Attorneys for the city and the lesbian assistant fire chief suing for discrimination and retaliation presented different explanations in court Friday for why she was repeatedly denied the opportunity to work as a strike team leader trainee.
In her civil complaint against San Francisco, Nicol Juratovac alleges she "has often been denied promotions, overtime work opportunities, and other meaningful benefits made available to other, less-qualified SFFD personnel of similar and/or lower rank including, [among other things], the repeated denial of the opportunity to work as a Strike Team Leader Trainee for the Department's Mutual Aid Wildland Firefighting Strike Team."
The strike team is sent to fight wildland fires in other parts of California when there's an emergency.
"Rather, these opportunities were given to white, male, and/or heterosexual Fire Fighters who were less qualified and experienced to work as a Strike Team Leader Trainees than Assistant Chief Juratovac," the complaint continues. "Assistant Chief Juratovac is informed and believes, and on that basis alleges, that she has been denied these promotions and work opportunities because of her status as an Asian American lesbian woman and because of her whistleblowing activities."
The two sides made their points during testimony by San Francisco Assistant Fire Chief Brook Baker on Friday; Baker is the chair of the department's mutual aid committee. He told Deputy City Attorney Adam Shapiro that experience in urban firefighting doesn't necessarily carry over to wildland fires.
"It's a different arena," Baker said. "It's a completely different environment with different hazards, and it requires a different skillset, a different base of knowledge and expertise to operate effectively and safely."
The city alleges that Juratovac could not work as a strike team leader trainee because one has to have what is called a boss engine task book completed before they can get a strike team leader task book.
These task books are hard to complete, Baker said.
"There's several different pages and pages of tasks," he said. "Some have to be at an incident, some have to be at training. ... You can't complete a task book in a short amount of time."
Juratovac's attorney, Therese Y. Cannata, of Cannata O'Toole and Olson, brought up an exhibit — an official document showing a rule that the fire engine task book has to be completed first. The document was dated February 2018.
"Is this the first date you're aware of where this was a written rule in the fire department?" Cannata asked.
Answered Baker: "I wouldn't know."
When pressed, he later said this was the only such written rule he was aware of.
Cannata not only alleges that the rule was not written until 2018 but that before then, Juratovac completed a boss engine task book and submitted it to then-Assistant Chief Tom Siragusa.
Siragusa testified September 14 that he did not consider that application complete. He further said he "never took action preventing her from strike team leader qualification" before his retirement.
Cannata also questioned Baker about a firefighter named Mitch Thompson who she said was apparently an exception to the rule, since he was approved by Baker to receive a strike team leader task book. Baker testified that this was a mistake, and that he was "not familiar" with proper procedure being new to the committee.
"That decision was not followed through," Baker testified. "He did not open a task book."
The civil jury trial in San Francisco Superior Court is before Judge Suzanne Ramos Bolanos. The trial is anticipated to continue September 18 in Department 303 of San Francisco County Superior Court, 400 McAllister Street, at 9:30 a.m.
Juratovac alleges eight causes of action against the city: unlawful retaliation in violation of the labor code; unlawful retaliation in violation of the Fair Employment and Housing Act; discrimination based on sexual orientation; discrimination based on race; discrimination based on gender; unlawful harassment; failure to investigate and prevent discrimination, harassment and retaliation; and violation of the California Public Records Act.
In her opening statement September 7, Cannata laid out seven disciplinary investigations that'd been undertaken against her client, which she claims were part of a pattern of retaliation and discrimination against Juratovac just for doing her job.
These were, in chronological order, 1) about an argument ostensibly about a mask at a 2014 fire; 2) her order that a firefighter who'd been arrested for driving under the influence stop driving on duty in 2015; 3 and 4) two separate incidents at San Francisco International Airport in 2016; 5) a dispute over proper reporting of secondary employment in 2019; 6) a dispute about a ladder drill in 2019; and 7) and a dispute over a lost document in 2020.
(Previous reports covering the trial's first, second, third and fourth,
and fifth days cover these in further detail.)
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