Fire Chief: Refusal To Renounce Old Letters Cost Me a Promotion

A veteran Fire Department Chief has alleged in a Federal lawsuit that Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro illegally denied him a promotion he had been promised last year after he refused to recant views that he expressed in letters to the editor in this newspaper more than a decade ago that were sharply critical of the leadership of the Vulcan Society, a black fraternal organization that sued the city alleging race-based discrimination.

According to Deputy Assistant Chief of Operations Michael Gala's court filings, he was informed last May that he would to receive a promotion to Assistant Chief of Department, but subsequently "directed to issue a retraction, by email, of statements" he had made letters between 2005 and 2008 opposing "efforts to relax the FDNY's hiring standards."