The mural sample shows how the face of former Deputy Fire Chief Latosha Clemons (lower right) was obscured before the mural was redone in late 2020. Image provided
By Jane Smith
The first Black woman firefighter in Boynton Beach recently settled all discrimination complaints against the city for $100,000. Her image was whitewashed in a June 2020 mural designed to celebrate the city’s Fire Department.
Born and raised in Boynton Beach, Latosha Clemons spent nearly 24 years working for the city’s Fire Department. She started as a firefighter in June 1996 and worked her way up to deputy fire chief before retiring in March 2020.
Clemons agreed to a total settlement of $100,000, considering it just compensation for what she went through on the job and with the mural, wrote Arthur Schofield, her attorney, in an Oct. 20 email to The Coastal Star. The amount also factored in that Boynton Beach redid the mural in the fall of 2020 to properly depict her.
“Clemons is pleased to have closure to this very unfortunate and hurtful event in her life and is hopeful that her stance not only prevents employers from taking similar actions but also encourages victims to stand up for themselves,” Schofield wrote.
Clemons will receive $80,000 to settle her lawsuit with the city, filed in April. The additional $20,000 is to settle a federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission discrimination complaint filed against Boynton Beach in the summer of 2020, according to the city attorney.
Boynton Beach spent nearly $17,000 fighting the complaints through the end of September.
The City Commission unanimously approved settling her claims at its Oct. 19 meeting.
“We will not be erased,” Commissioner Christina Romelus, who is Black, said when voting for the two settlements. “No amount of money can make up for what was done.”
Clemons, 48, is now fire chief in Forest Park, Georgia. She was hired there in December.
The mural, featuring photos of the city’s fire-rescue staff, was installed on June 2, 2020, in the new fire station’s lobby windows, facing Northeast First Avenue.
On June 3, 2020, the city held a soft opening with elected leaders, development partners and the media. The public was not invited because of coronavirus restrictions against large crowds.
The Boynton Beach mural was taken down the next day because social media posts depicted two Black former fire leaders as white. Clemons became what appeared to be a distorted white man and ex-chief Glenn Joseph, the city’s second Black fire chief, seemed to be depicted as a white man with a mustache.
Joseph declined to have his face restored, saying he had been with the department for only a few years.
From June 4 to 6, 2020, City Manager Lori LaVerriere interviewed then-Public Art Manager Debby Coles-Dobay, Fire Marshal Kathy Cline and then-Fire Chief Matt Petty.
“Coles-Dobay admitted that changing the skin color was her idea and decision,” according to the notes of Human Resources Director Julie Oldbury, who was present during the interviews.
On June 6, 2020, LaVerriere demoted Petty, who later that day agreed to separate from the city.
Coles-Dobay lost her job on June 6, 2020. She sent this email on Oct. 25 to The Coastal Star:
“As Public Art Manager, my job was to facilitate the process as outlined in the public art ordinance between the project stakeholders and the artist to make sure all parties are satisfied, and the project criteria is met. The project criteria were to ‘Preserve the Department’s Culture and Pride while building strong community relationships.’ It was not to ‘honor the contribution of Fire Rescue Department employees,’ as published in the city statements.
“Prior to the artwork installation, senior-level staff, Chief Petty and Fire Marshal Cline refused to allow the installation and directed me to convey the changes to be made.”
But during the June 4, 2020, interview of Coles-Dobay by the city manager, Oldbury’s notes read: LaVerriere told Coles-Dobay that if she was feeling any type of pressure, she should have told her and brought her into the loop on what was occurring.
LaVerriere declined to comment for this story.
“What happened to the deputy chief was disgusting,” Commissioner Ty Penserga said before joining in the unanimous commission vote.
Because Clemons was born in Boynton Beach, Mayor Steven Grant said, “Removing her image from the mural hurts the worst. ... She is always there at many city events.”
At the Oct. 19 meeting, he proposed naming a new public orchard after Clemons. Grant and Clemons picked up trash from a vacant lot at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Northwest First Street on MLK Day in January 2020.
Nearly two years later, the lot now contains 50 tropical fruit trees, planted by Community Greening volunteers.
Naming the public orchard for Clemons will be discussed at a future Boynton Beach meeting.
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