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Pittsburgh's 1st Female Fire Chief Demoted

Pennsylvania – Pittsburgh’s first female deputy fire chief has been replaced by a man who four years ago was passed over for the job. Colleen Walz, 46, of Brookline called the move desperately wrong. She said Fire Chief Darryl Jones brought her into his office Downtown on Monday afternoon and told her that she had been reassigned.

Walz will retain her rank of deputy chief for salary and seniority purposes, but her duties will be those of a battalion chief in Oakland, according to Walz and an office memo issued by Jones.

“He said, ‘You are no longer deputy chief,’ and he reassigned me,” Walz said Thursday. “He said it was by court order.”

The order stemmed from a 2006 lawsuit against the city in which Battalion Chief Michael Mullen said he was unfairly passed over for a promotion to deputy chief in favor of Walz.

Mullen sued the city and won. On Monday, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Timothy P. O’Reilly ordered the city to install Mullen as deputy chief immediately.

According to court records, Mullen was passed over for promotion because of “numerous issues surrounding his attitude and conduct.”

Other firefighters and paramedics accused him of physical and verbal abuse, records show, and Walz once accused him of intimidation, creating a hostile work environment and other charges, leading to a city investigation in 2002.

Mullen was cleared of the charges. Walz sued him in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, and they settled for $60,000.

Walz, who started in 1987 as a firefighter at stations in the Hill District and Brookline, described the reassignment as a de facto demotion “through no fault of my own.”

“I think it is interesting that right in the middle of a huge promotion to try to attract women and minorities to the fire department, this is how the only woman (ranked deputy chief) is being treated,” she said. “This is absolutely insulting.”

Mullen declined to comment. Reached at home, he said the case took “a long, long time, with a lot of painful memories,” adding that he wanted to focus on the future.

His attorney, James DePasquale, said Mullen and the city still are haggling over back pay. When Mullen won the case in March, the city paid him $25,000 in back pay. DePasquale said his client deserves an additional $40,000. O’Reilly will rule on the back pay at a future hearing.

Chief Jones said only that the decision had “absolutely nothing to do with the performance of Deputy Walz. I can’t stress that enough.”

Ed Mann, Pennsylvania state fire commissioner, said he was surprised by the news.

“In my dealings with Colleen and watching her teach classes at the Pennsylvania State Fire Academy, her demeanor and approach to things has always been professional,” Mann said. “In the things that she’s done for us, she’s been more than qualified.”

Last year Walz co-chaired the International Association of Fire Chiefs’ task force to analyze and enhance investigations into firefighter deaths.

“It certainly shocked us when we found out,” said Deputy Chief Billy Goldfeder, chairman of the International Association of Fire Chiefs’ safety health and survival section. “We don’t know the circumstances, but any time someone is reduced in rank, it certainly raises eyebrows.”

Walz said she is “investigating her options.”

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