Facts

Plaintiffs Antoine Fisher, Tonya Lett, and Jayel Whitted are all African American park rangers for the City and County of San Francisco. Mike Celeste is Chief Park Ranger with defendant City and County of San Francisco and is the supervisor of plaintiffs. In January 2018, Whitted applied for an open position as Head Park Ranger. Whitted graduated from the Sacramento Police Academy and had 28 years of experience in management and law enforcement. He then took the Basic Supervisory Examination and the Park Ranger Series Core Examination on September 2018. The following month, he was informed he passed both exams and ranked first on the eligibility list for promotion. Later that same month, Whitted was informed that the Head Park Ranger position re-opened so he reapplied for the position, but Celeste informed Whitted that the two Head Park Ranger positions had been given to other candidates. As for plaintiff Lett, she was hired as a park ranger by San Francisco in 2016. Holding a bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice and having about seven years' experience as a police officer, she also passed the exams for the Head Park Ranger position. Antoine Fisher was hired as a park ranger in 2015. He graduated from the police academy and has over 13 years of experience in law enforcement. He is certified as a Police Officer Standards of Training Instructor and holds a teaching credential from UC Berkeley in Security and Computers while owning and operating a private security business. In June 2016, after about one year as a park ranger with San Francisco, Fisher applied for the Head Park Ranger position, took the sergeant's exam, and placed first on the eligibility list for the promotion. Fisher, Lett, and Whitted filed suit against the City and County of San Francisco alleging racial discrimination and harassment in violation of the Fair Employment Housing Act (FEHA) against Celeste and the City and County; and as to the city and county only, failure to take reasonable steps in violation of FEHA, and negligent retention and supervision.

PLAINTIFFS' CONTENTIONS: Plaintiffs contended that they were denied promotion and instead, defendant Celeste and San Francisco hired predominantly white, often less-qualified, all non-black applicants for supervisory positions. For example, instead of promoting Whitted to Head Park Ranger, defendants hired a dispatcher from the Department of Public Works who had never been a park ranger and whom Witted and others would have to help teach the job. Moreover, defendants denied assignments and training opportunities to Whitted, providing priority to predominantly white employees. Defendants assigned Whitted to overseeing the Field Training Program without providing him with additional pay or promotion. All other non-black park rangers received additional compensation or promotion when taking on additional supervisory roles. Despite being denied promotion though well-qualified, Whitted was forced to volunteer his time and kept reapplying for promotions as positions became available. In February 2019, Celeste informed Lett that he had hired two other applicants for the Head Park Ranger positions. She alleged that she was denied a promotion with defendants who often hired less qualified, non-black applicants for the positions. As for Fisher, he contended that despite his qualifications and that there were three positions open for Head Park Ranger, defendants gave the positions to all non-black applicants who were lower on the eligibility list. When he again learned of openings for the Head Park Ranger position, he again tested and applied. While he was informed he passed the exam, ranked fourth on the eligibility list for the positions, in February 2019, Celeste informed him that two other applicants had been hired for the position. Plaintiffs further contended that two Caucasian park rangers applied for the open Head Park Ranger positions in September 2018; one did not pass and the other missed the exam. According to plaintiffs, Celeste commented that he wanted to hire, pointing to his skin indicating the white color of his skin.

DEFENDANTS' CONTENTIONS: Defendant Celeste contended that, first he did not harbor racist bias against minority applicants, noting that he recommended an African American applicant as a first choice for promotion as well as a Filipino for third choice. Second, as he had no role in the selection of the top three candidates, it was impossible for him to prevent plaintiffs' promotions nor did he make the final decision regarding the offers for final candidates. Consequently, he had no ability to influence plaintiffs' candidacies in the 2018 hiring process. Third, as there were only two openings for Head Park Ranger in 2018, it was impossible for him to have prevented all three plaintiffs' promotions. While, he was not involved in the administration or scoring of the eligibility exam, he did encourage the three plaintiffs to apply for the position. As to the other components of the process, such as the oral interview and physical eligibility test, he was not involved in those either. In essence, he was not part of the scoring process and once the application process was at the stage where it listed 10 "reachable" applicants, Antoine Fisher ranked fifth, Tonya Lett ranked seventh and Jayel Whitted ranked eighth. In essence, Celeste argued that he was not involved the selection of the three finalists and did not know why plaintiffs were not selected to be finalists. As to promotional decisions in the 2018 hiring process in his role as chief, he did not have that authority. The highest preference candidate, who was an African American female, declined the offer. The other two candidates, a Caucasian women and Filipino male did accept the offers which filled the two available positions and ended the selection process.

Result

The case settled for $135,000.