Three firefighters with Hillsboro Fire & Rescue are suing the city and two fire chiefs, alleging a hostile work environment rife with sex, age and disability discrimination.
Anne Raven, Miguel Bautista and Paul Harvey filed the civil lawsuit in April in Washington County Circuit Court, naming David Downey, chief of the department since 2017, and Jeff Gurske, deputy chief, who has been with the department for 15 years.
The lawsuit alleges the city “condones and perpetuates a system mired in sexism, racism, and ableism.”
Among the three plaintiffs, the suit asks for a total of $801,965 from the city and defendants.
Raven, previously a Philadelphia firefighter for 10 years, was hired by Hillsboro Fire & Rescue in 2015. Raven claims that despite being qualified, she has never been promoted within the department, while several white men without her level of experience have been offered promotions.
According to the suit, her qualifications include sitting on numerous emergency services committees and creating a protocol, “Managing Cardiac Arrest in Pregnant Patients,” which has been adopted by Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties. Additionally, in March 2020, Raven was asked by the assistant state medical director of EMS and Trauma Systems to re-write the Oregon Crisis Care Guidelines at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic with a team of seven other people, mostly physicians.
Gurske is one of the men Raven says has been promoted over her.
Raven said Gurske perpetuated a culture of sexism at the department by telling inappropriate jokes during a morning meeting he called “coffee clutch.” According to the suit, Gurske told Raven about filming amateur pornographic movies while in community college and asked Raven what her “kink” was.
Raven said Gurske has spoken about his wife’s genitalia and has made inappropriately sexual and racist comments about his family, the suit claims.
At one point, Raven switched shifts, and when a subordinate learned she would return to working on Fridays, she stated it was “too bad because they could not have ‘ass play Fridays’” like they did with Gurske.
The city said it would contest the lawsuit but did not directly address its claims.
When Raven approached the Human Resources department about the comment, she said a representative replied, “How do you know they weren’t talking about donkeys?” the suit claims.
Raven says in the suit that she was not allowed to join a “Diversity and Equity Committee” at Hillsboro Fire & Rescue, which Gurske formed and leads. When it was brought to Gurske’s attention the department didn’t have a pregnancy policy, a female firefighter asked if she could help write the policy, but Gurske said no and instead appointed a man to the committee, according to the suit.
In late 2019 and early 2020, Raven was involved in an investigation into sexual harassment by a different fire chief who told a female employee he “only wanted to see her lips moving if it was on his zipper,” the suit claims.
Raven claims she reported the comment to Gurske initially but he did not properly report it to Human Resources and claimed the comment was “not a reportable offense.”
During a discussion with Gurske on Aug. 13, 2020, the suit alleges Gurske stated he can’t help it if “people don’t like [Raven].” According to the suit, Gurske used an expletive to describe her reputation. When asked why, he said it was because Raven did not “know how to play the game.”
Gurske was in charge of hiring for a position Raven applied for — Division Chief of Training. Raven said Gurske repeatedly brought up the promotion process, and whenever she would complain, he would remind her that she was up for a promotion he was in charge of selecting, the suit says.
Raven did not get the promotion.
Miguel Bautista, a 35-year-old Latino man, says in the suit he repeatedly applied for promotions he was qualified for but was passed up over and over in favor of white men without the same level of experience.
Bautista, who has worked in fire and safety departments since 2005, is the first ever non-white deputy fire marshal and one of only eight non-white people employed by Hillsboro Fire & Rescue.
He was denied repeated promotions despite his qualifications, the suit says.
In December 2020, Bautista had a meeting with Gurske for feedback on the Division Chief selection process he applied for but didn’t get. Gurske said Bautista was the most qualified candidate, communicated well in the interview, and provided personal experiences that impressed the panel, but that he ultimately would “not be well received” and the department was not “mature enough” to have him in that role, the suit alleges.
Harvey is a 57-year-old man who has been working with Hillsboro Fire & Rescue for over two decades as a firefighter and paramedic.
In recent years, the suit alleges, Harvey has been “targeted for retaliation and discrimination based on his age and disabilities, which stem from more than 20 years of physically demanding work at Hillsboro Fire & Rescue.”
“Harvey has also been targeted for speaking up and blowing the whistle on illegal behavior by others within Hillsboro Fire & Rescue,” the suit states.
Gurske and Downey are still employed with Hillsboro Fire & Rescue. The department did not immediately respond to questions about the lawsuit.
On Friday, the City of Hillsboro sent the Oregonian/OregonLive a statement regarding the lawsuit:
“Ensuring a respectful workplace is a Citywide priority. All City employees are required to adhere to City policies that prohibit discrimination and harassment, and we hold all City employees accountable to these policies.
“The City of Hillsboro supports our Fire & Rescue Department’s leadership as they continue to manage the work of Fire & Rescue employees in service of the community. We recognize personnel decisions are never easy when many candidates are in competition for a limited number of positions. Ultimately, the City has a responsibility to recruit, interview, and hire the best candidates based on objective, nondiscriminatory factors, in order to ensure fire protection and emergency services for the entire community. The individuals who are a part of the City of Hillsboro Fire & Rescue Department are outstanding public servants.
“We are working with legal counsel to contest the lawsuits and present the truth in court.”
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