PORTLAND, Ore. — The first Black woman to ever run Portland Fire & Rescue opened up this week about why she let a white male firefighter keep his job, months after he was accused of launching a drunken, racist tirade at a Black hotel clerk while traveling on the city’s dime.
According to public records obtained by Willamette Week, the incident happened in August 2019. The firefighter, Nicholas Perkins, was in Nashville for a conference. After a night of partying, Perkins couldn’t figure out how to use his key card to get back into the hotel.
According to the paper, that's when Perkins, who is white, started yelling at a Black female clerk to let him in, using racist and sexist slurs. The clerk reported the incident to Portland Fire & Rescue, sparking a months-long investigation.
“I got an anonymous tip in June,” said Willamette Week’s Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Nigel Jaquiss.
By that point, Jaquiss said, the investigation had wrapped, but city officials declined to turn over records.
“All they would really tell me was that he worked for the bureau, what his salary was and that he had been placed on paid leave,” Jaquiss said.
Willamette Week appealed. Their argument was simple.
“In this moment, race is really part of almost every discussion,” Jaquiss said.
They won, and out came the details. Perkins was suspended for six months without pay but would ultimately keep his job. He has to attend diversity training, as does every other Portland firefighter.
The decision came in May from Chief Sara Boone, Portland's first Black female fire chief. She’s been in that role for about a year.
In a statement Wednesday, she wrote she "...weighed the damage this incident had on the public trust, especially to the Black community. Ultimately, I created a discipline package based more on a restorative justice model where the road to redemption will require work and commitment from the employee.”
The city commissioner leading the fire bureau, Jo Ann Hardesty, told Willamette Week she originally wanted Perkins fired, but now agrees with the move.
"This is an opportunity to continue to shift a culture that has been dominated by white males since its inception... what we inherited is something we have an obligation to change," Hardesty said.
Jaquiss has one change in mind.
“I think the one thing that I found disappointing was that the bureau was unwilling to turn over records in the first place, and I think that goes back to this culture of secrecy and insularity that the fire union and the fire bureau have, and that the police union and the police bureau have,” he said. “It's really important that the public understands that the services that it pays for should be transparent. They should be accountable. They should reflect the city in which they work.”
On Wednesday, the president of the Portland Fire Fighters Association, Alan Ferschweiler, issued a statement, noting the union supports Chief Boone’s decision.
“It is our moral and ethical duty to conduct ourselves in a professional, respectful manner at all times. We apologize for failing to meet those expectations and we must learn from our mistakes." The statement continued, “This is an opportunity for all of us to reflect, grow and do better for ourselves and our community.”
In an interview Wednesday, Jaquiss noted the photo featured in the Willamette Week’s article showed Portland firefighters at a Black Lives Matter rally, one they organized over the weekend.