8486: First Black L.A. County Fire Chief.

From The Los Angeles Times…

Supervisors name new L.A. County Fire Department chief

Los Angeles County supervisors selected Daryl Osby to be their next fire chief Tuesday, making him the first African American to lead the department.

Osby, 49, is a 27-year veteran of the department and is in charge of its business operations. He has previous experience as the top commander during major incidents, including the 2003 and 2005 fires in Topanga Canyon.

He was selected from a group of department insiders and inherits an agency long considered among the leaders in firefighting tactics and strategy. In addition to traditional structure and water-rescue units, the department has a large Air and Wildland Division that includes camp crews, bulldozer units and water-dropping helicopters. It has an annual budget of $923-million.

The department’s current chief, P. Michael Freeman, 65, is one of the county’s most respected officials and has held the post for more than two decades. County supervisors have been reluctant to let Freeman go and successfully lobbied Sacramento to pass a law in 2005 allowing him to keep the job past the mandatory retirement age of 60.

In 2009, Freeman announced his retirement, but the supervisors talked him into staying for more than a year longer.

Freeman will step down next month after salary negotiations with Osby are complete.

Essay 4911

From The Los Angeles Times…

----------------------

Black firefighter awarded $1.17 million
Carter Stephens says harassment complaints to superiors in the Pasadena department only led to retaliation.

By Hector Becerra, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

A jury awarded $1.17 million Friday to a black former Pasadena firefighter who said he was forced to retire after complaining for five years about other firefighters leaving blood, urine and feces in his bedding and scrawling a swastika on his equipment.

The penalty was just the latest case of a black firefighter alleging discrimination against a fire department in Los Angeles and surrounding communities.

According to Carter Stephens’ suit, supervisors and co-workers also put mucus on his uniform and a captain referred to him by the “N” word.

Stephens, 55, said he felt vindicated after enduring racially-motivated attacks for five years.

“The general thought was, ‘You just have go ahead and take a beating. Maybe it’ll stop,’” he said. “That’s what I tried to do. But it wouldn’t stop.”

[To read the full story, click here.]

Essay 4490

From The Los Angeles Times…

---------------------

L.A. to pay firefighter nearly $1.5 million
Mayor signs off on a deal in which Tennie Pierce will drop lawsuit claims and retire from the department.

By David Zahniser
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Averting a trial that could have revealed embarrassing details about hazing within the Los Angeles Fire Department, the City Council voted Friday to pay nearly $1.5 million to a black firefighter who was served a meal laced with dog food by his colleagues.

The agreement brought to a close a dispute that had caused racial division in the city, compelled Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to impose his first veto and prompted the departure of the city’s longtime fire chief.

Firefighter Tennie Pierce had filed suit stemming from an incident in 2004 in which he was served a spaghetti dinner that secretly included dog food while he was on duty at Fire Station No. 5 in Westchester. Although some colleagues described it as a prank that played on the 6-foot-5 Pierce’s nickname, “Big Dog,” Pierce alleged racial discrimination.

The case originally was headed for trial Monday. A spokesman for City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo said the settlement reached Friday afternoon pushed the total cost of the case to $2.8 million once $1.3 million in legal expenses accumulated by the city since December are factored in. That is slightly more than the $2.7-million settlement offered by the council last year but rejected by Villaraigosa.

This time, the mayor gave his blessing to the deal with Pierce, a 19-year firefighter who lives in Cerritos. Hours after the council vote, Villaraigosa released a statement saying the decision “reduces the original settlement by nearly half while protecting Angelenos from further liability.”

[Click on the essay title above to read the full story.]