YOUNGSTOWN — An investigation has determined fire Chief Barry Finley made racial remarks toward two fire union officials with Mayor Jamael Tito Brown saying he’s waiting until next week to determine what should be done.

But Brown said Thursday that the white union officials don’t recognize that they are being racist toward Finley, who is black.

The incident occurred Sept. 6 in the law department conference room with Finley, union president Jon Racco and union vice president Jordan Thomas in attendance with A. Joseph Fritz, a senior assistant law director, there for part of the conversation, according to statements from the first three obtained Thursday by The Vindicator.

Finley’s statement differs from what Racco and Thomas wrote with the chief admitting he loudly told them: “I am so tired of you white boys constantly coming after me for no reason, and it just never stops,” and when Thomas said he wasn’t a racist, Finley said he responded “in a loud voice, ‘You know who always says that: a racist.'”

Finley wrote that after Thomas “took offense at being called a racist and stood up and leaned against the table and yelled, ‘You wanna hit me go ahead and hit me,’ to which I replied, “Jordan please I don’t want to hit you, and trust me you don’t want me to hit you.'”

All agreed that Fritz entered the room and told Finley to leave. The chief then left.

Lou D’Apolito, a deputy law director who handled the complaint, wrote in a three-paragraph report Oct. 4: “Based upon the fact that all three written reports were similar, there was no need to interview the parties further and draft interview statements for signatures. Since the statements were so factually similar, the letters were accepted as factual and made part of the case file. Per the employee handbook, the chief being a department head, the investigation information was presented to the mayor. The mayor has taken appropriate administrative action.”

D’Apolito said he didn’t interview Fritz because the statements of the three others were similar events. But Fritz would have been able to give an unbiased statement on what he witnessed.

Brown said he’s waiting until Law Director Lori Shells Simmons returns next week from vacation before any decision is made.

“When Lori gets back, we’re going to look at some remedies to deal with this,” Brown said. “It is a problem, but it’s on both sides, and that’s what we want to look at. This whole work environment. We start questioning one side then we question the other side, and a lot of things start coming up that we’re uncovering.”

There’s been a long line of disputes between the fire union and Finley since his February 2018 appointment.

Brown said: “There’s a relationship issue. I think there’s some racial issues there.”

Asked if it was from both sides, Brown said, “One side (the union) doesn’t see i,t and the other side (Finley) is feeling it and when they let it be known they want to call it that. But I think there’s some undertones because this has been going on for too long. We’re going to look at the bigger picture. This is just a symptom. There’s other bigger pieces going on.”

Finley didn’t respond Thursday to a request to comment.

In his letter about the Sept. 9 incident, Racco wrote: “Employees of this city have the right to a safe workplace free of discrimination, harassment and intimidation, and this administration and law department have a duty to provide it. I fear that with Chief Finley’s violent history, it’s only a matter of time before one of these situations results in a physical assault on one of us. I’m scared for myself and the other men and women of this department because any day could be that day.”

With firefighters saying they fear for their safety around Finley, Brown said, “There’s remedies to all that. No more than some of the insubordinate actions that have been taken against the chief, lack of respect towards him as the fire chief, not necessarily disrespecting his position, but looking at him as an African-American fire chief, the first fire chief, so it’s a bigger piece than just them saying their safety.”

Brown added: ” I think he might be the one in a hostile work environment. We’re going to work through that.”

In response, Racco said: “Mayor Brown’s statements and depiction of events are 100% false. They are only intended to draw attention away from the fact that he has appointed a fire chief who is unfit for his duties and that the city has repeatedly covered up his abuse.”

Racco added, “Local 312 is in the process of taking legal action that will force the truth to come out and everyone will be held responsible for their part in the city’s failure to provide a safe and discrimination-free workplace for our members. We are done being victimized by Chief Finley and then again by Mayor Brown when we report it.”

PERSONNEL RECORD

The city law department was collecting information Thursday about Finley’s personnel records and didn’t make them available to The Vindicator.

But a review of it in late 2019, when the union issued a no-confidence vote against Finley, showed his most serious offense up to that time was a Feb. 1, 2012, incident where he picked up a lieutenant from his chair and slammed him against two walls of a fire station, damaging the drywall.

