Town takes step toward $11 million settlement with firefighter who alleged racist workplace
By Web Staff
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BROOKLINE, Massachusetts (WCVB) — A Massachusetts town is just one step away from closing the book on an 11-year legal battle with a former firefighter who said he faced a racist work environment.
Brookline’s Select Board announced Tuesday an $11 million settlement agreement with Gerald Alston. To allocate funds for the deal, a vote will be held at a special town meeting scheduled for Oct. 5.
“Should Town Meeting fail to authorize funding, all parties will return to court where the finances and reputations of the Town and the individual defendants are further at risk, and where the Town will need to expend significant resources at trial,” the Select Board wrote in a statement.
The dispute dates to 2010 when Alston’s superior mistakenly left a voicemail for Alston in which he referred to a motorist who had cut off his son with a racial epithet. The supervisor apologized but was subsequently promoted.
In April, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled the town was wrong when it terminated Gerald Alston, who is Black, after he refused to return to work and stopped communicating with the department, which he said was due to a fear of working in a racially hostile environment.
The 2010 incident and others led Alston to use cocaine and marijuana to deal with his anxiety and anger and led to a diagnosis of “adjustment disorder,” according to the court.
Alston, a firefighter since 2002, was fired in 2016, but received back pay from the town based on the Civil Service Commission’s reinstatement order, said his attorney, Brooks Ames. He has technically been on paid leave since, he said in April.
At the time, Alston said that despite his reinstatement he would not go back to the department because of the hostility he would continue to face.
“Do I go back to the lion’s den? I can’t,” he said.
“The Select Board believes this settlement is the right thing to do for Mr. Alston and in the best interest of the Town of Brookline, and we urge all Town Meeting Members to support funding it,” the board said.
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