Public Employee Press

DC 37 hosts forum on $21million Parks discrimination settlement

• Members win $21million settlement in
  race discrimination case at Parks Dept.

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

DC 37 members and retirees from the Parks Dept. attended forums April 9 and 23 with lawyers who answered questions about the pending $21 million settlement of a race discrimination suit against the agency.

On April 3, civil rights attorneys Lewis M. Steel, Cynthia Rollings of Beldock, Levine and Hoffman, LLP, and Robert H. Stroup of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc., met with a union group that included DC 37 Parks Policy Committee Chair Michael Hood, local leaders with members in Parks, the Legal Dept., division directors and staff who represent members in the Parks Dept.

“The settlement is a compromise that offers a better deal for the class as a whole rather than a chance outcome at trial,” explained Steel at the April 9 forum.

The settlement provides about $12 million in back pay and compensatory damages for class members, with the nine lead plaintiffs getting an additional $50,000 for their participation and testimony. It also puts in place systems that check Parks Dept. records for racial correlations with pay disparities and titles where the same job is done at differing pay rates.

About 3,500 DC 37 members and retirees may be eligible for payments if they are black or Hispanic and worked full time for Parks between May 24, 1997, and June 30, 2004, as year-round (not seasonal) employees. For their nine years of services provided, the attorneys will receive $8 million plus $1 million in expenses. Settlement details are at www.naacpldf.org.

The discriminatory practices outlined in the lawsuit included the agency’s past failure to post job openings,conduct regular interviews, and provide performance evaluations and its manipulation of the civil service and promotion process. Civil service exams and results were not part of the case.

Settlement payments are based on expert statistical estimates of pay, promotion and retaliation damages, not seniority. The settlement was negotiated over 15 months with an understanding of confidentiality among the plaintiffs, the city and the lawyers.

The attorneys worked out a settlement rather than let the case drag through the federal courts for an extended time with an uncertain outcome, they explained. In recent years the increasingly conservative U.S. Supreme Court has not favored plaintiffs in race discrimination cases. “A settlement offers real benefits now,” Steel said.

A claims administrator sent eligible Parks employees a notice. If an employee meets the qualifications but has not received a notice, it may be because city records list that employee as Caucasian, said Stroup. The employee should contact the Claims Administrator, P.O. Box 10847, Tallahassee, FL 32302-2847 or call 866-854-6041 toll-free by May 2 to report any errors or address changes. If you have not been notified, telephone immediately.

All payments from the settlement are taxable. Most class members will receive two checks, one from the employer and one from the claims administrator, which will not have taxes withheld. Not all members of the class will receive money.

The estates of deceased employees who may have qualified should notify the claims administrator.

If the address and information in the notice seem accurate, members do not need to do anything now. If the court approves the settlement, they will receive documents to sign. To object or opt out of the settlement, follow the instructions in the notification and send signed objections to Federal Judge Denny Chin by May 2. The judge will let objectors present their concerns in a hearing on May 12.

Just as the famous 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision did not end all inequities in the education system, in reality the law can only do so much to bring justice to everyone in this case, Steel said.

Still, the settlement is a tremendous victory that shatters the glass ceiling that had existed for minorities in the Parks Dept. and creates new opportunities for promotions.