That led to a 45-day suspension and a 10-year notice that Finley, a captain at the time, would be subject to termination for “any aggressive conduct including but not limited to hostile physical contact, threat, threatening behavior or intimidating words or acts engaged in by him against co-workers, employees or the public,” according to the disciplinary letter written by then-fire Chief John J. O’Neill Jr. Finley signed the letter accepting the decision and discipline.

Finley was involved in a heated discussion with a battalion chief on May 2, 2013, in which he used profanity and refused an order, according to his personnel records from 2019. Finley was suspended without pay for two days.

O’Neill wrote in a May 15, 2013, letter to Finley: “Your actions were an outrageous display (of) insubordination. In fact, the most indignant display that I have witnessed as long as I have been the fire chief.” O’Neill added that Finley “came dangerously close to violating” the termination agreement from the previous year for “aggressive conduct.”

Finley was given a verbal reprimand on Nov. 26, 2013, for twice making inappropriate and offensive comments toward a firefighter regarding his wife. He was first written up April 15, 2005, by O’Neill for getting into a “shoving match” with a fellow captain.

As part of his 2012 suspension, Finley agreed to “attend, participate in and fully cooperate with an evaluation by an anger management professional selected by the city of Youngstown and any course of treatment he / she recommends. Capt. Finley is responsible for any and all costs or fees associated with this evaluation and course of treatment.”

Asked Thursday if Finley has anger management issues, Brown said, “I don’t have a shingle hanging on the wall to give a diagnosis on that.”

OTHER ISSUES

The union and the administration, particularly Finley, have had longstanding issues since Brown named him fire chief in February 2018.

The union has filed about 50 grievances and at least three unfair labor practices against the city since then.

The union filed a complaint Sept. 16 with the 7th District Court of Appeals to compel Youngstown to provide public records regarding correspondence to and from Finley regarding the demolished Realty Tower.

The union, working without a contract for more than a year, ratified a new one in July thus avoiding binding arbitration. The union received annual raises of 2.5% for this year, retroactive to Jan. 1, and starting Jan. 1, 2025, and a 4% raise on Jan. 1, 2026.

A few weeks before that, the Ohio Supreme Court refused to hear the city’s appeal on lower court cases it lost for refusing to go to binding arbitration over a grievance on promotions and out-of-rank pay.

The city settled a lawsuit for about $22,000 earlier this year from Charlie Smith, a fire department battalion chief and former union president, who sued contending Finley retaliated against him, defamed him and intentionally caused emotional distress.

The 7th District Court of Appeals in December 2021 agreed with the union and State Employment Relations Board that the city illegally retaliated against the fire union when it agreed to provide upgrades to the department’s radio equipment and then decided to save the money from that expense by eliminating three battalion chief positions through attrition in September 2019.

The appeals court also upheld a Mahoning County Common Pleas Court decision that failing to promote a captain to a vacant battalion chief’s position was contempt of court.

Other issues include the union contending the city delayed a battalion chief’s promotional exam, objected to firefighters using sick leave during the COVID-19 pandemic and challenging the union’s ability to arbitrate grievances resulting in lawsuits.

Also, the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation’s Public Employee Risk Reduction Program issued four health and safety hazard violations in July 2020 against the city for failing to protect firefighters from the COVID-19 pandemic. Those issues were resolved.

The administration has closed fire stations since June 2020 on a rotating basis in order to keep down the department’s overtime costs. City administration officials say firefighters have worked the system in order to get more overtime. The union has objected, saying the decision is dangerous and the city not filling positions caused the overtime issue.

The new union contract calls for changes starting Jan. 1, 2026, that will no longer make firefighters who use sick time in a pay period to be eligible for overtime.

The city also closed fire stations on a rotating basis for about three months in 2018 because of overtime costs.

The union issued a no-confidence vote against Finley in December 2019 after expressing concern about his leadership, and the city closed Fire Station No. 7 on the North Side that same month over the objections of the union.

Other problems between April and June 2019 included Finley telling Smith, when he was union president at the time, that he would no longer accept grievances from Smith on behalf of the union, the city’s allegation of the union participating in an unauthorized strike, the city filing an unfair labor practice charge related to the alleged unauthorized strike, an arbitration decision in the union’s favor concerning involuntary transfers and the union filing an unfair labor practice for Finley bringing in outside chiefs instead of battalion chiefs to cover for him when he wasn’t in the city, according to court documents.