Hiring, promotion of Black firefighters falling short, City Council committee told

Livid that Fire Commissioner Annette Holt and two other department heads were told to stay away, a City Council committee forged ahead with a hearing Thursday on a sore subject: discrimination in hiring and promotions in the Chicago Fire Department.

Holt is the fourth African American — and first woman — to serve as Chicago fire commissioner. She joined Human Resources Commissioner Sandra Blakemore and Public Safety Administration Director Annastasia Walker in boycotting Thursday’s meeting to avoid answering questions about ongoing contract negotiations or impending litigation.

Every firefighters contract since 1980 has included a clause that mandates 45% minority hiring — 30% Black and 15% Hispanic representation at all levels of the Chicago Fire Department — but according to CFD numbers from last year, while the goal has been exceeded for Hispanics, who now make up about 18.5% of the department overall, Black hiring lags, at 14.2%.

The decision by Police and Fire Committee Chair Chris Taliaferro (29th) to proceed with the hearing infuriated his colleagues, who vowed to flex their subpoena power to compel testimony from the mayor’s cabinet members.

“These commissioners work for us. We appoint these commissioners. Not to come before this body? What is this body for? What are we doing? Why are we elected officials? … We will never get anywhere in this city if we allow this kind of behavior to continue,” said Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), one of Johnson’s most vocal Council critics.

Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), Budget Committee chair, agreed: “We’ve got to have people in power to have a conversation, as painful as that may be.”

When Taliaferro advised Beale to “file an ordinance that will give us subpoena power,” Beale said the Council already has subpoena power — it just needs to use it.

Always outspoken Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th), Education Committee chair, unleashed a profanity-laced tirade against Taliaferro for turning his colleagues into “professional time-wasters” when there was nobody in a position of authority to answer questions or do something to remedy the longstanding discrimination.

“Y’all are getting on my last good nerve,” Taylor said. “It is disrespectful for y’all to call us down to a meeting” if Blackmore, Walker and Holt wouldn’t be there,” she said. “When the administration told you ‘no,’ you should have called us. … It’s the saddest s – – t ever.”

Taliaferro countered: “You need to be respectful and not use profanity in this chamber.”

With nobody from the administration to testify, the two-hour hearing devolved into a gripe session for current and retired African American firefighters and their Council champions.

Though the hiring goals laid out in the contract clause known as “Appendix G” are now 44 years old, the Chicago Fire Department is going backwards. Figures provided by CFD put the total number of black employees at 682.

“When I came on the job in 1988, there were close to 1,000 Black firefighters,” said Lt. Quention Curtis.

Curtis founded the Black Fire Brigade to train and educate first responders. The organization has put over 755 students through its training programs since 2018 — cost-free, including uniforms — with the ultimate goal of reducing violence.

“I’ve seen more kids shot and killed in my lifetime … than the average guy in Vietnam. I’ve worked on babies with gunshots. I’ve worked on these streets all of my life. Born and raised in Cabrini Green,” Curtis siad.

“These kids are dying. They’re dying for one reason: access to opportunities. We have to provide opportunities for these kids in the community. Every time a fire truck pulls up in the community, they can’t see a Black fireman. … My motto became … ‘If we teach a kid to save a life, they’re gonna be less likely to take one.'”

Retired Capt. Ezra McCann was responsible for giving the city’s Law Department a copy of the videotape of a raucous 1990 retirement party at Engine 100 that showed firefighters drinking, using racial slurs and exposing themselves.

McCann said the Black community is “still waiting for our fair share of these great jobs” outlined in that 1980 contract — signed after a bitter, 23-day firefighters strike. A consent decree mandating minority hiring in the Chicago Fire Department was abolished in 2022.

Including Brandon Johnson, “the last four mayors … have made no serious commitment to give the black community their fair share,” McCann said.

Under Emanuel, taxpayers spent nearly $3.7 million, including $1.7 million in legal fees, to compensate dozens of women denied firefighter jobs because of a now-scrapped physical test of upper-body strength.

Also under Emanuel, Chicago resolved a bitter legal battle he inherited stemming from the city’s discriminatory handling of the 1995 firefighters entrance exam.

The city agreed to hire the 111 bypassed African American firefighters and borrow the $78.4 million needed to compensate thousands more who never got that chance.