Kansas City Fire Chief Craig Buckley and City Manager Mario Vasquez sat before roughly 75 people at Morning Star Community Center this week, fielding pointed questions about racism, sexism, union power and accountability inside a department that's been under public scrutiny for years. The gathering, known as the Urban Summit, confronted fire department leaders directly over longstanding complaints of systemic racism within the Kansas City Fire Department.
The session came six years after a Kansas City Star investigation exposed discrimination, sexism, retaliation and unequal opportunity within KCFD, according to the paper's reporting. That 2020 investigation documented decades of systemic racism and sexism tolerated by fire department leadership and city hall, finding that white men had dominated the department for generations while Black and women firefighters were ostracized, endangered, excluded from desirable fire stations and passed over for promotions. City leaders pledged at the time to investigate and eliminate the problem.
Bishop James Tindall Sr., the Urban Summit's president and founder, spoke at the summit. Gwen Grant said not much had changed since then. Tindall said civil rights and community activists had met at least 20 times to discuss their concerns about KCFD.
Accusations of Political Muscle
Bishop James Tindall Sr. said institutional racism has dogged the department for 25 years and accused the firefighters' union of shaping how Black, brown and women employees are treated inside KCFD. The union presidents will be invited to a later Urban Summit meeting.
The department's two unions are split by rank: IAFF Local 42, led by President Dan Heizman, represents firefighters ranked captain and below, while Local 3808, led by President Clay Calvin, represents division and battalion chiefs. Neither Heizman nor Calvin responded to requests for comment on the allegations raised at the summit.
A 2023 Report Already Flagged Union Influence
The criticism aired at the summit echoes findings from a 163-page cultural assessment of KCFD completed in 2023. Produced by third-party consultant Debra J. Jarvis Associations Consulting & Training LLC after more than 200 department employees were interviewed, the report concluded the department's two unions wield too much power over daily operations and city politics, according to KCUR. The assessment found that problems persisted within KCFD, enabled in part by unions slowing reform efforts, and it blamed the unions for preventing department management from holding employees accountable for maintaining a safe, equitable workplace.
KCUR's reporting also noted the city formed a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Leadership Work Group in 2021 in response to the original Star investigation. Separately, the U.S. Department of Justice had opened its own investigation into discriminatory employment practices at KCFD before dropping the probe, closing the matter without further action, as reported by KSHB.
Buckley's New Directive Draws Union Pushback
Buckley, who took over as fire chief in January when predecessor Ross Grundyson retired, faced questions about the department's culture at the summit.
But Buckley is also navigating fresh friction with Local 42. On Sept. 1, he issued a directive resetting expectations for how KCFD employees handle pending criminal charges, requiring stricter enforcement of city ordinances when employees are arrested or convicted. Heizman told firefighters not to sign the electronic acknowledgment tied to that directive and said the union would file a grievance challenging it, according to the Kansas City Star's opinion coverage. Heizman did not respond to the paper's questions about the directive or the planned grievance.
Vasquez attended the summit alongside Buckley and Assistant City Manager for Public Safety Lace Cline.
Litigation Piling Up
The backdrop to the summit includes a string of legal fights. Kansas City Fire Department Deputy Chief Nathan Dougan recently filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the city alleging retaliation after he reported suspected violations of compensation policies, a case first detailed by the Kansas City Star. Both a fire department spokesperson and a city spokesperson said they could not comment on that pending litigation.
Earlier this year, the International Association of Firefighters of Greater Kansas City asked Jackson County Circuit Court to hold the city in civil contempt over an arbitration award, arguing the city violated its collective bargaining agreement by assigning EMS training and instructor duties to employees outside the Local 42 bargaining unit, according to KCTV5. Grant has said 19 lawsuits have been filed against Kansas City and KCFD in recent years, underscoring the scale of unresolved disputes hanging over a department that, by its own 2023 assessment, employees still see the unions as more powerful than management.
