Lawsuit: Firefighter says city allowed racism to persist at Lansing Fire Department

LANSING — City leaders are accused of failing to stop racial discrimination at the Lansing Fire Department after an African-American firefighter found a banana on the windshield of his assigned truck, according to allegations listed in a federal court case.

The fruit was "pinned between the windshield and wiper blade obviously placed there to harass and intimidate" him and another African-American firefighter, according to the civil complaint filed this month in U.S. District Court.

The incident was a troubling escalation in what plaintiff Michael Lynn Jr. alleges was ongoing discrimination directed at him and other African-Americans in the department. He said he was retaliated against after complaining about the behavior and accused the city of Lansing of failing to protect him.

Lansing officials said the city did not retaliate against Lynn.

“While the City emphatically denies the allegations in this lawsuit, the City takes all such complaints seriously,” Lansing Mayor Andy Schor, who took office in 2018, said in a statement. “Since I became Mayor we have instituted affirmative steps to promote diversity and inclusion in our workforce and all City policies.”

Lansing hired Lynn in 2014 through a program aimed at increasing diversity, according to the lawsuit.

The program was “an approach for employment that placed emphasis on fit for the job rather than simply satisfying prerequisites for the job,” former Lansing Fire Chief Randy Talifarro said in an email.

Through the program, the department hired trainees who passed physical and written assessments and interviews. Trainees went on to earn firefighting and EMT licenses. The program increased the diversity of candidates and the number of city residents on the department’s hiring list, Talifarro wrote.

But the program was unpopular with other firefighters, and the work environment became hostile for minority workers, including Lynn, the complaint states. White firefighters allegedly made daily comments about Lynn’s race and qualifications.

That harassment escalated on March 14, 2017, when Lynn found the fruit, his attorney Scott Batey said.

"He had been subjected to a lot of racially hostile comments and things that were directed at his race before that, so when he went to his rig and there was a banana on the windshield that was pretty direct," Batey said.

Fire department administrators investigated an “incident” involving Lynn, Talifarro wrote, but did not have time to finish before Lynn made a formal complaint to Lansing’s Human Resources department.

Officials with the city attorney’s office and the mayor’s office did not respond to written questions about the outcome of that Human Resources investigation.

Lynn argued in his complaint that fire department leaders reprimanded Lynn and the other firefighter for going to a station outside of their route instead of dealing with the “far more serious issue of the banana on the windshield.” In the suit, Lynn said the exchange felt like an attempt to intimidate him from filing a discrimination complaint.

After the 2017 incident, Lynn sought medical leave for “stress, anxiety and depression due to the racial discrimination at work,” the complaint states. The lawsuit says he took unpaid family leave followed by paid administrative leave, and throughout that time met with officials from the fire department and Lansing human resources to talk about racism.

Lynn returned to work for a time in 2018 and "immediately became a target for racial discrimination, harassment and retaliation," the complaint states.

Lynn was unfairly disciplined by department leaders five times from April to September 2018, his attorney said.

He was not fired, although the lawsuit states — incorrectly — that Batey was terminated “due to his race.”

Batey, Lynn’s attorney, said he made a mistake and will file an amended complaint to correct the discrepancy.

Lynn continues to work for the department and has a $68,921 annual salary, a Lansing spokeswoman confirmed.

Records that Batey provided to the Lansing State Journal show Lynn was cited for things such as inciting a fight, incorrectly requesting sick time, insubordination and sharing an “obscene” Facebook post alongside a profile picture identifying him as a member of the Lansing Fire Department.

Batey countered the claims made in those discipline records. He said one alleging Lynn was insubordinate contained “lies.”

“We’re confident we’re going to be able to show that it’s false,” Batey said.

Lynn filed a second racial discrimination complaint with the city in October 2018 and alleged the discipline against him was retaliatory, the lawsuit states. He returned to light duty work in early January and is working in the maintenance and alarm division, he said Friday.

His new position keeps him removed from the staff he previously had issues with, Lynn said.

“It’s been four and a half years that I’ve been working here, and I made official complaints as of two years ago and nobody I’ve made complaints about, no matter the amount of evidence I’ve given them, has been disciplined,” he said. “No policies have been put in place to help somebody of color from going through the discrimination that I’ve gone through.”

Eric Weber, president of the Lansing area chapter of the International Association of Fire Fighters union, declined to comment, citing the pending lawsuit against the city.

David Purchase, who has been Lansing’s interim fire chief since July, did not return a request for comment. Michael Mackey will become Lansing's new fire chief in April, coming from Palm Beach County, Florida.

The mayor said recruiting diverse staff is a priority for all Lansing departments, especially those that deal with public safety. He cited racial sensitivity training that members of the fire department completed in 2018.

“That will continue to be my focus for our fire department — great Lansing fire and EMS response through a diverse paramedic firefighter staff,” Schor wrote.

The department prioritized hiring paramedics instead of EMTs in its 2018 hiring round, a city spokeswoman Valerie Marchand said. The pool of paramedic candidates was smaller and less diverse, she said.

“The hiring of EMTs in the recent past left LFD with staff that were not adequately qualified and put the city at risk to not have appropriate ambulance response for emergencies,” Schor said in an emailed statement.

The city is planning to institute a mentor cadet program in the fire department to attract more female and non-white job candidates.

As of 2018, Lansing’s fire department staff was 19.2% African-American, according to numbers provided by the city. That is higher than the industry average, but lower than the overall percentage of black Lansing residents.

Less than 8% of firefighters nationwide are black, according to 2016 data compiled by the National Fire Protection Association. The city’s population is 22% black, according to 2018 data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

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ContactCarol Thompson at (517) 377-1018 orckthompson@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter Contact Sarah Lehr at (517) 377-1056 or slehr@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahGLehr.