The municipality of Anchorage has paid one of its firefighters more than three-quarters of a million dollars after his successful lawsuit against the fire department.
It’s the second large civil award this year the municipality has paid to a public safety employee, after two police officers won $2.7 million last summer in a lawsuit over racial discrimination.
While the firefighter’s lawsuit also started as a discrimination allegation, it ended with a jury verdict against the muni for breach of contract.
The firefigther, Jeff Graham, filed the lawsuit alleging he had been passed over for a promotion to be an engineer because of his race and age. Graham is Korean-American and in his 50s. He’s been a mechanic and firefighter with the Anchorage Fire Department for more than 20 years.