More Houston problems........
Amid turmoil, Tyra lauded for minority
promotions
By LISA TEACHEY and MATT SCHWARTZ
Copyright 2000 Houston Chronicle
While complaints about former Fire Chief Lester Tyra's handling
of racial differences contributed to his demotion, the leader of the
black firefighter union praised him for placing the most blacks in
upper level command, yet simultaneously acknowledged the
turmoil.
Mayor Lee Brown demoted Tyra on Thursday, citing the results
of an audit received the day before. The audit cited more than
100 problems within the Houston Fire Department, including
racial issues and the need for a paramedic division that would use
sport utility vehicles instead of ambulances as first-response units.
Tyra, who could not be reached Friday and has not publicly
commented on why he agreed to resign, suggested a similar
first-response plan in July. At that time, he said he was waiting on
the audit findings before implementing the plan.
The mayor could not be reached Friday to answer questions
about the reasons for the demotion. A spokesman said the mayor
declined to comment, saying his reason for firing Tyra as chief
was, as he stated the previous day, a desire to go with a new
management style at the Fire Department.
Capt. Jarvis Butler, the president of the International Association
of Black Professional Fire Fighters, said Tyra promoted more
blacks to the rank of assistant chief than "any other chief in the
history of the department," but criticized him for not promoting
more blacks at lower levels and aggressively recruiting new
cadets.
Under Tyra's command, three of the 11 assistant chiefs are black.
Previously, two blacks had reached that rank, the second-highest
level of command.
Assistant chief Christopher Connealy is now the acting chief and
another white assistant chief resigned. Today, the department has
nine assistant chiefs, including the three blacks Tyra appointed.
But Butler said those promotions are not enough and alleged
Tyra, and previous chiefs, kept other blacks at lower positions by
promoting those with test scores above the highest scoring blacks
or by assigning whites to cushier jobs so they would have more
time to study.
Though department spokesman Assistant Chief Rick Flanagan
could not speak on behalf of Tyra, he said the department's
promotional policies are fair.
"Every firefighter must take a written exam, and the highest scores
are considered for promotions," Flanagan said.
Steve Williams, president of Houston Professional Fire Fighters
Association Local 341, said he and his members had not yet read
the 380-page audit, and for members of the unions' black and
Hispanic caucuses to comment would be premature.
Butler said part of Tyra's management style was mired in the need
to appease old-timers in the department while facing the challenge
of the changing workforce.
"Tyra was caught between two worlds," Butler said. "He was
trying to balance himself between the good ol' boy atmosphere he
created ... as opposed to being a renaissance man."
But Butler, like others, suggested many of Tyra's faults were
inherent problems within the department dating back a decade.
In 1995, the promotion to assistant chief of a less experienced
male over a woman with 19 years in the department prompted
criticism from then-City Council members.
Capt. Linda Honeycutt retired from the department two years
later. She is now a chiropractor.
On Friday, Honeycutt said she remembered hearing a previous
fire chief tell a recruiting officer not to hire women for the
department.
"With that type of situation, there was not opportunity," she said.
She did not complain publicly about being passed over, but a pair
of City Council members said the department was continuing its
history of discrimination against female firefighters.
A firefighter who asked not to be identified told the Chronicle
Friday the problems found by the auditors were ongoing and
dated back to Kathy Whitmire's mayoral administration in the
1980s.
"This isn't something that just happened yesterday," the firefighter
said. "But we couldn't continue the way we were."
Over the last decade HFD's medical calls have increased by 48
percent while the number of fires has dropped by 26 percent,
according to figures obtained by the Chronicle. In that time the
fire service staff has grown slightly more than 11 percent.
For years, firefighters have been calling for more personnel and
more equipment to handle the increasing needs. Under the last
few months of Tyra's tenure, many of the apparatus were being
manned by three firefighters instead of the national standard of
four.
Many firefighters decried the shortages as a public safety crisis,
but Tyra disagreed. The audit found there was no crisis, but the
problem could erupt into one.
The lack of personnel has been attributed to hiring freezes
imposed by Whitmire that have never been made up.
"I don't think you can single out one individual for the
department's problems. You can't blame it just on the fire chief,
you can't do that," the firefighter said. "The higher powers should
take some of the responsibility.
"Whoever the new chief is, he's going to have a big job on his
hands, a lot of catching up to do."
After a leave of absence, Tyra is expected to return the
department in January as a district chief and his salary will be
lowered from the $123,857 he was making as chief.
Tyra's 20 months in office were recently marked by embarrassing
problems, including the death this summer of a boy who was
turned away from a fire station three times, outcries of critical
personnel shortages and sluggish response times and a
hearing-impaired dispatcher sending help to the wrong address
when a Houston police officer was shot and later died. |
