Newton city councilors approved a $1.5 million settlement agreement Monday night with a firefighter who alleged in a lawsuit that he faced a hostile work environment and racist language while on the job.
The City Council also approved a separate $65,000 settlement with a deputy fire chief who had filed a complaint against the city with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.
Both cases involved allegations of treatment based on race, according to the city. No other details of the settlements were available.
“My goal for Newton is that everyone who works for our City is treated with respect and dignity,” Mayor Ruthanne Fuller said in a statement addressing both settlements. “We know we have work to do, urgent work, to create, implement and nurture a more equitable and inclusive workplace.”
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Firefighter Lee Gilliam, who is Black, said he was transferred three times within the department due to the “racial attitudes” of a superior officer and colleagues, according to his lawsuit, which was filed in June 2021 in Middlesex Superior Court.
At the time of the suit, Gilliam said he was one of about 10 Black workers employed by the fire department.
“This racial imbalance and failure to diversify has fostered and perpetuated a hostile environment where Caucasian firefighters generally feel free to make insensitive and degrading comments concerning African Americans without consequence,” Gilliam said in his lawsuit.
Gilliam’s attorney, David Summer, hailed the council’s support of the $1.5 million settlement in a brief phone interview Tuesday.
“He’s happy to move on from this,” Summer said. “He’s happy that it’s resolved.”
The text of the MCAD complaint filed by Edgardo J. Melendez, the deputy fire chief who is receiving the $65,000 settlement, was not publicly available Tuesday.
Fuller, in her statement, said the city has taken some important steps in addressing issues of harassment.
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The city has hired its first director of community engagement and inclusion, she said, and it is in the process of hiring a firm to help “expand and institutionalize” diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Fuller said all city department heads, management, city councilors, and School Committee members have completed two sets of training on unconscious bias and inclusive leadership.
She said all members of the Newton Fire Department have been trained on harassment, discrimination, and respect in the workplace. The training will continue with more sessions and related programs, according to the city.
At the police department, training is underway for supervisory staff on “instilling the values” of diversity, inclusion, and equity into department operations, Fuller said.
The city’s police force also joined the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement Project to prepare officers to successfully intervene with each other in a culture of peer intervention, according to Fuller.
“Systemic change is essential. I know building an anti-biased workplace is important and I am committed to this work,” Fuller said in the statement.
In his lawsuit, Gilliam said a lieutenant had used a racist slur in 2008 “with the intent of degrading Gilliam.” A Fire Department investigation determined that the superior officer used the slur. But instead of transferring the lieutenant, Gilliam said he was moved to a different unit, court papers said.
Gilliam also said he was called racist slurs by a fellow firefighter in 2012, according to court documents. The city dismissed that firefighter following an investigation, he said in his lawsuit.
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But it failed to implement any substantive change concerning racially insensitive comments that permeated the firehouses, his lawsuit said.
Gilliam, who began working as a Newton firefighter in 2004, alleged there was a “severe pattern” of racism and racist individuals that had infiltrated the Newton Fire Department.
“This tolerance of racial insensitivity and bias has not only been tolerated but has been perpetuated by firefighters, lieutenants, and chiefs alike for over a decade,” Gilliam said in his lawsuit, and came at the expense of his health and well-being.
In 2017, Gilliam was placed into a unit where he had frequent contact with the lieutenant who had called him the racist slur, he said in court papers.
The following year, Gilliam said he was passed over for a promotion that went to a white firefighter with significantly less experience, he said in court papers.
Gilliam asked the lieutenant who previously used a racist slur why he was not selected for the job. That lieutenant had made the final recommendation for the job, the lawsuit said.
“Instead of privately discussing the matter with Gilliam, [the lieutenant] confronted him in front of the entire firehouse,” the lawsuit said. The superior “told Gilliam that he ‘lacked intelligence.’ "
The lieutenant also used another racist slur to describe Gilliam, and “went on to publicly belittle him further in front of his superiors and colleagues,” according to the suit. The lieutenant later apologized in a text message to Gilliam.
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The city did not provide information on whether the fire lieutenant, who remains on duty, was disciplined in connection with the allegations in the lawsuit.
Gilliam said he continued to face racist slurs, demeaning comments, and racial insensitivities. In court papers, Gilliam said he suffered severe emotional distress as the result of the harassment and intolerance he was subjected to in the department.
Melendez is currently working for the department, and his 2021 salary was nearly $124,000, according to the city. Gilliam, whose salary last year was $74,400, is on paid administrative leave, the city said.
John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com.