ALLENTOWN, Pa. – It was the outburst that brought a city council news conference to a halt and got former NAACP secretary Barbara Redmond kicked out of city hall.
“Why are you doing this? You know the letter was true. Everything in the letter is true,” said Redmond as she was being escorted out of city council chambers.
NAACP officials say they did not investigate the allegations mentioned in Redmond’s letter and that she was removed from the NAACP for six years because of her actions.
After Redmond released an unauthorized NAACP letter alleging racism and discrimination in Allentown city government, city council launched several investigations to find out if the city was in compliance with non discrimination policies.
The most recent done by the Duane Morris law firm.
“We conducted 43 interviews, including current and former employees, current council members and numerous members of the community,” said Duane Morris attorney Mary Hansen.
Law firm officials say they also reviewed tens of thousands of documents, city policies and procedures.
In a release following the news conference, city council president Daryl Hendricks says “There have been instances of isolated discriminatory conduct by individual employees. City council believes those instances have been addressed and there is no systemic issue of racial or other unlawful discrimination in city government.”
The details of those incidents were not disclosed.
“This was a confidential investigation involving personnel matters, and so we really can’t discuss the details of our investigation or its findings,” said Hansen.
But council did take aim at Allentown’s HR department.
“It is clear and of public knowledge that the City Human Resources department in the past has been grossly mismanaged. It has not served the best interest of our employee,” said vice president Cynthis Mota.
Duane Morris recommended an overhaul of the city’s HR procedures, including a data management system, reviewing the HR structure, hiring practices and employee policy and procedure manual.
The attorney for city council says the Duane Morris investigation was slated to cost half a million dollars, but has come in under budget.
Duane Morris is not the only investigation city council has done into alleged discrimination.
Former FBI Investigator Scott Curtis also conducted an extensive investigation.
City officials would not comment today on whether the investigation utilized any of the Curtis information or if the Curtis report would be released.
69 News has learned the city paid Curtis 50,000 dollars for his report and investigative materials, but made him sign a non-disclosure agreement.