5 lawsuits allege racial discrimination at BPU within KCK

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The Board of Public Utilities along Minnesota Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas, can be seen in a Google Street View image. Google Street View

Marlon Kerr went straight to his boss in March 2020 after a white colleague at the Board of Public Utilities in Kansas City, Kansas, allegedly called him the N-word.

One of two field representatives who are Black, Kerr told his supervisor that if he had made similar comments, he would have been fired on the spot. The same coworker, just days earlier, had also told him to get his Black ass to work. Kerrs supervisor, a white woman, said she would take care of it.

It hits home, Kerr said. Thats not my name. Thats not my identification on my employee badge. … That’s not on my paychecks.

Weeks passed. Kerr called Human Resources and learned his manager did not report the incident, which flew in the face of company policy, according to a lawsuit he has brought against the electric utility company, known as the BPU. Kerr then filed the complaint himself.

The next day, Kerr walked into a break room and found a threatening sight, he said: a rope tied to the chair he was known to sit in. An employee of 12 years, he wondered who he could trust.

Kerr is now among four Black BPU employees who, in the last 15 months, have filed federal laws against the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, alleging they faced racial discrimination from colleagues, hostile work environments created by supervisors or targeted investigations . A fifth lawsuit has also been filed by an employee who was terminated.

In one of the lawsuits, lawyers for Sterling Owens, whose job description is electric troubleman, said the BPU subjected him to intense surveillance after wrongly accusing him of living outside of Wyandotte County, which would violate policy. BPUs own data shows the agency disproportionately investigates employees of color, his attorneys said.

Owens evidence includes an allegation that an HR employee called the Kansas City, Kansas, home that Owens said he was living in a shack. Evidence compiled by his lawyers permits a reasonable inference that the months-long residency investigation was racially motivated, a federal judge wrote last month in a court order.

David Mehlhaff, the BPUs chief communications officer, said the BPU could not comment on pending litigation, but noted that senior management was aware of the claims. The BPU, which says it has 482 full-time employees, does not target any group for investigations, he added.

BPU is always looking at ways to enhance our companys culture including employee surveys, training, exploring employee recognition programs and offering a variety of ways to communicate with our employees, Mehlhaff wrote in an email.

Kerr, who has worked at the BPU since 2008, does not think employees of color are supported. He believes his supervisor was trying to shove a racist comment under the rug to protect his white colleague, who was not terminated.

It hurts, Kerr told The Star. Its a slap in the face when you see it every day. Every day. Its like, when do you get a break?

Scrutinized almost daily

In his separate lawsuit, Owens said the BPU hired a private company to surveil him after receiving a report that he may have lived in Leavenworth County.

Owens was surveilled 14 times in 2019 and 2020, which his lawyers equated to constant spying, stalking and monitoring. It included tailing him to and from work as well as following his kids, according to his lawsuit.

An employee since 2013, Owens learned of the investigation months into the surveillance. He provided the BPU with dozens of documents that included his drivers license and voter registration to prove he lived in Wyandotte County, according to court records. But the BPU ordered more surveillance, his attorneys claimed. Owens experienced anxiety and took time off.

About a year after the investigation began, the BPU said it could not disprove Owens residency and would not discipline him. The agencies HR director tested that it cost the BPU more than $7,000 to hire a private company, Chief Investigations, to surveil Owens, the most the BPU has ever spent to investigate an employee accused of a residency violation, according to a pre-trial order in the box.

In court records, the BPU said it has used surveillance to investigate other employees, regardless of their race. The agency maintained the investigation of Owens was not discriminatory.

Mehlhaff, the BPUs spokesman, said the agency believes hiring outside investigators for residency-related claims is a good practice.

The public utility, which provides electricity and water to tens of thousands of customers in Wyandotte and Johnson counties, has terminated four employees for residency violations since 2015: two who were white, one who was Asian and one who was Black, court records show. Another 22 employees were investigated for violations, 13 of whom were employees of color.

More than half of the employees investigated for violations are people of color, Judge Kathryn Vratil wrote in a June order denying BPUs attempt to have one of the cases thrown out.

Some of the pending lawsuits have been set for trial. The UG has denied wrongdoing in each case.

The mens accusations are reminiscent of claims of racial discrimination within other agencies in the region, including the Kansas City Fire Department and the Kansas City Police Department. Both departments were the focus of recent Star investigations.

In one of the BPU lawsuits, equipment operator Anthony Garner Jr. said he was disciplined more harshly than his white counterparts and was removed from a lineman apprentice program, despite being the fastest in several of the skill challenges.

BPU records show that just two employees have been involuntarily dismissed from the program and that both were Black, Garners attorneys contend. The scoring system, they said in court records, is entirely subjective and based on feelings.

Lawyers for the BPU argued that Garner was not removed because of his race or age, but because he did not demonstrate the necessary skills to be a lineman, a hazardous job.

Attorney Bert Braud, who represents four of the men who are suing, said he would be concerned when comparing representation at the BPU, particularly in positions like lineman, to Wyandotte Countys demographics. Just one of the BPUs 35 linemen is Black, he wrote in a recent filing in Garners case.

The reasonable inferences to be drawn from (Garners) evidence is that an African American has little to no chance of becoming a lineman through the BPU apprenticeship program, Garners attorneys argued.

In a separate lawsuit, electric troubleman Johnell Walton said he was summoned to meetings about his bad body language something for which only minorities were criticized. He was scrutinized almost daily, his lawyers wrote, and was held to higher standards than other employees.

Walton alleges he was fired in 2020 for bringing his grandchildren to a work facility. A white dispatcher, he said, brought his wife and daughter there days earlier.

The BPU has faced claims of racial discrimination before. That included several lawsuits, brought by more than 37 people, who alleged the BPU had a practice of discrimination against Black employees in promotions and firings from 1977 to at least 2003, when those suits were filed.

Then in 2013, electrician Phillip Hayes, who is Black, alleged in a lawsuit that he was subjected to discrimination when, several years earlier, a white BPU employee showed up to a retirement party in a Ku Klux Klan outfit. The party was attended by dozens of colleagues, his lawyers wrote.

A judge later threw out Hayes lawsuit, noting that the BPU said it terminated him for stealing company property, not because he complained about his coworker. The BPUs HR director said the employee Hayes reported was disciplined with a one-week suspension, a year of probation and mandatory sensitivity training, according to court records.

The Star has filed a Kansas Open Records Act request seeking information about the BPUs settlements stemming from complaints of racial discrimination.

The Stars Bill Lukitsch contributed to this report.

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Luke Nozicka is an investigative reporter who focuses on criminal justice in Missouri and Kansas. He has covered crime, police and prosecutors in Jackson County, and his reporting was credited in 2021 with helping free Kevin Strickland, a Kansas City man who spent more than 40 years in prison for a triple murder he did not commit. Before joining The Star, Nozicka covered courts for The Des Moines Register.

Aarn Torres is a breaking news reporter who also covers issues of race and equity. He is bilingual with Spanish being his first language.

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