New York Fire Department Chiefs File Lawsuit Against Alleged ‘Retaliatory’ Demotion by Commissioner

Staff Chiefs of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) have filed a lawsuit to block the fire commissioner’s decision to demote them, a decision they characterize as “retaliatory.”
Commissioner Laura Kavanagh, the first woman to serve as commissioner of the FDNY, is alleged to have ignored the advice of staff chiefs on “critical safety issues” and attempted to “smear the victims,” including characterizing the plaintiffs as racists and misogynists. The FDNY and Kavanagh, who is known to be a supporter of diversity in the department, are respondents in the case.
The lawsuit demands the “immediate reinstatement” of eleven staff chiefs who serve as incident commanders for multi-alarm fires in the city of New York, according to a Feb. 27 press release by Walden Macht & Haran LLP, the law firm of the four Staff Chiefs….