Opinion ID: 160270
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Ms. Griffis’ Grievance

Text: Ms. Griffis filed a grievance with the City on July 30, 1996, claiming that the selection process had not been fair or consistent with City guidelines, and that the interview board had not taken into consideration her qualifications, evaluations and performance. The City’s Personnel Director, George Shirley (Shirley) reviewed the promotion decision during the first week of August 1996. He concluded that Ms. Griffis was more qualified than Bell and, indeed, was the best qualified applicant for the promotion. Shirley concluded that the decision to promote Bell over Ms. Griffis was based on racial discrimination because, given the relevant qualifications of Ms. Griffis and Bell, there was no other explanation for the decision. He explained: [T]here’s no way you can consider a probationary employee without management experience over someone who’s worked for you for seven years, seven and a half years, and they’ve already proven that they can handle the job by filling in for supervisors when they were absent. And so -- and I took that to mean that there was some reason other than her qualifications that actually caused the decision to be made. . . . [I]t wasn’t [ ] female, it wasn’t sex, because both of them were females, and it had to be based on race. Appellant’s App. at 135 (Shirley deposition). -4- Shirley, who is also black, immediately told one of the City’s assistant attorneys, Jeff Bryant (Bryant) of his conclusion that race discrimination had been involved in the decision not to promote Ms. Griffis. According to Shirley’s deposition testimony, Bryant told Shirley he “needed to help him justify the [Police] chief’s decision.” Id. Shirley refused, telling Bryant he was not going to be part of a decision that he believed to be discriminatory. See id . According to Shirley, Bryant then told him he needed to reconsider that decision because it would have an effect on his future employment with the City. See id . Several days later, Bryant asked Shirley if he had reconsidered his decision. Shirley told him he was not going to reconsider because he felt the promotion decision “was a blatant act of discrimination.” Id. at 136. On August 21, 1996, the City’s Chief of Police, Phil Cotton (Cotton), denied Ms. Griffis’ grievance. He stated that each board member independently scored Bell higher than Ms. Griffis. He stated that the questions asked during the oral interview covered a wide variety of topics, including education, training, experience, communication skills, interpersonal relations, problem solving skills, personal characteristics and overall suitability for the position. Cotton stated that although Ms. Griffis had more years of experience than Bell, Ms. Griffis had “performance deficiencies” as a dispatcher, whereas Bell had experience as -5- a dispatcher. Id. at 45. Cotton concluded that the scores were reasonable, and he found nothing in the process to show bias. Ms. Griffis appealed Cotton’s denial of her grievance to the City Manager, Ron Wood (Wood). Wood asked the City’s Personnel Department to evaluate the selection process used for the promotion. Wood, Shirley, Bryant and Cotton then met to discuss Ms. Griffis’ grievance. Shirley reported that the Personnel Department had concluded that the City did not use the same factors in selecting Bell as it had used to fill the same supervisory position in January 1996. In the case of the Bell promotion, the City had not done any background investigation of the applicants, even though the City’s Personnel Manual called for such an investigation, and the City had always performed a background investigation in connection with past promotions, even when the applicants were already City employees. The Personnel Department conducted a background investigation of Bell, and reported to Wood that her application for the Communications/Records Supervisor position misstated that she had previous managerial experience. At the meeting, Wood asked what would happen if he rescinded Bell’s promotion and placed Ms. Griffis in the Communications/Records Supervisor position. Bryant told Wood that such action would subject the City to a reverse discrimination claim by Bell. See id. at 138. Wood then ordered that an entirely -6- new selection procedure be adopted by the City, and that all the applicants reapply for the promotion using the new procedure. Several days after this meeting, Personnel Department employees reported to Shirley that Bryant had approached them and asked them to find information to justify accusing Shirley of sexual harassment. In October 1996, Wood informed Shirley that employees had filed sexual harassment charges against him, and suspended him from employment during the investigation. Shirley eventually filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC determined that the City had retaliated against Shirley because he objected to the Bell promotion and contended that the City’s decision not to promote Ms. Griffis had been based on racial discrimination. A new evaluation of Ms. Griffis’ job performance was prepared by Isaac and dated September 3, 1996. The City admits that Ms. Griffis’ signature on this new evaluation was forged, and that, contrary to City procedure, Ms. Griffis was not shown a copy of this evaluation. The new evaluation gave Ms. Griffis lower marks on many performance criteria, including training and overseeing personnel, than she received on her January 1996 evaluation, and Ms. Griffis’ overall performance rating was lowered from “exceeds” expectations in January 1996, to “meets” expectations on the new evaluation. Bell’s July 1996 overall -7- performance rating was also listed as “meets” expectations, although she was ranked lower than Ms. Griffis in almost all areas of performance criteria. The City adopted a completely revised selection process for the Communications/Records Supervisor position, including an essay and multiple-choice written examination and a detailed rating system for scoring answers during the oral interview. On November 6, 1996, the City sent a memorandum to Ms. Griffis acknowledging that “the procedures utilized [in the July promotion decision] did not adequately test the skills of all the applicants,” and that “a more comprehensive process could have and should have been conducted” during the original selection process. Id. at 64. The City rescinded Bell’s promotion, and allowed all of the original applicants to reapply under the new selection process. Ms. Griffis did not reapply, stating that “the inconsistency in the selection process, and Mr. Wood’s decision to altar (sic) the testing at this time shows a pattern of discrimination.” Appellee’s Supp. App. at 1. The district court entered summary judgment in favor of the City on Ms. Griffis’ claims, holding that the evidence presented could not persuade a reasonable jury that the City had intentionally discriminated against her. -8-