SAFD leaders left a crude, sexist culture to smolder
The Arson Bureau of the San Antonio Fire Department investigates fires that may have been intentionally started.
Comments and behavior by supervisors in that bureau have fanned the flames of sex discrimination and retaliation, which has led three employees to file complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, which is now investigating the allegations.
The complaints reflect a culture of sexism, defined by crude and lewd remarks, as well as behaviors that have been tolerated and accepted by leadership. It’s a culture SAFD leadership, though aware, appears incapable of addressing — as evidenced by Fire Chief Charles Hood’s sushi photo. On Sunday, Express-news reporter Emilie Eaton, based on interviews, records and audio recordings she obtained, wrote about the complaints leading to the EEOC investigation, as well as the problems within the Arson Bureau, which she described as “overwhelmingly male, as a workplace that has been plagued by poor leadership and high turnover among employees.”
The three SAFD employees who came forward with the complaints also allege a lack of support from supervisors and retaliation. One of the three complainants, arson investigator Ashley Long, went to her boss, Battalion Chief Douglas Berry, in August 2018 to put in a good word about her friend, a woman, who had applied to the department.
According to Long, Berry asked, “Yeah, but does she have … ?” Instead of completing his sentence, Berry put his hands in front of her chest and asked Long, “Like, is she hot?” Who does this?
The question is rhetorical, but that someone in a leadership position would be comfortable making such objectionable comments and gestures without fear of being reprimanded suggests an intolerant, exclusive and harmful environment. People in leadership positions set the tone for other employees. But, clearly, being in a leadership position does not make someone a true leader.
On Nov. 1, 2019, Long tape recorded a conversation with two deputy chiefs, who acknowledged the Arson Bureau’s problems. “Since Day 1, it’s been a hotbed,” said one of the deputy chiefs. “There were all men back then. Same issues. Same exact issues.”
The other deputy chief spoke of incompetence in properly investigating criminal cases: “If (the Police Department) ran their investigative units the way arson was run for the last 20 years, it would be the laughingstock of the country.”
Several of Long’s specific allegations of sexism and retaliation within the bureau have been corroborated by an attorney hired by the city of San Antonio to investigate them. Recently, Hood, at the direction of Assistant City Manager Maria Villagómez, suspended Berry for 15 days. Berry also was disciplined for other disparaging comments about women.
Berry apologized to Hood but didn’t say he considered his remarks disparaging.
Hood also disciplined Capt. Raul Lopez for saying that because Long was a woman, she lacked the capacity to investigate the scene of a fire alone.
But Hood is facing his own reckoning, having been found at fault for violating three city policies for posing for photos beside what appears to be a nude woman used as sushi platter at a firefighter’s birthday party earlier this year. What is up with the San Antonio Fire Department?
No wonder only 5.1 percent of SAFD firefighters are women. The department is engaged in its broadest and most intensive recruitment of women in its history, but even this feels botched. Hood has said this recruitment is focused on “young ladies.”
A musty, arthritic culture of sexism and misogyny, excused because boys will be boys, must give way to an inclusive and nurturing culture that welcomes a new generation of SAFD firefighters — women and men.
That will one day happen because people like Ashley Long had the courage to step forward and speak out.