City workers who accused Water Department supervisors of racism agree to tentative $5.8 million settlement
Construction crews with the Chicago Department of Water Management work in the Brighton Park neighborhood last year.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
The city of Chicago has reached a tentative $5.8 million settlement with Water Department employees who said they were subjected to racist comments from managers and shorted on overtime and promotions.
Announcement of the settlement comes just a month before the case was to go to trial. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly had yet to rule on whether former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, now serving as U.S. ambassador to China, would have to testify.
The deal must still be finalized and then approved by the City Council. Details of the settlement were not filed in federal court, but an attorney for the workers disclosed the amount. A spokeswoman for the city Law Department declined comment.
"The racism lasted for decades and affected countless Black employees, which raises the question of why the city's uppermost leaders failed to act,” said attorney Vic Henderson. “The sad and most obvious answer is that they did not care. Shame on them."
The agreement covers a dozen current and former Water Department employees, many of whom worked for the department for decades, despite being passed over for better shifts and promotions, and a workplace where white supervisors were accused of routinely making racist and sexist remarks.
The case was filed in 2017, the year a probe by the city inspector general exposed numerous racist emails exchanged between top supervisors at the Water Department.
The city's inspector general at the time, Joseph Ferguson, called for the firing of seven Water Department employees. Emanuel fired Water Management Commissioner Barret Murphy, managing deputy William Bresnahan and superintendent Paul Hansen, son of former alderman Bernard Hansen.
In 2022, the city paid out nearly $1 million to a bricklayer in the department who said he was subjected to abuse, taunts and retaliation at the hands Hansen.
A federal judge overseeing the case last year declined to grant class-action status that would have allowed all minority employees of the department to seek damages.
Lawyers for the 12 plaintiffs hired an expert who found that Black workers got significantly less overtime assignments and were promoted less often while also being disciplined more frequently, according to filings in the case.
"It was plain to anyone who looked that the racism cascaded from the very top of the organization like water travels down a hill," Henderson said.