Mayor Finizio's single biggest mistake


Mayor Finizio's single biggest mistake

Publication: The Day
Published 02/24/2012 12:00 AM
Updated 02/23/2012 11:56 PM
Even Mayor Finizio himself probably would admit to some mistakes since taking office late last year.
Some can be chalked up to inexperience. A few were inevitable, given the various constituencies he's trying to satisfy. Some he's tried to correct.
I suspect, for instance, we won't see many more of those Friday night city-in-crisis press conferences.
But one terrible mistake most certainly will continue to haunt him and hobble his new administration, until he does something to fix it.
The mayor, soon after taking office, went along with the recommendation of the city's fire chief to fire the first black firefighter the city had hired in more than 30 years. They fired Alfred Mayo two days before he was to graduate from the Connecticut firefighting academy, where he was the only black person in his class.
Tuesday's town meeting by the Connecticut NAACP, held to air a number of grievances against the city, also detailed exactly how wrong the mayor was to fire Mayo.
The testimony, from Mayo's own tearful account of being harassed at the academy, unfolded in a way that seemed to map out a U.S. Justice Department investigation into the firing, which is already under way.
The Mayo-related testimony also seemed to foreshadow the inevitable lawsuit against the city, one that seems like a slam dunk for even a casual attorney.
Imagine the jury that would hear all the same testimony as it unfolded Tuesday, from the professional black firefighters who say they could never get hired in New London to the other black firefighter recruit who also told about being harassed at the firefighting academy, by the same instructors who went after Mayo.
And what will the mayor say, when justice department investigators come to question him, or when he has to explain to a jury why he fired the city's first black firefighting recruit hired in more than 30 years?
So far, the mayor's come up pretty empty handed when asked that question.
At first, he said it was Mayo's grades at the academy. But they turned out to be fine, well above passing. For the last term, he finished about the class average.
The mayor also likes to say that he got approval for the firing from Jane Glover, the city's black chief administrative officer, whom Finizio hired, and Wade Hyslop, the black city councilor.
I'm not sure exactly why the mayor thinks its OK to fire a black person because you've checked with two other black people you know in positions of authority. But he continues to give this reasoning for Mayo's firing.
It may be some of the same thinking that apparently has led him to believe that promoting the city's only black firefighter will make up for the fact that the rest of the department is largely white. Finizio has suggested that promotion is in the works.
If the mayor had widened his circle of consultation with black political leaders for a firing to include State Rep. Ernie Hewett of New London, he certainly would have heard a different story.
Hewett gave an impassioned speech Tuesday about how Mayo obviously was railroaded from the start at the firefighting academy, only because of the color of his skin.
Hewett also made fun of Finizio's characterization of Mayo's grades, saying if more than passing was required of him, he would never have become a state lawmaker.
Hewett also fielded a request Tuesday to initiate a state investigation into the firefighting academy. Given the Justice Department review of the Mayo case, I suspect the firefighting academy is going to get a lot of scrutiny anyway.
To his credit, Finizio attended Tuesday's town meeting. The mayor appeared to be listening closely to the Mayo testimony, and we can only hope that he begins working on a correction to what most certainly has been his biggest mistake in his short time in office.
His statement Wednesday that he supports an investigation of the fire academy is promising. But that is unrelated to the swift justice needed to correct the wrong of Mayo's firing.
There was nothing in the reports from the academy that justified Mayo's firing by the fire chief and Finizio. Certainly, the reports that he used inappropriate facial expressions and that he may or may not have written in some wet cement were not just cause.
In fact, there is nothing in Mayo's file that indicates anyone from the academy even said he should be fired.
The responsibility for that dismissal falls squarely on the mayor.
If the white officer accused of planting drugs on a black man was given the chance to buy his police dog when he was allowed to resign from the police force, certainly Mayo can be given back the job he most certainly earned and deserves.
This is the opinion of David Collins.

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