The Portland cop who claims he's been passed up for sergeant in favor of female colleagues may want to focus on being eligible for promotion before filing suit.
As we reported in this week's issue, Officer Kevin Macho has filed notice with the city he might sue for discrimination, saying "lesser-qualified females and others" have been unfairly promoted to sergeant ahead of him.
But it turns out he wasn't even being considered in the latest round of promotions. According to a list the Bureau of Human Resources put together in April, the city considered 18 candidates fit to fill 10 sergeant positions. Macho wasn't among them, though the police bureau confirmed he had made a similar list in 2012.
Here's the list, which came to us with recent promotions helpfully highlighted in pink.
As Denis pointed out last week, newly promoted Sergeant Todd Tackett was recently upbraided by the police bureau's Citizen Review Committee for accusing a 62-year-old black man of being a pimp.
Meanwhile, Doris Paisley, passed up for promotion, was cleared last week in a civil suit alleging she used excessive force against an Occupy Portland protestor.
The list, which is the only-such roster Human Resources has prepared in the last year according to police bureau spokesman Sergeant Pete Simpson, doesn't lend much credence to Macho's claims women are being inordinately promoted. Only three of its 18 candidates are female. Two of those made sergeant.
The police bureau's affirmative action strategy states:
“The Portland Police Bureau (PPB) is strongly committed to the principles and ideals of affirmative action and diversity…It is the policy of the Police Bureau to provide equal employment opportunity to all qualified individuals without regard to their race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, political affiliation, source of income, or physical or mental disability, in all personnel actions including recruitment, evaluation, selection, promotion, compensation, training, and discipline.”
