Opinion ID: 160270
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Promotion Decision

Text: Plaintiff, a black female, began her employment with the City’s Police Department in 1988. Prior to 1988, Ms. Griffis worked in the Pittsburgh County, Oklahoma Sheriff’s office for sixteen years. There, she was the undersheriff matron, the highest office position under the Sheriff, and had both dispatch and record keeping responsibilities. While employed with the City, she initially worked as a dispatcher for several months. The City transferred her to the records department, however, because white police officers complained they could not understand her because she had the “accent” of a black person and did not have a “radio voice.” See Appellant’s App. at 45, 116. Ms. Griffis then worked as a records clerk from 1989 to July 1996, where she was supervised by Kim Isaac (Isaac), who held the position of Communications/Records Supervisor. -2- Ms. Griffis assumed Isaac’s responsibilities as Communications/Records Supervisor whenever Isaac was absent due to illness or vacation, and twice for several months while Isaac was on maternity leaves. Ms. Griffis received accommodations for her performance in filling in for Isaacs and was told she should be considered for a promotion whenever the opportunity arose. In January 1996, Isaac evaluated Ms. Griffis’ performance as exceeding expectations in nearly all performance factors. Isaac commended Ms. Griffis in particular for her excellence in training new employees and for being a dependable, hard-working employee. In July 1996, Ms. Griffis applied for the position of Communications/ Records Supervisor, being vacated by Isaac. The hiring decision was made by a five member, all-white, interview board which reviewed the applicants’ written applications and conducted oral interviews. The hiring decision was based on subjective scores given to each applicant by each board member during the oral interview. Each board member scored a white applicant, Shawn Bell (Bell), the highest, and, based on these scores, Bell was promoted to Communications/ Records Supervisor. The board scored Ms. Griffis as the second-highest applicant. Bell had worked for the City for only five months and was a probationary employee being trained as a records clerk. Prior to her -3- employment with the City, Bell had worked for sixteen months as a dispatcher and jailer with the Wagoner County, Oklahoma Sheriff’s office.