Opinion ID: 2750728
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Senior Officer Promotions

Text: In either 2004 or 2005, Holmes first took the Senior Officer test and began applying for promotion. Thereafter, Holmes periodically re-took the Senior Officer test when he received notice that he had dropped off the register. At one point, Holmes was on the register statewide, but later (Holmes does not know when), he changed his desired locations to counties around Montgomery. 6 Case: 14-11330 Date Filed: 11/13/2014 Page: 7 of 22 Holmes claims that he was consistently passed over for Senior Officer promotions in favor of officers who were African-American or female. Holmes’s peers frequently commented to him that Holmes was “not the right color” for promotion, but Holmes did not hear this comment from supervisors in his chain of command. Holmes believed he was denied promotions based on his race and gender because he “continually” saw less experienced and less educated AfricanAmerican and female officers get promoted rather than him. Holmes also believed there was a conspiracy within upper management to ensure African-American and women officers were promoted to Senior Officer positions. State Personnel Department records indicate that, between January 2005 and April 2013, a total of 95 Probation and Parole Officers were promoted to Senior Officer throughout the state. Of those 95 promotions, 58 officers were white, and 62 officers were male. In other words, during the time Holmes was applying for Senior Officer promotions, white and male officers received more Senior Officer promotions than anyone else. It is undisputed that Holmes did not receive a promotion until June 2013. Before 2009, however, it is unclear how often Holmes’s name appeared on the Senior Officer register, whether and when he was available for promotion statewide, and how often he was considered or interviewed for promotion. According to State Personnel Department records, between January 2009 and 7 Case: 14-11330 Date Filed: 11/13/2014 Page: 8 of 22 August 2011, 36 Senior Officer promotions occurred. During that time, Holmes’s name appeared on only six Senior Officer promotional registers. In other words, during the period for which there are records, Holmes was eligible for less than twenty percent of the Senior Officer promotions. Holmes’s appeal involves only three Senior Officer promotions in the Montgomery field office, all of which occurred in 2011. 4 Holmes appeared on the register, and was considered and interviewed, for each of these three promotions, but ultimately was not selected. Instead, the Board promoted Elizabeth Planer, a white woman, and Reginald Carter, an African-American man, on April 27, 2011, and Christopher Causey, an African-American man, on June 30, 2011. 5 State Personnel Department records reflect that Planer, Carter, Causey, and Holmes all fell within the same “band” on the promotional registers and thus were equally ranked. While Holmes had a masters degree, Carter had a law degree, and 4 The district court concluded that these three Senior Officer promotions were the only promotions that occurred within 180 days of Holmes’s filing of his charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) and thus were the only failure-to-promote claims that were not time-barred. See 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(e)(1) (requiring an employee in a non-deferral state such as Alabama to exhaust administrative remedies by filing a charge of discrimination with the EEOC within 180 days of the alleged unlawful employment practice). On appeal, Holmes does not challenge this ruling, and we do not address it. 5 Holmes heard rumors within the agency that some African-American and female officers received help preparing their answers to the take-home Senior Officer test and complained to upper management, the State Personnel Department, and the Alabama Attorney General’s Office. After a 2010 internal affairs investigation, a new Senior Officer test was introduced in March 2011. Holmes did not present any evidence that the three successful promotees for Holmes’s claims (Carter, Causey, or Planer) received help with respect to their 2011 promotions and admitted in his deposition that he did not know whether any of them had cheated on the Senior Officer test. 8 Case: 14-11330 Date Filed: 11/13/2014 Page: 9 of 22 Causey and Planer had bachelors degrees. Holmes had more years of experience at the agency than Carter, Causey, or Planer.