The racism charge that hangs over the Norwalk fire department has certainly caused some long lasting friction. Last night, according to the Hour, a hearing was held by an investigatory panel to look into the incident involving a video tape that only the Hour has seen.
The panel had hoped to shed some light on a racist videotape made public last November. The tape, which was released exclusively to The Hour by former firefighter Scot Wilson, showed firefighters at the Broad River Station using racial slurs. The panel included Common Council members Michael Coffey, Carvin Hilliard, Richard McQuaid, Joanne Romano and Herbert Grant as well as the Rev. Phyllis Bolden, chairwoman of the panel.
Saying he had “been advised not to appear” before the committee to answer questions, Knopp refused on numerous occasions to confine his answers specifically to his knowledge of charges of racism that was brought to his attention through a letter sent by ex-firefighter Scot Wilson in 2005.
“This is an attempt to make me look bad,” Knopp said. “I came here in good faith. I never read the letter and have no recollection of seeing it while in office.”
On the face of it, it’s likely that Knopp probably doesn’t have recollection of the letter because fire department morale, or for that matter, the morale of city departments in general was not a high priority in his administration. You see, by acknowledging problems, and doing something about them, that might make him look bad. Looking bad, is apparently more important than doing the right thing, which would have started along the lines in asking your fire chief a question or two about the incident. The video tape, the morale of the department, or a simple, WTF is going on over there would have been a good start.
But the real problem with this incident is exemplified in this exchange from the Hour:
Ronald Mackey, president of the society, made a stunning accusation when he said he was “totally shocked” at Knopp’s contention that he hired McCarthy from the Westport Fire Department because McCarthy shared his views on diversifying the department.
Mackey told the committee that former Westport First Selectwoman Diane Farrell wanted to bring a more racial balance to the Westport Fire Department.
But during a meeting in 2005 with Mackey, Farrell, Ron Morales and others, McCarthy refused to consider making any changes that would diversify the department.
The Norwalk fire fighters were upset to learn that Mackey, president of the Firebird Society in Bridgeport, a black and latino firefighter organization, was allowed to speak and they were not.
This incident certainly doesn’t help boost the already noted low morale in the department, reported earlier in the Norwalk Citizen News reports;
On Nov. 21, McCarthy issued a public apology, accepting full responsibility for failing to respond in a “more aggressive” manner. “I allowed the disciplinary nature of my meeting with an employee to distract me from the claims he was making,” McCarthy said. “That was a grave error in my judgment.”
Also in response to the revelation, 3D Seminars, LLC, of New Haven was hired to provide a diversity and cultural assessment of the department. On Feb. 6, 3D Seminars presented its assessment to the Board of Fire Commissioners, reporting low levels of morale but a lack of any “large diversity related problems” and a sense of “brotherhood, regardless of race or ethnicity” in the department.
Yet an earlier Norwalk Citizen-News report dug into the morale issue noting that McCarthy spends little time with firefighters and makes judgment calls and decisions without involving them. There has been talk too, of the way in which McCarthy was picked over another fire chief candidate that the commission empaneled to hire the new chief had recommended. Knopp, then chair of that panel, over ruled the two other members to select McCarthy. As they say in the fire house, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And the smoke swirling out of the firehouse suggests that the chief put there to put out fires seems only adept and stoking the flames of discontent.
So what we have here, in total, does look very bad. And it seems that there’s a pattern of not wanting to look bad creating incidents that are in fact bad, awful even. So how does this panel go about making a bad situation better? Well let’s start with listening to what is really going on in the firehouse. Why is morale low? What else isn’t McCarthy doing? Let’s stop the endless fixation on who is looking bad by looking into whether a guy who has no experience running an urban fire department is really able to do the job. The fact that didn’t feel well served enough by McCarthy’s testimony is telling enough. The firefighters have every right to be upset. The Fire Department seems to be not well managed under Chief McCarthy. And that does look very bad.
Source: The Hour, Racism panel puts Knopp in hot seat, By JAMES WALKER, March 23, 2007
Source: The Norwalk Citizen News, Hearing Set In Fired Deparment Probe, By Lauren Garrison, March 8, 2007
Source: The Norwalk Citizen News, Racism Investigation Panel to Conduct Hearings, February 1, 2007
