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He does not, however, have such faith in Mayor Wade
Kapszukiewicz’ administration, the black council members of
Toledo City Council, The Toledo Fire and Rescue Department
and Chief Brian Byrd nor the local city and county court
systems, as he plainly stated on Friday.
“Where is the mayor? Where is Chief Byrd? What are the five
African-American councilmen doing on or off the record to
stop the ongoing racism in the Toledo Fire Department? What
are they doing to stop the racism in the City of Toledo?”
Councilmen, however, for the most part, had not been
apprised of the situation until well after the press
conference on Friday according to Council members Larry
Sykes and Yvonne Harper who both spoke with The Truth about
the termination. Neithr knew anything about Adebisi’s
ongoing situation or the termination.
Adebisi, during the press conference, recounted months of
harassment by those in the top ranks of TFD, particularly
from Battalion Chief Matthew Brixey of the Training Bureau.
Repeatedly, said Adebisi, she was summoned to Brixey’s
office “to tell me I wasn’t going to do well.” That was, she
said, the sum of his admonitions. No advice was forthcoming
about how to succeed, only warnings, without specifics.”
“I went up the chain of command to stop the harassment,” she
added. “It did not stop.”
Although Adebisi’s termination was a surprise to her and her
family because it occurred at the last possible moment
before graduation and was unsupported by any concrete
reasons, her complaints about the Toledo Fire and Rescue
Department’s treatment of her already had quite a history.
On August 6, 2019, Adebisi, through her spokesman Murry,
filed a complaint with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission
alleging mistreatment that begun as early as her hiring
date.
A
letter with supporting facts in the filing read in part:
“Charging Party, African American Female, is and has been
continuously sexually harassed and racially discriminated
against by the City of Toledo and the Toledo Fire & Rescue
Department by white superios and administrators since she
was hired in February 2019. The discrimination was so openly
blatant that on March 24, 2019, Charging Party along with
three (3) other African Americans filed with the City of
Toledo Office of Diversity & Inclusion allegations about the
various racial practices and including the hostile working
environment experienced and implemented against us.”
Part of that alleged harassment, said Murry in last week’s
press conference, was information “from a ranking officer
who told her that she was targeted because a certain white
candidate could not be hired” and that she had taken a place
that should have been his.
In addition to the city officials that Murry and Adebisi
took to task for their failure to prevent the months-long
pattern of harassment alleged in their filing, Murry also
assailed Toledo Firefighters Local 92 for the union’s
failure to represent the candidate.
“Local 92 was not going to represent her,” said Murry even
though trainees pay dues for the local to do just that, he
asserted. He noted that correspondence had been submitted to
the union in late July/early August regarding the matter
since the local had declined to represent her in training.
Adebisi said that her commitment to firefighting is only
with the City of Toledo. That commitment started during her
childhood when a fire occurred in her residence and, with
the help of fire fighters, she was able to save herself and
a family member.
“Toledo Fire is personal,” she said. “I owe it to the city
to give back to what was given to me. This isn’t just about
me, I owe it to all those coming after and in my class. This
has to stop.”
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