Hettrick, deputy chief of operations at the fire department, said the jury did not offer specifics on what changes should be made.

"It was a little frustrating for our side not to know exactly what they felt that we did wrong," Hettrick said. "Because we want to treat our employees fairly and equally and make sure that they don't feel the department is doing something wrong. We want to fix things. It's just hard to do that when you don't have all the details."

Graham's settlement is the second large civil award Anchorage has paid to a public safety employee this year after two police officers won $2.7 million last summer in a lawsuit over racial discrimination.