Nearly a decade after the City of Akron settled a lawsuit from firefighters alleging racial discrimination in the promotion process, a white captain in the Akron Fire Department sued the city in federal court earlier this month because a younger Black woman was promoted into a job he asserts he was more qualified for.
The captain, 58-year-old Michael Haas, states the sole reason he didn’t get promoted to a district chief position last year was because he was a white man in his late 50s and the sole reason Sierjie Lash was promoted instead of him is because she’s a Black woman who is younger.
“Akron has not given a legitimate non-discriminatory reason for failing to promote Haas” to district chief, the lawsuit states. Lash is the first woman to be named district chief in the AFD’s history – the department typically has about 10 district chief positions; the AFD has 52 Black people and 18 women among its 354 firefighters.
Akron’s demographic make up is approximately 56% white, 29% Black, 4.6% Asian, 8.5% multi-racial and nearly 52% female.
Haas is also asking the court for a permanent injunction requiring the firing or demotion of the supervisors he said engaged in discrimination, harassment or retaliation against him and didn’t investigate his complaints. According to Haas’ complaint, he wants the injunction to apply to AFD Chief Leon Henderson, Assistant to the Mayor for Emergency Management Joseph Natko and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Clarence Tucker. Natko and Tucker previously served as the city’s fire chief.
The City of Akron’s spokesperson declined to comment on the open lawsuit, and a lawyer representing Haas, Bryan Spitz, would only say that “We are very confident in our complaint. We are committed to obtaining justice in this matter and for all employees.”
Complaint focuses on promotion of first Black woman to district chief role
Haas focuses on District Chief Lash in the lawsuit – the complaint mentions her by name 72 times in 34 pages – and his belief he should have been given the job she now has. Haas said he was the most qualified candidate from a pool of six candidates eligible to be promoted to district chief, while Lash was fifth. The rankings are based on “seniority, education, certifications and experience,” according to the lawsuit.
The complaint highlights a 2023 investigation into then-Captain Lash that alleged she “coached” Black firefighter candidates who had consumed marijuana in the months before their application to not disclose it, which would have been disqualifying. It also states that then-District Chief Henderson retaliated against investigators to benefit Lash, claiming that it was “discrimination based on race” because both Henderson and Lash are Black.
Shortly after Mayor Shammas Malik named Henderson as AFD chief last summer, Henderson appointed Lash to the vacant district chief position instead of Haas, the lawsuit claims.
“In considering how to promote Lash to district chief, Henderson conferred with Natko and Clarence Tucker about how to skip Haas and other qualified candidates in favor of Lash” because of her race and gender, the complaint states. It accuses Tucker, who is also Black, of having a “discriminatory bias” toward Lash.
The lawsuit states that Haas, after he complained, was transferred to another role that he viewed as a demotion and retaliatory — Haas said he considered his transfer to two weekly 24-hour shifts to be “less favorable than his administrative position” — and that the department and city didn’t properly investigate his discrimination claims.
The lawsuit alleges that both federal and state anti-race, anti-age and anti-gender discrimination laws were broken, along with two counts of illegal retaliation, a First Amendment violation for facing “adverse actions” after complaining and other civil rights violations.
In addition to seeking an injunction ousting Henderson and others, he wants to be given “one of the positions to which he was entitled,” for all negative documentation in his personnel file to be expunged and for more than $25,000 in damages.