YOUNGSTOWN — Saying an investigation into the conduct of fire Chief Barry Finley, who made racial remarks toward two union officials, is incomplete and inaccurate, the firefighters union has asked the law director to reopen the probe.

“Please allow his letter to serve as formal notification that we are dissatisfied with the resolution and we are appealing for reconsideration,” reads the letter sent Monday to Law Director Lori Shells Simmons from fire union President Jon Racco and Vice President Jordan Thomas on behalf of the firefighters union.

Shells Simmons declined Monday to comment.

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown determined Dec. 9 that he would “not take disciplinary action against Finley regarding this matter.” That came after Shells Simmons investigated a Sept. 6 incident and determined in a Dec. 4 report to Brown that Finley should not be disciplined.

In Monday’s letter, the union told Shells Simmons that she failed to interview all parties involved in the Sept. 6 incident — specifically A. Joseph Fritz, senior assistant law director, and Deputy Law Director Adam Buente — and her “summary does not address Chief Finley’s violation of city policy on workplace violence.”

The letter also states that Shells Simmons’ “representations of our members’ statement (to her) are completely inaccurate” and “your investigation and summary of findings does not give consideration to Chief Finley’s documented history of workplace violence.”

Finley admitted that he told Racco and Thomas at a Sept. 6 meeting in the law department: “I am so tired of you white boys constantly coming after me for no reason, and it just never stops.”

Racco and Thomas said Finley used more harsh and profane language when referring to them, and the chief stood up and threatened to physically harm Thomas.

In his Dec. 9 decision, Brown chose not to discipline Finley and stated: “Unfortunately, what is evident is an environment of continuous tension and distrust between union and department leadership, and a history of antagonistic behavior towards Chief Finley. This resistance to change threatens the ability of the chief to implement the needed initiatives to modernize the department and ensure the safety of our community.”

Before Shells Simmons started her investigation, Brown told The Vindicator on Oct. 10 that Racco and Thomas, who are white, don’t recognize they are being racist toward Finley, who is black.

In her Dec. 4 report, Shells Simmons wrote: “It is my opinion that the chief deserves some grace” because “until this moment, the disrespectful incidents the chief has experienced OVER THE YEARS have not been addressed.”

She wrote Finley feels “that some staff were being racist and disrespectful towards him.”

The union’s Monday letter questioned if racism was such a problem, why did Shells Simmons cite only one example in her three-page report – and that incident was not racist.

“If there are more incidents, why aren’t they listed?” the letter states. “Why haven’t there been investigations and disciplines related to those incidents? The answer is because those incidents don’t exist.”

The lone incident cited was in 2019 when there were “FBF” shirts, mugs, hats and other items that came from firefighters. FBF stands for F— Barry Finley.

The union’s letter states: “What Chief Finley has interpreted to be disrespect has actually been union officials from three different union administrations over six years pleading with him to follow our union contract and Ohio collective bargaining law. Sadly, Chief Finley doesn’t think he should have to work within those confines and the union has had to litigate a lot of issues to prove him wrong.”

The letter states Brown’s statements to The Vindicator and Shells Simmons’ investigation contending Finley has been the victim of racism by the fire union is false and the two union leaders “have suffered widespread and irreparable damage to our reputations and character because of statements you and Mayor Brown have made, which you both know are untrue.”

Racco and Thomas added: “There is no history, evidence or testimony to support your allegations of racism against us. In a combined 33 years of service the city has never received a complaint of racism against either of us, never investigated either of us for racism and never disciplined either of us for racism. Similarly, there is no history, evidence or testimony to support claims that Chief Finley has ever been the victim of racial harassment or discrimination. What happened in that meeting on Sept. 6 happened because Chief Finley is abusive to his subordinates. The city administration has ignored his lengthy history of this behavior and is negligent in defending him and allowing it to continue.”

The letter questioned why “would the city administration fabricate vague justification and excuse a department head for this misconduct? Why has the city administration defamed us in retaliation for filing these complaints?” and “how can Chief Finley, who admitted to racially harassing subordinates in his own statement, continue to head a city department without his prejudice being a concern?”

The letter states the union reached out to a former city attorney involved in labor relations and he said he was “surprised to hear the city’s allegations against us” and had “never heard or seen anything racist or bigoted from either of us.”

The Vindicator confirmed the attorney in question is Dan Dascenzo, a former city deputy law director and the outgoing Mahoning County clerk of courts. Dascenzo said he never heard anything racist come from Racco or Thomas during his time negotiating contracts on behalf of the city.

City Deputy Law Director Lou D’Apolito was the first person to investigate the Sept. 6 incident.

He finished his brief investigation with an Oct. 4 report contending the statements from the union officials and Finley “were similar” so “there was no need to interview the parties further and draft interview statements for signatures.”

D’Apolito wrote: “The investigation information was presented to the mayor. The mayor has taken appropriate administrative action.”

But Brown said Oct. 10 that he was waiting for Shells Simmons to return from vacation on Oct. 15 to do a follow-up investigation.

During that same interview with The Vindicator, Brown said Finley “might be the one in a hostile work environment. We’re going to work through that,” and said “there’s some racial issues there” from both sides with firefighters not respecting Finley because he’s black.

Regarding Shells Simmons’ investigation, the union wrote Monday: “Your summary of findings does not describe an investigation. It does not offer any evidence or testimony about the details of the incident. It does not provide any findings of truth as to what happened that day. Your summary of findings is essentially just a PR statement that only describes vague support for Chief Finley from anonymous sources. It exists only to provide justification for Chief Finley’s actions, which you don’t even dispute happened exactly as we described.”

Shells Simmons wrote in her report that she interviewed ranking fire officers, primarily under the condition of anonymity, and all felt Finley should remain chief and “they all felt chief was doing a good job.”

The union letter states in speaking to its members, “they unanimously advise that your representations of our members’ statements are completely inaccurate.”

Also, the letter states, Shells Simmons failed to include that firefighters believed it was more likely than not that Finley “will physically assault someone here again.”

The letter points out that Shells Simmons didn’t “give consideration to Chief Finley’s documented history of workplace violence, abusive behavior and racial harassment.”

There’s been a lengthy list of disputes between the fire union and Finley since his February 2018 appointment as chief, including about 50 grievances, a December 2019 vote of no-confidence, a number of unfair labor practices against the city and multiple lawsuits.

There’s been at least four complaints since 2019 filed with the city by firefighters over Finley’s behavior toward them that are not in the chief’s personnel files kept by various city departments.

Among them is a May 2, 2023, human resources complaint filed by Racco in which he wrote that Finley told him to “shut my mouth” while being “visibly agitated and hostile” during an April 6, 2023, meeting as he accused the union president of criticizing him on social media. The statements were on the union’s Facebook page.

Racco wrote that Finley berated him and “stood over me in a manner that was obviously intended to be physically intimidating.” Racco said Finley also told him he “had grown up ‘white and privileged.'”

Finley has a number of incidents in his personnel file from before he was chief. The most notable one is a Feb. 1, 2012, incident where he picked up a lieutenant from his chair and slammed him so hard against two walls of a fire station that he damaged the drywall.

Finley received a 45-day suspension for that and a 10-year notice that Finley, a captain at the time, would be subject to termination for “any aggressive conduct.” As part of that suspension, Finley agreed to “attend, participate in and fully cooperate with an evaluation by an anger management professional” at his cost.