BY LISA DONOVAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The working environment for African Americans at the Metropolitan Sewer District is a "boiling cesspool of racial problems," according to a city report.
Wendell Young, assistant city personnel director, outlined a number of problems identified by MSD's Race Relations Committee. "Put politely, the committee believes that it exists in a working environment that is openly hostile to African-American MSD employees," Mr. Young wrote in his report.
"Put bluntly, the committee believes that the MSD working environment is a boiling cesspool of racial problems that prevent African-American MSD employees from enjoying the full benefit of equal employment opportunity."
As the city's equal employment opportunity officer, part of Mr. Young's job is to assess and report to city officials about equal-opportunity complaints, such as the ones filed by the MSD Race-Relations Committee. In his report, Mr. Young called on city officials to deal with problems ranging from preferential treatment of employees by managers to allegedly unfair hiring, assignment, transfer and promotion at the agency.
According to the report, there is some concern about the commitment of higher-ups to address concerns about race relations.
Mr. Young writes: "The committee is convinced that neither MSD nor the city administration will act in any meaningful way to resolve their issues."
He also lists several recommendations, including expanding the race-relations committee and establishing on-site training to educate employees about such issues as career advancement.
It has been a difficult year for MSD, the county-owned, city-operated agency that is responsible for maintenance of sewer lines and collection and treatment of sewage in Hamilton County. Director Tom Quinn resigned in April amid charges of mismanagement and a grand jury investigation.
City officials, including City Manager John Shirey and MSD Acting Director Paul Tomes, had not seen the report Tuesday.
"Those managers that don't want to foster an environment of positive racial relations in that department need to be weeded out," Mr. Shirey said.
MSD's total work force at the end of 1997 was at 703 employees, including 242 minority employees. There are no black males in the pool of 14 senior managers, according to the report.
