Westchester County Leaders Take Notice
By Dan Murphy
Last week, the promotion of Yonkers firefighter Richard LaPeruta to lieutenant resulted in an outcry across the city and the county from leaders in the African-American community who wanted LaPeruta fired, and not promoted, for a racist post he made on Facebook two years ago.
In 2017, LaPeruta posted a photo on Facebook of an African-American man with his arm around an ape. Above the photo was written, “Father reconnects with son after abandoning him 13 years earlier.” LaPeruta commented on the photo: “First and second on the new YFD test.”
LaPeruta agreed to a fine and suspension of 75 days without pay. That punishment was agreed to by Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano, who, after skipping over LaPeruta for a promotion from firefighter to lieutenant earlies this year, signed off on the promotion this month.
Since the story ran in Yonkers Rising last week, we were contacted by a Yonkers firefighter who we have identified but shall remain anonymous, who called the promotion “hypocritical and unprofessional.”
“What kind of message does this promotion send to our residents and kids? And to the rest of Westchester? People love firefighters, we can do better than this,” said the member of Yonkers’ Bravest, who also lives in Yonkers.
“This decision doesn’t make any sense to me and many of the officers in the fire department. This individual who was promoted now has a responsibility for a command, and the disciplining of firefighters. Why put someone like that in this position if they don’t have the skills to discipline themselves? The wound from 2017 was still healing before the promotion was made. Now they poured salt on the wound and made it worse.”
The same firefighter added; “The mayor had time to promote him in the future. Why did he do it now? Nobody knows, but what I do know is that we are going to start recruiting for the next exam, and how does it look for blacks or Latinos who want to join the fire department to see how this guy was promoted?
“This was all pointed out to the mayor when he considered the promotion earlier this year. He passed then but he promoted him now. Not enough time has passed to prove that he can manage and supervise African-Americans.”
This firefighter and Yonkers resident also questioned the letter sent by LaPeruta on Sept. 11 and the fact that only African-American firefighters are opposed to the promotion of LaPeruta.
“I don’t think any firefighter would write such a letter on Sept. 11,” said our source. “That date takes all of us back to a time when we lost too many firefighters and first responders. The letter should have been dated Sept. 10 or another date. To me, it’s a bogus letter, but he put his name to it so he owns it, and to date it Sept. 11 is a disgrace.
“You now have all of Westchester questioning this appointment and the decision making of Mayor Spano. And in the Yonkers Fire Department, it’s not just the African-American firefighters opposed. The Latino officers and many white firefighters don’t like this decision. What about the other firefighters who played by the rules and didn’t disgrace themselves? How do they feel about this promotion if they were looking to get promoted themselves?”
Spano, who has been rumored in the future to be seeking countywide office, “will have a difficult time running for countywide office if he is re-elected mayor this November,” said the firefighter. “His reputation is now on the line with this promotion. After eight years in office, does he really want his legacy to be about this?”
This firefighter also questioned and corrected several items from our first story.
LaPeruta took the exam for lieutenant weeks after he made the racist Facebook post and was suspended. “His suspension should have also included not taking the lieutenant’s exam,” said the firefighter. “That should have been part of the deal. Instead, he comes back after suspension and gets on the promotion list.”
This firefighter wanted to remind the people of Yonkers that earlier this year, “the mayor promoted his cousin in the fire department and skipped over others on the list. He could have done the same with this list and skipped over LaPeruta. You can skip over one promotion and then say the next time we can’t skip over others. The union filed a grievance against the promotion of a Spano, but then withdrew the complaint. How come?”
After the Facebook post in 2017, sensitivity training was given to firefighters and officers in the Yonkers Fire Department. But according to this firefighter, nothing changed. “Racial incidents continued and it didn’t work,” said our source. “LaPeruta also made questionable posts on Facebook before 2017. Did anyone look at the rest of his timeline?”
“The bottom line is that the 115 black and Latino firefighters felt he should not have been promoted, and the black clergy and some elected officials felt he should have been fired. At least make an effort to get him fired. If it fails, okay. But the mayor never tried to have him fired by PERB… This promotion is rubbing it in our face, and what about the 60 percent of the city that is minority? What do they feel about this promotion?”
We reprint Spano’s explanation from last week below:
“While I detest what he did and we hit him as hard as we could hit him – legally, short of firing him – he took his medicine, he apologized, and he has been an exemplary firefighter up to and past that.
“I condemned it pretty badly,” the mayor said of LaPeruta’s actions. “I hit this officer, this firefighter, with some very difficult challenges. We suspended him within two days. We took pay away from him – 75 days of pay. Now, that is unheard of.”
Spano has argued that he could not fire LaPeruta for his actions because the Public Employee Relations Board would have overturned his decision. “We knew that PERB would never allow that to happen, so we went (with) the next best thing,” which was a suspension and loss of pay.
