San Antonio Express-News
(TNS)
Jan. 4—San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood repeatedly made comments about female genitalia, leading to a city investigation into his conduct and his decision this week to retire in the face of possible termination.
Hood, who took the helm at the fire department in April 2007 and was the city's first African American fire chief, admitted to uttering a phrase on multiple occasions that included a vulgar word for a vagina: "P— always wins."
But long before those incidents, Hood, 64, faced another complaint — for allegedly making insensitive remarks about Native Americans and white people.
On Sept. 4, 2014, a San Antonio firefighter filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination laws. The person alleged that Hood, in talking about his time working as a firefighter and paramedic in Phoenix, said Native Americans would get so drunk that they would fall into the street, prompting calls for emergency medical care.
"They (sic) Native Americans, you know they are not going to quit drinking," Hood allegedly said, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by the San Antonio Express-News.
At another point during the meeting, which about 50 people attended, Hood allegedly called two white officers "Vanilla Milk Duds," the complaint states.
According to the complaint, Erik Walsh — who at the time was the assistant city manager who oversaw the fire department — participated in the meeting. Walsh, the current city manager, allegedly didn't object to Hood's comments during the meeting. It is not clear if he later reprimanded or disciplined the fire chief.
After filing the complaint with the EEOC, the firefighter chose to drop the charge — instead having it included in another federal complaint he had previously filed, records show.
City officials did not respond to questions about the incident by deadline.
Hood could not be reached for comment.
History of issues
The chief's comments about Native Americans and white people — which hadn't been previously made public — weren't the only comments Hood allegedly made that others found alarming or insensitive.
Some of the incidents even warranted discipline, records show.
Workplace conditions under Hood also came scrutiny.
In 2019 and 2020, three arson investigators filed separate EEOC complaints alleging workplace harassment and discrimination. Assistant City Manager María Villagómez directed Hood to have employees review city policies on discrimination and harassment. Command staff had to undergo separate training with the Human Resources Department to "address professional expectations."
After Hood posed for photos with a mostly nude woman covered in sushi at a firefighter's birthday party in 2020, Walsh sent Hood a letter of discipline, asking him to explain how he planned to handle future complaints about gender or racial discrimination.
Then, in November 2023, the City Manager's Office said it was informed that Hood used the vulgar word for a vagina.
The City Manager's Office hired Rick Garza with the law firm Jackson Walker to conduct an independent investigation into the complaint. Hood, during the course of the investigation, admitted that he had used the phrase multiple times with male SAFD rank-and-file personnel. He said he couldn't be sure that he hadn't used the phrase with command staff, too.
Walsh said the comments violated a city directive that prohibits employment discrimination, harassment and sexual harassment, in addition to fire department rules and regulations.
"The Chief admitted to making comments that are vulgar, disrespectful, and demeaning to women and disruptive to the professional operations of the SAFD," Walsh said in an email to fire department employees. "This conduct cannot be tolerated."
In the face of possible termination, Hood retired.
Deputy Chief Christopher Monestier will temporarily be in charge of the department until Walsh names an interim fire chief next week. A national search for a fire chief will follow.
Early career, successes
Hood was born and raised in Tucson, Ariz., where he decided early on that he wanted to become a firefighter. He joined the Phoenix Fire Department in 1984, where he quickly made an impression on his superiors.
"He wanted to learn. He wanted to be engaged," Dennis Compton, a former assistant fire chief at the Phoenix Fire Department, told the Express-News in 2020. "He got involved in the union, and he joined the Urban Search & Rescue Team. Anything he could get involved with, he did."
Hood said he loved his early days at the Phoenix department, hanging off the back of a fire truck, not knowing what type of calls the day would bring.
Hood quickly rose through the ranks in Phoenix. He became a paramedic and later served as a division and battalion chief.
He was also deployed to New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina to act as a rescue effort liaison.
By 2007, Hood was in the second-ranking position in the Phoenix department. At the urging of then- San Antonio City Manager Sheryl Sculley, who'd previously worked in Phoenix city government, Hood applied for the top position in San Antonio that year and got the job.
In 2010, a few years after taking the helm, Hood established SAFD's Health & Wellness Program, which provides education and health care services to employees. He also worked with other city leaders to establish the city's Fusion Center, a multi-agency intelligence-gathering hub.
