The city of Anchorage has approved a $300,000 settlement with a former fire department employee who alleged she was fired in retaliation, in part, for filing a racial discrimination complaint.
In a lawsuit filed in 2023, Benedicte Galligan alleged that she had been fired after expressing concern that senior staff at the Anchorage Fire Department were making disparaging comments about female employees during a 2021 meeting. Earlier that year, Galligan had also raised allegations that a Black employee was admonished because a senior fire department official believed she’d distributed shirts that signaled support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Galligan filed a racial discrimination report over the incident on behalf of the employee.
The fire department later eliminated Galligan’s position, and she was reassigned to be an administrative assistant to then-Deputy Library Director Judy Eledge…