janbtucker.com Blog

Tuesday, April 14, 2011

The Honorable Kamala D. Harris ~ Attorney General

Office of the Attorney General CA Dept. of Justice 1300 “I” Street Sacramento, CA 95814-2919

RE: RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, BIAS AND PREJUDICE IN THE HIRING, JOB ASSIGNMENT, TRAINING AND PROMOTION OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGINEERS WITHIN THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (LADOT) AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN PLANNERS WITHIN THE CITY PLANNING DEPARTMENT OF THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES:

Dear Honorable Kamala D. Harris,

It has come to the attention of the NAACP Los Angeles branch and a number of civic leaders that racial discrimination, bias and prejudice in the hiring, job assignment, training, appointments and promotion of African-American Engineers in the City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) and African-American Planners in the City Planning Department of The City of Los Angeles (LACP) do exist, that they are tolerated by the City of Los Angeles, and that the City of Los Angeles has taken no measure, to date, to investigate, acknowledge and redress these violations. Specifically, the personnel record in the City of Los Angeles show that notwithstanding African-American engineers’ and planners’ average years of experience of twenty (20+) years or more in these Departments, they are not being promoted beyond the entry-level positions. Whereas non-African-American engineers and planners average years of experience at the time they are promoted is four (4) years.

In both Department of Transportation and Planning Department African-American engineers and planners are systematically denied job assignments essential to promotion, and job experience necessary for advancement. African-American engineers are also segregated into one or two divisions within the LADOT and Planning Departments. Both

African-American engineers and planners are concentrated in entry level positions despite 20 to 30 years of experience within the Departments.

In the case of the Department of Transportation there are court depositions showing that test scores had been changed to insure that African-American engineers’ scores were lower than their White and Asians counterparts. African-American engineers, even when they scored at or near the top of the eligibility list, are still not promoted. Recent court depositions show that LADOT officials collude and determine in advance whom they want to promote, and fix the interview outcomes through a practice called “score normalization.” As a result, outside interviewers’ scores are modified to reflect the insider interviewers’ scores - after the outsider interviewers leave. Also in the Planning Department, supervisors who draft the written exams simply coach white planners, insuring that they score high on written exams. When African-Americans even managed to score high enough to be eligible for a certification interview, they are simply not chosen by a mostly white interview panel.

LADOT employs 236 engineers, only ten (10) are black and all occupy the bottom “Associate” level engineering positions, notwithstanding 20-30 years of experience. Two of these engineers were hired a few years ago by an African American General Manger, Gloria Jeff. Before Ms. Jeff hired these engineers, there had been no African American engineers hired by LADOT in 13 years.

No African-American has ever been promoted above the top entry-level of Transportation Engineering Associate III (TEA III). There are no black engineers in the supervisory (Transportation Engineer), management (Senior Engineer, Principal Engineer) or executive (Assist General Manager, General Manager) positions within LADOT. Regarding training and job assignments for instance, The Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control (ATSAC) System has only one African-American engineer working in the Division. ATSAC is the city’s very expensive, computer-based traffic signal control system that monitors traffic conditions and system performance, selects appropriate signal timing (control) strategies, and performs equipment diagnostics and alert functions, successfully implemented in the 1984 Olympic Games.

LADOT’s “Parking Enforcement” is the only division that has a significant number of African-Americans within the Department; however, few, if any, African-American employees are assigned to areas that require an engineering background, such as designs, acquisitions, research, traffic operations and field assignments.

Though LADOT has hired hundreds of engineers over the past 15 years, only two (2) were African-Americans. African-American engineers, even when they scored at or near the top of the supervisory engineering eligibility lists, are, historically, denied promotions beyond their entry levels.

In the City Planning Department African-Americans planners are also systematically denied promotional opportunities. Recently, the City Planning Department conducted massive promotions in unprecedented blocks and filled positions with preferred, younger whites and Asians employees to dwarf any future opportunities for older African-American planners to ever be promoted. In said situation, the City Planner series, which is the first level of supervisory, Planning Department Managers quite openly changed the criteria to allow favored, inexperienced, entry-level and mostly white, City Planning Assistances to take the promotional exam to become supervisors. They normally would not have qualified to become supervisors without attaining three or more years experience in the Department as Assistant Planners. Lo and behold, the Senior Planner who wrote (and scored) the exam questions invited, and was allowed, to exclusively coach the young white planners to prepare for the exam he wrote. The result of this outrage was approximately 7 out of the 18 planners promoted to the City Planner position, with an average of less than 5 years in the Planning Department; leaving 5 or 6 African-American planners, with an average of 20 years of planning experience on the bottom of the exam list. Not one African-American was promoted from the list. Within the last two years, the City Planning Department was given community grants and other funds to hire 40 new entry-level positions; however, none of the new hires were African-Americans. It has been only recently, after repeated complaints to the Mayor’s office by this group, that one African-American planner was hired.

As a consequence of no African-Americans being in a position of authority or supervision, as is the case in the Department of Transportation, or management ability to promote hand-picked compliance Blacks in the Planning Department, predominantly African-American areas of the City do not get their fair share of the standard transportation improvements and developments, such as bike lanes, bike paths, signal lights upgrades, left-turn phasing programs to lighten traffic flow, the highly touted and expensive ATSAC system that synchronizes traffic lights, transit enhancements like light rails and bus corridors, and pedestrian traffic safety enhancements, etc; or planning measures that would impact the quality of community life, such as Specific Plans, Overlay Zones, designated districts etc. The African-American communities, because there is no-one looking out for their interests, get an abundance of red light cameras enforcement which generate revenues, older pull boxes, power poles and old and outdated traffic infrastructures and communication devices as well as hardly to very little planning.

In summary, hiring/promotions are made in these Departments based on preferences given to racial and ethnic background, relatives and non-professional alliances/friendship developed outside work instead of merit. These Departments have rewarded African Americans with less opportunity for advancement as retaliation for speaking out against these discriminatory practices. Some have been told they’re overqualified for some choice positions or positions with overtime pay, and often when an African American engineer or planner is most qualified for a vacant position the department will bypass the normal selection procedure with an emergency appointment – which always led to permanent promotion of their hand-picked protégé or relative. Or simply not promote them and offer no reason. African-Americans are excluded from meaningful rotation assignments to booster their experience, expertise, knowledge and skills. African-Americans are excluded from assignments on special projects such as Advanced Transportation Management Systems, Advanced Transportation Systems and Research, and Inter-Agency Coordination, Department Reorganization or Development Reform, which has a racially disparate impact on African-Americans within the Los Angeles Department of Transportation and the Los Angeles City Planning Department.

In an effort to address these ongoing issues of discrimination, the Los Angeles NAACP, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and Urban Roundtable request a personal meeting with you to address the aforementioned problems at your earliest convenience. My contact information 310-397-1171 or [email protected].

Thanking you in advance. I remain.

Respectfully, Leon Jenkins President, Los Angeles NAACP

Co-signed by:

Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Public Policy Round Table

Benetta Johnson, Alameda Corridor Jobs Coalition

Leon Jenkins, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

KW Tulloss, National Action Network

Adrian Dove, Congress of Racial Equality

Jan B. Tucker, National Commissioner for Civil Rights/ League of United Latin American Citizens