Members of Bridgeport Housing Authority Police Force v. City of Bridgeport

85 F.R.D. 624, 26 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1478, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12154
CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedJanuary 29, 1980
DocketCiv. B-77-130
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 85 F.R.D. 624 (Members of Bridgeport Housing Authority Police Force v. City of Bridgeport) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Members of Bridgeport Housing Authority Police Force v. City of Bridgeport, 85 F.R.D. 624, 26 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1478, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12154 (D. Conn. 1980).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION

INTRODUCTION

DALY, District Judge.

This action is brought by the members of the Bridgeport Housing Authority Police Force against the City of Bridgeport and its Mayor, Director of Civil Service, Civil Service Commission, Superintendent of Police, Board of Police Commissioners, the Bridgeport Housing Authority, Director of the Housing Authority, the Bridgeport Area Manpower Consortium and its Director, the United States Department of Labor, and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and its Secretary. Plaintiffs claim violations of 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983; the Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act of 1966 (Model Cities), 42 U.S.C. §§ 3301 et seq.; Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq.; and the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act [627]*627(CETA), as amended by the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act Amendments of 1978, P.L. 95-524, 92 Stat.1909, 29 U.S.C. §§ 801-999. The Court has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1343. The plaintiffs seek a determination that the differences in terms and conditions of employment between their positions and those in the Bridgeport Police Department are illegal and unconstitutional. They have requested that the Court order them incorporated into the Bridgeport Police Department or designated a Housing Authority Police Force pursuant to Conn.Gen.Stat. § 8-44b on a par with the Bridgeport Police Department, and accorded civil service status. They also seek damages, costs and attorney’s fees.

After a hearing in February and March of 1979, this Court granted plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction restraining the City’s Employment and Training Administration from terminating four plaintiffs as CETA participants. After a hearing in September, 1979, on plaintiffs’ motion for an injunction restraining the City from terminating plaintiffs on September 20 when their CETA eligibility expired, the Department of Labor granted a waiver of the eligibility requirements under CETA, which extended plaintiffs’ eligibility for three months, and the motion accordingly was withdrawn.

The Court granted plaintiffs’ motion for a bifurcated trial, and the issue of liability was tried to the Court on December 11 and 14, 1979. By order of the Court, with the consent of the parties, the evidence received at the earlier preliminary injunction hearings was made part of the trial record.

FACTS

I. Administrative Remedies.

Plaintiffs filed administrative complaints under Title VII with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities on or about August 19, 1976, and received their Notices of Right to Sue From the EEOC in April, 1978. PX 52-54.1 On June 9, 1978, plaintiffs received permission to amend their complaint to add allegations of Title VII violations.

Plaintiffs also sent a complaint to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on May 30, 1978, calling HUD’s attention in particular to the alleged Model Cities Act violations. PX 56. On the same day they sent a complaint to the City’s Employment and Training Administration, calling its attention to the CETA violations. On May 14, 1979, plaintiffs complained again to the City’s Employment and Training Administration, which still took no action. Accordingly, on July 25, 1979, plaintiffs by letter requested the Department of Labor to take jurisdiction of their complaint. The Department of Labor did not respond to plaintiffs’ request; • but the City, on August 9, 1979, purported to deny plaintiffs’ complaint without a hearing. PX 55, 57-60. The Department of Labor has never responded to plaintiffs’ complaint of July 25, apparently because the official responsible for conducting the investigation never received it, although it was properly addressed and mailed. Testimony of Mr. Thompson, 12/11/79. As a result, the Department of Labor has never seen plaintiffs’ complaint; and although it knew of the complaint when it received a copy of the City’s response in August, at the time of trial it had not yet begun to investigate the complaint. Id.

Plaintiffs at this point do not have any effective administrative remedies, since they are threatened with termination of their employment and the Department of Labor has not even begun investigation of their eighteen-month old CETA complaint. Similarly, they have no effective administrative remedy under the Model Cities Act because HUD has not acted on their complaint and the City is no longer receiving Model Cities funds; the administrative remedy of fund termination is thus unavailable as well as unhelpful to plaintiffs.

[628]*628II. History of the Housing Police.

Bridgeport has seven public housing projects: P. T. Barnum, Marina Apartments, Father Panik Village, Marina Village, Harbor View, Fireside and Green Homes. All were constructed between 1940 and 1960 except Harbor View, which is approximately seven years old. P. T. Barnum, Marina Village, Green Homes and Father Panik Village are low income projects and are approximately 95% Black and Puer-to Rican. The residents of Harbor View and Fireside are elderly and almost all white. The housing projects have a total population of approximately twelve thousand, of which approximately ten thousand live in the low income projects.

All the housing projects aré administered by the Bridgeport Housing Authority, which was established in 1949 according to Conn.Gen.Stat. § 8 — 40, and thereafter activated by the City of Bridgeport. Under state law, the Bridgeport Housing Authority is a public corporation created by the City of Bridgeport for the purpose of planning, creating and administering Bridgeport’s housing projects. The housing projects that it creates and administers are part of the City of Bridgeport. Municipal services such as schools, fire protection, sanitation, and other services except police protection are provided by the City of Bridgeport in the same manner as for other regions of the City.

The Housing Police began full-fledged operation in 1970. Prior to that time a small number of persons were employed by the Housing Authority as guards. In 1970 a unit of twenty officers was established in Father Panik Village. Because of the success of the initial group of officers the force was expanded to other projects, and the number of officers increased, reaching a high of 52 in 1974, when the last class of officers was hired. All previous classes had been hired between 1970 and 1973. No officers have been hired since 1974, and the Housing Police Force now consists of approximately twenty-seven officers.

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85 F.R.D. 624, 26 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1478, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12154, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/members-of-bridgeport-housing-authority-police-force-v-city-of-bridgeport-ctd-1980.