A high-ranking Black officer at the Kansas City Fire Department with nearly four decades of experience recently threatened to sue the city, if he was not allowed to compete for the department’s top job.
Ten days after Deputy Chief James Dean emailed his threat to seek a court injunction pausing the selection process, city officials reversed course. On Thursday, they told him they would not longer shut him out of the hiring process because he lacked entry-level firefighter certificates that weren’t required he when joined the department.
The news came in an email an hour after The Star requested comment from city officials for a story about his situation. Dean believes it was no coincidence…