City Of Los Angeles Settles Tennie Pierce Case for $1.43 Million

Gary Friedman / LA TIMES

L.A. Observed, L.A. Weekly and the Los Angeles Times are all reporting today, as Mad Professah noted earlier this week, the City of Los Angeles has settled the racial discrimination lawsuit of African American firefighter Tennie Pierce for $1.43 million. As the Weekly noted, the actual cost to city taxpayers is actually more than the original $2.7 million settlement vetoed by Mayor Villaraigosa in November 2006, because the City Attorney's office has already spent $1.35 million preparing to defend the city against the Pierce lawsuit. The Weekly provided the text of Mayor Villaraigosa's statement was:

MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA STATEMENT ON SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT

MAYOR ANTONIO R. VILLARAIGOSA
City of Los Angeles

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 21, 2007


LOS ANGELES - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa issued the following statement today regarding the settlement agreement in the case of Tennie Pierce v. City of Los Angeles:

“Today’s agreement is the best possible outcome for the taxpayers. It reduces the original settlement by nearly half, while protecting Angelenos from further liability.”

The settlement is paltry compared to the $6.2 million awarded in July to black lesbian Brenda Lee. However as part of the settlement Pierce will be eligible for his 20-year pension valued at over $1 million.

This is good news for newly installed Fire Chief Douglas Barry, although the Times pointed out the Fire Department has paid out $13.5 million in legal payouts over the past fiscal year!