KC’s ‘interim’ fire chief has had job nearly 2 years. More qualified applicants ask why

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When former Kansas City Fire Chief Donna Lake retired in January 2023, City Manager Brian Platt picked assistant chief Ross Grundyson as her interim replacement while the city conducted a nationwide search for Lake’s successor.

Though he had risen through the ranks for 27 years, Grundyson lacked the minimum qualifications for the full-time chief job — he had no college degree — and a city news release said he would “not be in the running for the permanent Chief position.”

But now nearly two years later, Grundyson, 56, is still leading the department, and the city has set no deadline for replacing him with any of the multiple applicants for the permanent role who did have the required credentials yet were never interviewed for the job.

That time lag — and the fact that city officials have, without explanation, dropped the “interim” in Grundyson’s title when referring to him in official communications — has job applicants wondering why. Several of them have hired attorneys who are taking the procedural steps necessary to file discrimination lawsuits, The Star has learned.

One lawyer speaking on background to discuss potential litigation criticized the city’s “bait and switch” approach during the hiring process.

Potential applicants, many of whom were women or people of color, were told they would not be considered for the permanent chief position if they applied for the interim job. Now as they see it, Grundyson, who is white, has become the de facto chief, having served in that job far longer than any other interim chief in modern history, based on a check of newspaper articles dating back to the 1970s.

“They did not apply for interim chief because they were told they could not be chief (if they did),” that lawyer said. “The procedures and application process (the city) set out is appalling.”

The department has long been accused of bias and favoritism in its hiring and promotion practices, as well as fostering a hostile work environment for those not part of the white, male demographic group that has shaped the department’s culture for many decades, according to a report the city commissioned after The Star published a series of articles in 2020 about racism and sexism within the KCFD.

That series also prompted an ongoing U.S. Department of Justice investigation into whether the fire department is “engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination against Black individuals” in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Discrimination lawsuits filed by current and former firefighters have cost the city more than $4.8 million in the past two decades. The latest settlement, approved this week, was for $1.3 million to a 61-year-old lesbian firefighter who claimed she was harassed for years on the basis of her age, gender and sexual orientation.

Why the holdup?

Normally, Kansas City fire chiefs are replaced within a few months, with 10 months being the longest gap between Rick Brisbin’s retirement at the end of 1999 and Smokey Dyer’s hiring in October 2000.

Grundyson was appointed interim chief 20 months ago.

He did not respond to text or voice messages left on his phone Thursday.

The city has issued no statements on the search for a new fire chief since that initial one announcing Lake’s retirement.

But without making a public announcement, the city quietly suspended its search last December, according to a form letter obtained by The Star that was sent to applicants and signed by the city’s talent acquisition manager, LaToya Black.

“The Fire Chief recruitment has been temporarily paused and it is anticipated that the hiring process will likely resume in April or May 2024,” the letter said. But Black offered no explanation for why the city was delaying hiring a new fire chief.

When applicants sought further explanation, they learned that the city was putting off the search until a new labor contract with the International Association of Firefighters Local 42 was negotiated.

City press secretary Sherae Honeycutt also cited union negotiations as the reason for the delay last February when a reporter asked why no replacement had been found for Lake by then.

The previous union contract was set to expire that May, which was no secret when the search for a chief began. Negotiations did not wrap up until this August, when the City Council ratified a contract that Mayor Quinton Lucas said guaranteed firefighters better pay and a number of initiatives addressing “diversity, equity, and inclusion” within the department.

The Star submitted an open records request for a copy of that contract more than one month ago, but the city’s law department has refused to provide a copy, claiming the contract would remain a closed record until it was “executed.”

City officials did not say when that might be accomplished or elaborate on what the nature of the holdup was.

Moreover, officials did not respond to requests from The Star and others for an explanation on why it was important to suspend the search for a new chief while the union contract was being negotiated.

“I couldn’t understand it,” said one applicant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to an ongoing legal matter concerning the city. “I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to have a chief in place before you start negotiating with the union. The chief is going to have to uphold the contract, right? So, to say that you’re putting off finding the chief so you have continuity in the contract makes no sense whatsoever.”

Qualified candidates kept in the dark

In an advertisement on ziprecruiter.com since deleted, the city said the fire chief job required the minimum of a bachelor’s degree with a major in fire science, business administration, public administration or a related field. But a master’s degree in fire and emergency management, public administration or a related field was preferred.

Grundyson has neither. In a court deposition he gave in 2020 as part of a lawsuit over alleged discrimination within the fire department, Grundyson said he attended college for three years in the 1990s but did not graduate. He joined the fire department in 1996.

The Star has confirmed the names of several applicants, both from inside and outside the department. All have either master’s or doctorate degrees.

One applicant who retired from the department a couple of years ago has a doctorate, and another current employee who applied has a master’s degree — both in related fields noted in the job description.

Other applicants included the former chiefs of fire departments in Baltimore and Oakland, California, and an assistant chief with the Dallas Fire Department, all of whom are Black.

Kansas City’s department has had only one non-white chief in its 156-year history. Ed Wilson Jr., a Black firefighter who joined the department before it was desegregated in 1958, was chief from 1980 to November 1989.

Lake was the only woman appointed to the job and was chief for just over three years.

Interim or chief?

One outstanding question is: What exactly is Grundyson’s current employment status? Is he the fire chief or still the interim chief?

Honeycutt did not provide a direct response to requests asking for clarification other than to say that the hiring process to pick “a new fire chief” will begin again in “a few weeks.”

Sometime after sending the letter announcing it was suspending the chief search, the city stopped referring to Grundyson as the fire department’s interim chief in its news releases and meeting agendas, which it had done through 2023.

The city’s human resources department lists him as a “department director.” And the fire department’s latest organizational chart put out in September has him in the top as simply “fire chief.”

While editing a recent public statement concerning the on-duty death of firefighter Kyle Brinker, Platt and Mayor Quinton Lucas insisted that “interim” be removed from Grundyson’s title, according to two sources with knowledge of the editing process.

Lucas declined comment through press secretary Jazzlyn Johnson and deferred comment to Honeycutt, who did not offer a response on Platt’s behalf.

Grundyson’s current salary is $194,388, the city said, which is roughly equal to what Lake was earning when she left.