Minneapolis city attorney suing the city

As one of the few attorneys of color in Minneapolis' city attorney's office in 1997, Julie Delgado-O'Neil said it didn't take long to see the writing on the wall.

White lawyers with less experience were getting promoted ahead of her. Minorities received fewer training opportunities. Delgado-O'Neil, who is Latino, also said that she and the other attorneys of color were grouped together in a row of desks called "minority row."

In the process to get promoted, she said, the greatest obstacle was an oral exam filled with arbitrary and irrelevant questions. After "failing" several times, Delgado-O'Neil filed a complaint with the city's Civil Rights Department in 2006. She claimed, and the department ruled in her favor this summer, that the oral exam discriminated against attorneys of color.

Delgado-O'Neil and the city failed to complete a mediation process in connection with the ruling. She is now suing the city, alleging most of the same issues from her civil rights complaint and that the city attorney's office has been retaliating against her since she filed the complaints. No trial date has been set.

Minneapolis City Attorney Susan Segal disputed the allegations, saying that five of the 11 attorneys of color hired by her office since 1997 have been promoted.

"In my office, anytime somebody perceives they've been treated unfairly is an opportunity to learn," she said. "But I strongly believe there was no discrimination in this case."

As of this summer, 12 of 56, or 21 percent, of attorneys in Segal's office were attorneys of color, a figure "I would put against any other public law office in the state," she said.

A unique test

What appears to be unique to the Minneapolis city attorney's office is the oral exam, which is at the heart of Delgado-O'Neil's case. The Hennepin and Ramsey County attorney's offices and St. Paul's city attorney's office don't use an oral exam for promotion.

In its ruling finding the oral exam discriminatory, the Civil Rights Department determined that 8 percent of minority candidates who took the exam in 2001, 2003 and 2005 were promoted compared with 31 percent of white candidates. The civil rights investigator cited interviews with other attorneys who said that the exam wasn't objective and that it wasn't clear what constituted a right answer. Minority candidates also had less potential to shine in interviews because they didn't receive leadership opportunities, the investigator said. Several attorneys said the three-person panel that gave the exam wasn't always qualified and were less familiar with minority candidates.

Segal said she respectfully disagrees with the findings. The oral exam has been in place for more than 40 years and is only one portion of a civil service process to rank candidates required for promotion. Only the top three who performed best on the exam can be considered for promotion. The promotion from Attorney I to Attorney II comes with about a $30,000 salary increase.

"The questions on the exam asked the candidates to describe a case that best showed their lawyer skills and what made them an effective advocate," Segal said.

A goal of a diverse staff

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said a promotion in his office is essentially automatic three years after an attorney is hired. The next promotion would involve a series of interviews, he said. Thirty of his 163 attorneys, or 18 percent, are minorities, and four minorities hold management positions.

"We would like our office to look like the community we serve," he said.

At the Ramsey County attorney's office, 12 of its 77 attorneys, or 16 percent, hired since 1997 are minorities. Ten attorneys of color have also been promoted during that time.

Recruiting and retaining diverse candidates is a challenge, said John Choi, the St. Paul city attorney. In his office, 10 out of 39 attorneys hired since 1997 were minorities. An attorney can make a much larger salary working for a private law firm, he said. And there is competition for the limited number of qualified candidates.

"When it comes to the issue of diversity, we are really never at the finish line," he said. "We work really hard at it because that is what the public expects from a public law office."

Delgado-O'Neil, 62, had been practicing law for a decade when she moved from Arizona to work in Minneapolis in 1996. Within months, she said, she didn't feel comfortable with the way people of color were being managed. And after talking with other minority attorneys, she said, she realized she wasn't alone.

The opportunities to get prepped for promotion, such as becoming a team leader or working as a liaison at a police precinct, were scarce, Delgado-O'Neil said. She took her concerns to the city's Human Resources Department and asked that they be kept confidential. Because of the scope of the allegations, she said human resources reported the meeting to her boss.

She believes this led to several formal reprimands over the next couple of years. She decided it was time to file two complaints with the city's Civil Rights Department when she didn't see any of her issues being addressed and she failed the oral exam for promotion in 2005 even though she felt she "did great" on it.

The department ruled against Delgado-O'Neil's claims of age and race discrimination and retaliation. But it ruled, in her favor, that the oral exam was discriminatory. It was also determined that the city's Human Resources Department helped the city attorney's office discriminate against attorneys of color.

The greatest concern that Delgado-O'Neil has with her office is that it is responsible for advising other city departments about discriminatory and hiring practices.

"You have to be a department above reproach," she said. "That's not the case here."

Last month, Delgado-O'Neil sat in a federal courtroom in St. Paul to watch the trial of Minneapolis police Sgt. Giovanni Veliz, who also sued the city for workplace discrimination and retaliation. In that case, the jury ruled in favor of the city. Delgado-O'Neil said their suits and a discrimination suit filed last year by five high-ranking black Minneapolis police officers demonstrate an alarming pattern.

"I know how I've been harmed, but it's not only about me," she said.

David Chanen • 612-673-4465

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