Name: Captain Vanessa Coleman
Promoted from Lieutenant to Captain on 12/31/07
Trailblazer Traits:
- I am 36 years old,
- Born and raised in Washington DC (uptown)
- Attended DC public schools. Graduated from high school in 1990 and went right into the DC Fire Cadet Program
- Became a full-fledged firefighter in 1992 with great achievements re: practical & scholastic scores in Fire/EMS instruction
- After filing my first ever EEO complaint in 1995, I was challenged to take my 1st promotional exam in 1997, I was promoted to Sergeant in 1999. I took another exam and got promoted to Lieutenant in 2004. Took the last required written exam to be promoted to Captain in 1996, making Captain as of December 31, 2007.
My aspirations and goals as a ranking officer in the DC Fire Department are…
To play a chief role in the administration division. One who will regulate and promote department honor through excellence, integrity, and trust through the operations and services we provide. To reassure our internal and external customers, by the actions we (as officials) take, that “everyone matters”.
What are the professional challenges that exist in the process of achieving these goals?
1) It’s challenging being a minority in a work field which was original designed and populated for white males. Being successful, proficient and steadfast at doing the job has created much animosity among the male population of both racial groups. I even have experienced such plights with some of the women on the job. Along with the animosity has brewed: harassment, discrimination, ostracism, slander, retaliation, oppression, nepotism, cronyism, mismanagement, abuse of authority, misuse of authority, revocation of my authority, violation of my civil rights by superiors and the internal EEO agency, conspiracy to ambush my career name and service, and more etc.
I never expected it to be easy, but I do expect for it to be fair and just. There are constant battles that I have to fight, endure and overcome.
What current battle and/or issues am I facing?
The most recent battle kicked off with me being blamed for the devastating historical Mt. Pleasant Fire that occurred on 3/12/08. My officials conspired to blame me of being responsible for the basement of the apartment building not being checked as it should have been checked, for fire. The basement check, being delayed, was said to have been the primary cause contributing to the wide, uncontrollable spread of the fire, which ultimately led to the structural fire loss of the building. The official fire cause and determination has not yet been found. Also note: It took over two months before our officials conducted a formal critique and review of the fire. Even then, hardly any errors were acknowledged or corrections recommended. Errors that are not acknowledged or corrected are bound to repeat themselves. The only question that remains is when and where? As known to date, no other fire department officers, other than me, have been disciplined. This includes the chief in charge of the fire scene, whose job it was to assign, control & monitor all companies and operations on the scene. The recent word is that this chief has since put in papers to retire (June 22, 2008); others say that he’s been forced to go due to the big fire demise.
My officials knew that the reason the basement didn’t get checked is because the chief wrongly redirected me and my company to do another located tasks (on the 3rd floor) before we could locate and check the basement. It wasn’t until after 10 min. into the active fire call that a report was given that there was fire showing in the basement. Resources had to be pulled from other locations to go and control the fire in the basement. The officials tried to cover up this error by shifting the focus, blame and discipline on me for supposedly NOT checking the basement. This has, and continues to be, their attempt to hide the other male command chiefs, who should rightly be held accountable for such operational errors, which is and was their responsibility.
The disciplinary charge for the alleged infraction of not checking the basement has been written up against me, and the offered penalty (a written reprimand) has since been increased (to suspension) as a direct reprise of me challenging the charge and process.
Note: There’s been an ongoing act of harassment, retaliation, discrimination, abuse of authority, and even direct violations of department and city policy - all in the spirit of pursuing Captain Coleman, literally compromising the department’s mission* to maintain safety and services in the District of Columbia.
* Not supporting or endorsing her requirement to enforce regulations or discipline among her subordinates; placing her fire company out of service for hours at a time just to make her type up reports which are then scrutinized for ways to bring accusations which then lead to petty disciplinary actions. Captain Coleman has officially reported these improprieties to the Fire Chief for accountability.
So what are the Fire Chief and his head officials doing to rectify all of the ongoing confusion and improprieties?
They appear to be going along with the conspiracy, taking no action, thus, supporting it.
What is it going to take to bring an end to the negative issues that are facing your department?
It’s going to take continuous public awareness, governmental exposure, and outside agents to aggressively investigate and rectify the (silent/undercover) improprieties that are currently impacting the Fire Department in a gross, negative way. We are in desperate need of those authorities who posses the power, to hold our officials accountable for actions which are NOT fair, just, or right ~ as it pertains to our operations, services, proper management of funds, appropriate use of resources; quality training, and the equitable treatment and opportunity of employees, esp. minority officers, civilian workers, and African Americans.
To start correction process, we’re requesting:
A Citizens Accountability Review Board
- A Judicial Review – to investigate and correct the systematic improprieties which undermine our agency operations.
- A Congressional Inquiry – to monitor and account for the proper use of funding
As for the internal code of ethics, standards, and order, a good system is already in place. All each respective official needs to do is CONSISTENTLY SUPPORT and ENFORCE IT! Once they do so, things will improve, department wide!
- If accountability doesn’t fix the problem, causable termination will:
This could include replacing top officials; restructuring the EEO Internal Agency and Disciplinary Compliance Section for starters.
3 comments:
I guess when the comments don't show support you have to E.R.A.S.E. them?
Trailblazer? 1. Are you the first female hired? 2. Were You the first female Sgt? 3. Were you the first female Lieut.? 4. Are you the first female Capt.? 5. Or are you the first female called on the carpet for ICS errors? So where are you a Trailblazer? You are not the first female to come DC Public School System.
Please girl, what are you proficient at? Paperwork? If this is the case get an administrative position. You can't handle the job as a FIREFIGHTER - plain and simple. When you took this job you knew it was a male dominated field. At work you are supposed to be a firefighter first - a woman second. Since I've become a firefighter, I've remembered this and have never been disrespected by "the guys". Of course I've never asked for special treatment like you have either.
Successful? Anyone can be successful at testing if they cheat, not to mention getting down on your knees for the fire chief. Of course this had paid off, because from what I've heard you've avoided a lot of disciplinary actions that most male officers (black or white) would have been slammed for because of it. Maybe if you spent as much effort trying to get along with your crew and learning SOG's as you do talking on the radio and making people feel sorry for you because your a female, you'd get some respect.
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