Brookline Town Meeting Approves 11M Settlement With Gerald Alston

BROOKLINE, MA — The Brookline Town Meeting voted Tuesday to approve an $11 million settlement with Gerald Alston, the Black firefighter the town fired after he reported racism and subsequent retaliation in the workplace, representing the end of an 11-year case.

According to the agreement, Alston is required to voluntarily resign from his firefighter position with Brookline and not apply for, seek, or accept future employment with the town.

"That we've only reached this point after 11 years of protracted agony for Mr. Allston, protracted disgrace for the Town of Brookline, and protracted litigation for all parties involved is certainly a shame," said Select Board Vice Chair Raul Fernandez.

Here's what happened:

In 2010, Alston reported that a racial slur was left on his voicemail by a white supervisor and had the voicemail to prove it. The claim was not disputed, but the supervisor and an internal investigation concluded that the slur was directed at someone else.

What was disputed was the handling of the incident. The fire chief at the time told Alston the slur was a fireable offense, but Alston said he did not want the supervisor to lose his job, so the fire chief assured him the supervisor would be disciplined and not promoted. However, against the fire chief's recommendation, the select board gave the supervisor minimal punishment and three subsequent promotions.

"That's a lot of money"

The settlement was not approved without a fight, with 38 Town Meeting members voting against the amount and 11 abstaining. Even some of the 186 members who approved the settlement recognized valid concerns regarding the high price tag.

“Racism has no place in Brookline,” said Town Meeting Member Gil Hoy. “But I don’t see how an $11 million settlement could be appropriate or fair in relation to the merits of the case that remains and the town’s other important needs, or be particularly meaningful in fighting against racism.”

Hoy went on to propose three amendments that would have lowered the amount to $2.5 million, $4 million, or $6 million, all of which were overwhelmingly rejected.

"That's a lot of money, and there are tradeoffs, and we should be cognizant of these tradeoffs," said Town Meeting member Mike Toffel, who supported the settlement but argued in favor of taking some of the amount from the town's funds and borrowing the remainder.

Despite this recommendation, the Advisory Committee recommended borrowing the full amount and lowering it to $6 million, which would have voided the settlement agreement and caused a fair amount of pushback.

“You are essentially voting zero,” said committee member Chi Chi Wu. “That blows up the settlement, you are voting against the settlement. Do not fool yourselves. If the $6 million passes, we have no settlement; we are going to trial.”

Concluding A Chapter In Brookline's History

In response to the debate over the settlement, Select Board Member Miriam Aschkenasy asked the Town Meeting to "finally conclude this chapter in Brookline's history" and "do the morally correct thing" by voting in favor of the agreement.

“Eleven years of his life have been spent on this fight, and no one can tell firefighter Alston what justice feels like - only he knows that," she said.

"Know better, do better, let's do this and be better."