In 2015, under Hood's leadership, the department launched its Mobile Integrated Healthcare Program, which provides health care services to frequent users of the 911 system, in addition to individuals dealing with opiate addiction and mental illness. The aim in creating the program was to provide services to individuals in their own neighborhoods, in part to cut back on avoidable and costly ambulance rides and hospital stays.
Hood was also considered instrumental in efforts to improve the fire department's insurance service rating and help it gain national accreditation.
But it was around that time that Hood also began facing several controversies.
In 2017, Hood faced criticism after firefighter Scott Deem died while battling a blaze in the Ingram Square Shopping Center. State and federal reports concluded that Deem's death was preventable and identified a number of mistakes SAFD made in fighting the fire that contributed to his death.
They also said the department lacked accountability and was in need of a cultural change.
In response to the reports, Hood said the department redoubled its safety efforts, identifying a number of policies and training practices it needed to change. It also converted an old warehouse on the East Side into a training facility.
Arson complaints
At least twice, Hood was counseled by his superiors for issues relating to harassment and discrimination.
The first came about in 2019, after then-arson investigator Ashley Long alleged in a federal EEOC complaint that her boss, Batallion Chief Douglas Berry, had made a gesture indicating that he wanted to know if Long's friend had large breasts.
"Yeah, but does she have ... ?" Long recalled Berry asking, before he stopped mid-sentence, according to a copy of the EEOC complaint.
He put both hands in front of his chest, indicating that he was talking about the woman's breasts, records state.
"Like, is she hot?" Berry asked, according to Long.
Two other firefighters filed separate complaints about the incident, alleging sex discrimination and retaliation. The complaints described SAFD's Arson Bureau, which is overwhelmingly male, as a workplace that has been plagued by poor leadership and high turnover among employees. The three employees detailed a lack of support from supervisors and retaliation against some who spoke out.
The city hired a private attorney to investigate Long's complaints, several of which were corroborated.
As a result, Villagómez, the assistant city manager who oversee the police and fire departments, directed Hood in April 2020 to make several changes in the department within 30 days.
Among the directives: All department employees were required to review city policies on discrimination and harassment, and command staff had to undergo training with the Human Resources Department to "address professional expectations."
Villagómez also directed Hood to remind Command Staff to "avoid vulgar language or inappropriate language" and "exercise good judgement and set a good example."
Sushi incident
Later that same year, city officials alleged that Hood violated three city policies when he posed for photos with a mostly nude woman covered in sushi at a firefighter's birthday party.
In the photos, taken in January 2020, Hood was seen kneeling on the floor next to the woman lying on a table. The front of her body was partly covered with sushi, flowers and leaves. She did not appear to be wearing any clothes underneath the display.
Hood, who was not in uniform, held a piece of sushi with chopsticks in his right hand in the photos.
"I think I want me some tuna," Hood was heard saying in a "live photo," a feature on iPhones.
The use of a nude female as a platter for sushi — called "body sushi" or "naked sushi" — is part of the Japanese practice of nyotaimori, which in recent years has been criticized for objectifying and degrading women.
While Hood apologized at the time to anyone offended by the photos, he defended his decision to pose.
"It would be like me taking a picture with a flamenco dancer in Vegas or a Spurs dancer at Top Golf where the Spurs dancers happen to be," Hood said at the time, referring to a popular golf driving range and entertainment venue.
"I think the majority of people in this community know my character, and I'm a man of integrity," Hood said. "And it's just a picture. It was more or less a family event. So it was just completely painted wrong."
An outside attorney hired by the city to investigate the circumstances surrounding the photographs said Hood clearly violated a department policy that prohibits employees from engaging in activities, both on and off duty, that create "a negative public perception of the Fire Department."
After the incident, Walsh sent Hood a letter of discipline, asking him to explain how he plans to handle future complaints about gender or racial discrimination.
In response to Walsh's directive, Hood said his staff would develop a training course on the value of different cultures and perspectives, establish a female mentoring program and expand recruitment initiatives directed at "young ladies."
The fire department is overwhelmingly male. In 2020, 89 of the department's 1,757 firefighters — or 5.1 percent — were women.
Hood also emphasized at the time how all employees must "treat each other with respect." He said he planned to adhere to the same standards.
"I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to anyone that was offended by my recent behavior," Hood wrote to employees in December 2020. "That was never my intent, and I will do everything necessary to restore your faith and confidence in me."
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