Cincinnati has named a new fire chief, six months after the previous chief was let go for alleged discriminatory behavior.
In a Sept. 12 press conference, city manager Sheryl Long announced Frank McKinley, former assistant chief of the Dallas Fire Department, has been named the newest head of the Cincinnati Fire Department (CFD).
“My first 30 days I go on my listening and learning tour,” McKinley said during the press event.
McKinley starts Oct. 9. His hiring comes after the previous chief, Michael Washington, was fired from the job in March for allegedly creating a workplace culture that was “unwelcome to women,” according to the city manager’s office. He was first hired by the department in 1993.
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Cincinnati Fire Chief Michael Washington Fired for Workplace Culture That City Manager Calls ‘Unwelcome to Women’
McKinley, a self-proclaimed “girl dad,” addressed a question about leading women in the department during the press event.
“Women make up about six and half percent of the workforce here in the [CFD], they need a voice too,” McKinley said. “That’s something I’m very passionate about.”
Allegations against Washington
According to a March press release announcing the firing, Long said Washington was not capable of implementing or overseeing workplace culture changes the city found necessary.
“I want to be clear that I do not tolerate discriminatory, hostile, or unfair working environments in any city department,” Long said in the March release. “Cincinnatians place their trust in the fire department, which is tasked with keeping all of us safe. If the workplace culture within the department is unhealthy, that’s a violation of the community’s trust.”
According to public documents, multiple women working for CFD voiced concerns during Washington’s tenure as chief, saying the workplace culture allowed women to be disrespected and treated unfairly.
Based on the complaints, Long invited social services organization Women Helping Women (WHW) to deliver training to CFD staff in November 2022. Training started on Dec. 15 to outline goals and expectations, but WHW said in a summary report that Washington rushed the timeline of the program and misrepresented the purpose of the training to CFD employees.
“There was initial misrepresentation of the engagement as sexual harassment training, which impacted the way some participants showed up in the space or their openness to engage in the content, feeling like it was punitive or that it was in response to actions others had engaged in, and now they were being disciplined for those actions,” the summary said.
Training and engagement sessions between WHW and the fire department also were sporadically attended, with some meetings having only one participant and eight sessions having no attendees.
According to reports, women in the department also complained of not being engaged or present in leadership decisions – including promotional panels – and multiple staffers called the WHW hotline directly for support after training.
What’s next?
Washington has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the city and Long individually. In the lawsuit, Washington claims the allegations were “exaggerated” and that he was never given warning or a chance to defend himself before Long made the decision.
The lawsuit also claims the summary of the first phase of CFD’s program with WHW did not point to poor behavior from Washington.
“The executive summary from [WHW] made no references to a lack of adequate support from Chief Washington,” the lawsuit reads.
Washington’s lawsuit is still pending.
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This article appears in Sep 6-19, 2023.