Suit: NY Dept. Chose 'Politically Connected' Candidates over More Qualified

Sep. 12—The Buffalo Fire Department has shown "great preference" for hiring politically connected recruits while drumming out "worthy candidates" among minorities, women and the less-connected for decades, said a former deputy fire commissioner in an affidavit included a recently filed lawsuit.

Shannon Street, the former deputy commissioner, said he tried to address the department's hiring practices but was undercut by a training chief and the department's commissioner. Street said he brought "several particularly egregious specific instances of racial and gender prejudice and political favoritism" straight to Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown.

Shortly after that meeting, Street was demoted to captain in January 2020 and "promptly retired," according to his affidavit.

"The BFD is a department I deeply love," Street wrote in his two-page affidavit. "It was disheartening for me to be unable to stop the racism and gender discrimination and political favoritism at the BFD Academy despite the high rank I myself attained."

Street's two-page affidavit was included in an employment discrimination lawsuit against the city, Brown and Fire Commissioner William Renaldo among other department officials filed Thursday in State Supreme Court.

The three plaintiffs — Kevin Green, Nick Ciechalski and Julian Perez — allege department officials wrongfully drummed them out of the Buffalo Fire Academy in 2020 for being Black, over the age of 40 and Polish, and Hispanic, respectively. They also accused department officials of perpetuating "an environment that resulted in discrimination."

The city had not been served in the suit as of Saturday, according to city spokesperson Michael DeGeorge, who declined to comment.

Fire academy officials used a variety of methods to discriminate against applicants, according to the suit:

— Green said a training chief and other officials drummed him out of the academy by altering the curriculum, administering written exams that didn't cover material taught in class, artificially adjusting individuals' exam grades up or down, refusing to answer his questions and allowing other recruits to make racial comments.

— Perez said the training chief and others failed him by falsely writing him up for not completing a workout, making exercises more difficult for him, putting him "right into physical training" despite a knee injury and cutting remedial lessons for certain field evaluations.

— Ciechalski, who said he left a lucrative career to serve his community as a firefighter, said department officials subjected him to abusive comments about his Polish heritage and physical exercises that exacerbated his shoulder injury. The lawsuit also said Ciechalski was dismissed under false pretenses following a medical leave of absence and that a deputy commissioner called him "too damn old."

The city concluded in February 2022 an investigation into alleged discrimination at the academy and found the department "acted appropriately and lawfully" in dealing with Green, Perez and Ciechalski.

The plaintiffs' lawyer, Steven Cohen, said he has represented Buffalo fire recruits who have come up against the department's "pattern and practice of discrimination" going back several mayoral administrations. When he came across a "situation involving discrimination," he'd sit down with the mayor, "get it straightened out" and get his client into the academy, he said.

But that changed under Brown and City Corporation Counsel Cavette Chambers. He said he has evidence that friends and relatives of Brown and other top city officials have gotten into the fire department over more qualified recruits and that several officials like Street have been "let go" for taking discrimination complaints seriously.

He said he met with the mayor before filing the lawsuit, but that discussion proved fruitless.

"They said to me, 'bring it on.' So I brought it on. I tried to resolve this the easy way, but the better way is to clean up the Buffalo Fire Academy," Cohen said. "They have to stop permitting political favoritism."

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