Berkeley discriminated against 2 Black firefighters, illegally fired another, lawsuits say

BERKELEY — Three Black fire commanders have filed employment lawsuits against Berkeley, saying the fire chief racially discriminated against two of them and illegally fired the third.

In a complaint filed Friday in St. Louis County Circuit Court, longtime Deputy Chief Kelly Hughes alleges the city manager and fire chief fired him despite an appeals board finding he did no wrong. He is suing for wrongful termination.

In the discrimination complaint, filed in May, former acting battalion chiefs Kirk McPike and Reginald Sankey said fire Chief James Linhardt, who is white, passed them over for promotion because they are Black and retaliated against them when they filed discrimination complaints.

Their lawsuit also alleges the chief ignored their complaints over white firefighters playing music with lyrics that include a racial slur against Black people. An attorney representing Berkeley in the discrimination case declined comment Monday.

And no one from Berkeley's administration, including City Manager Nathan Mai-Lombardo, Mayor Deinbo Babatunde or Linhardt, responded to interview requests about both lawsuits.

The city of Berkeley, a majority-Black suburb of about 8,031, has a fire department with about three dozen employees, including the chief, two deputies and three captains, according to public records.

Hughes was fired Oct. 18 after 18 years with the department.

According to his lawsuit, Hughes was responding to an emergency call Saturday, May 4, when he struck a dog that had run into the street while playing fetch, the lawsuit said. Hughes immediately reported the incident to police and Linhardt, the fire chief, who instructed him to remain on duty until Monday, the lawsuit said.

The city's chief mechanic inspected the vehicle and reported no damage, and the dog's owner did not blame Hughes for the incident, the lawsuit said.

While city policies require any employee driving a vehicle involved in an accident undergo testing for drug or alcohol intoxication, Hughes said in the suit he never received any instruction to do so and was never asked about such a test by any city official.

But 10 days after the incident, Mai-Lombardo, the city manager, fired Hughes for failing to take the drug and alcohol test.

The Civil Service Commission, which weighs appeals to disciplinary cases against city employees, voted 4-1 in Hughes' favor during a hearing Sept. 18.

The panel found Hughes "completed all the forms presented to him and followed Chief Linhardt's instructions and directives down to the letter."

Mai-Lombardo and city attorney Donnell Smith then "demanded" the commission "reconvene and vote again," despite there being no existing law giving them the authority, the lawsuit said. The panel then voted 3-1 to fire Hughes.

The city did not record minutes of either meeting as required by Missouri public records laws, the lawsuit said.

Racial discrimination suit

The suit filed by former acting battalion chiefs McPike and Sankey goes back to when Linhardt became chief in 2016.

The month he became chief, Linhardt promoted a white firefighter captain to battalion chief without requiring him to take the necessary exam, the lawsuit said.

McPike and Sankey, then acting battalion chiefs, were denied chances to take a exam required to qualify for a promotion until 2019, the lawsuit said. But Linhardt kept secret parts of the test and preparation materials, and neither passed the exam, the lawsuit said.

Linhardt later eliminated the position of battalion chief — held by McPike, Sankey, Hughes and a fourth Black firefighter — and changed the title to captain, which the lawsuit argues was a demotion. Linhardt barred the four Black firefighters from attending a City Council meeting over the issue but allowed white firefighters to attend, the suit said.

"The motivation for elimination of the position was to rid black firefighters from supervisory positions over white employees," the lawsuit reads.

Linhardt did not raise concerns about the firefighters' job performance at the time and told them that their job duties would remain the same, the lawsuit said.

Larry Fields, an attorney representing all three plaintiffs in the two lawsuits, declined comment.

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St. Louis County reporter