St. Paul fire department reports progress promoting diversity

A year after a black firefighter found a stuffed monkey in African garb hanging in a St. Paul Fire Department services garage, efforts to promote cultural sensitivity and boost diversity within the department remain works in progress.

For last month's Rondo Days celebration -- the annual event honoring St. Paul's historic black neighborhood -- the department was there "as part of the community," Fire Chief Tim Butler said.

They set up a recruiting booth and stationed an ambulance staffed entirely by black firefighters.

There, at work, was Gerone Hamilton, the fire equipment operator who had found the hanging monkey, and who on Friday described the department's presence at Rondo Days as a sign that "things are moving in the right direction."

Other positives, he said: A women's fire-service expo set for Sept. 19 and a jobs program underway this summer enabling 18- to 24-year-old students -- many of them people of color -- to earn certification as emergency medical technicians, a prerequisite for would-be city firefighters.

But at the same time, the department has yet to develop a mandatory training program to educate people about cultural differences -- a move touted last year by Butler and Mayor Chris Coleman when controversy flared over the monkey-hanging incident.

Development of the training program and a new code of conduct are being overseen by a diversity task force that includes Butler, Hamilton and representatives of the St. Paul NAACP and human-rights and city attorney's offices.

Hamilton, president of Firefighters United, the group representing the city's black firefighters, said that he was frustrated by the task force's lack of movement, and by lingering concerns over three previous incidents that neither he nor Butler would discuss in detail.

In his office Friday with Fire Marshal Steve Zaccard, Butler acknowledged that progress toward improving race relations was slow. But he saw it as "steady," too.

Butler was asked if he was confident that there would not be a repeat of an incident as insensitive as the hanging monkey.

"I don't think an incident like that is going to happen again," the chief said.

Added Zaccard, "This whole department has seen and heard about it -- and felt it. We don't anticipate it occurring again anytime soon."

Suspension, reprimands

Weathers was suspended without pay for three days. Churchich and a services garage supervisor, Glen Kadrlik, received oral reprimands.

In his letter to Weathers, Butler noted that an investigator who had been hired by the city concluded that Weathers did not intend to "convey a racially charged message or offend anyone."

But, the chief added, "The image of a toy monkey hanging from a rope noose in the workplace was uniformly viewed as wholly inappropriate and offensive."

A U.S. Department of Justice investigation found "no prosecutable violation" of federal civil rights laws.

Said Butler: "The impact of the incident is still there."

When it comes to creating a workplace free of discrimination, the chief added later, "We still have work to do -- and that's what we're doing."