CITY HALL — City officials should pay another $3.8 million to resolve a years-long federal lawsuit that claimed the Chicago Fire Department discriminated against female African American prospective firefighters.
The full City Council is expected to approve the settlement Wednesday. In all, the city will have paid $8.1 million to 59 prospective female firefighters, officials said.
The settlement was unanimously endorsed Tuesday by the City Council's finance committee.
The legal fight began with the written exam administered in 1995 to prospective firefighters. In response to a class action lawsuit brought my 59 applicants, a judge ruled that the test was discriminatory and the women should be allowed to reapply to the fire department.
But when those women reapplied, they were forced to take a physical abilities test that city officials had already replaced because of concerns that it was inappropriately weeding out female firefighter candidates by emphasizing upper-body strength.
That could have resulted in a jury verdict of nearly $34 million, to compensate the women with back pay, pension contributions and emotional distress, according to city officials.
The suit was settled in 2014, and the women were allowed to take the newest version of the test.
Officials expected the settlement to cost the city approximately $4.3 million, although the final cost would be determined by the number of the women who were ultimately hired by the department.
Initially, city officials expected six of the women to become firefighters. Instead, 12 met all of the requirements for the job.
Ald. David Moore (18th) said he hoped the city would learn from the lawsuit, and its high price tag.
"We need to make our fire department and police department representative of this city's diversity," Moore said.
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