BOYNTON BEACH, Fla .; City council attorneys and commissioners meet next week to discuss a lawsuit filed by Boynton Beach’s first female firefighter in black after her image was represented as white on a public mural.
Latosha Clemons, who rose to become Boynton’s first deputy fire chief, is seeking more than $ 100,000 in damages, according to the lawsuit filed in April.
Lawyers will meet in a closed door with commissioners on Tuesday to seek guidance in the case. The possibilities range from a settlement with Clemons to lawsuits in court. Clemon’s lawyers have requested a jury trial.
A photograph of three women – Clemons and two white female firefighters – served as a template for the mural, which, however, ended up depicting all three women as white. The 2019 project of the city’s art commission in honor of the fire department also included a depiction of Glenn Joseph, the city’s former fire chief, who is also black and whose image was also represented as a white man.
Shameful officials removed the mural one day after it was unveiled at Fire Rescue Station No. 1 near City Hall on June 3, 2020.
The city also responded by firing Debby Coles-Dobay, the public art director, and removing Matthew Petty as fire chief. Cole-Dobay and Petty are white.
Clemons worked for the city for 26 years before retiring in 2020.
Money laundering of her mural “completely respected all that Clemons …. had accomplished”, according to the trial, and “also demonstrated disrespect for the great black population” on Boynton Beach.
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Small pressured Coles-Dobay to revise the plan on which the mural was based and the city was “well aware of the change,” the suit said.
Boynton Beach officials wanted Clemons portrayed as white, “a race city presumably felt better suited to the image it was trying to project,” according to court documents.
Boynton District Attorneys James Cherof and Gal Betesh claim in a court of law that “the employee (s) are responsible for changing the mural …. acted outside their area of employment and without the city’s knowledge or consent.”
Arthur Schofield, Clemons’ West Palm Beach-based attorney, declined to comment on the lawsuit this week because the case is pending.
Mayor Lori LaVerriere did not respond to a request for comment. LaVerriere has previously said she was not aware of the change in the mural.
“I’m hurt. I’m disappointed. I’m outraged,” Clemons told the Palm Beach Post in June 2020. “It’s been my heart and my soul and my lifeblood to serve in the community where I grew up … this is disrespectful and I basically want to know why it happened. “
Clemons, 48, was born in Boynton Beach and began working for the city’s recreation and park department after graduating from Santaluces High School. She was encouraged to enroll in the fire academy by former Boynton Fire Chief Floyd Jordan, according to court documents, and was hired after graduating from the academy by the city’s fire department on June 20, 1996.
Clemons worked her way up to deputy fire chief, a position she held for three years before retiring in 2020.
The fallout for Clemons, according to the case, has included damage to her personal and professional reputation, loss of income and “subjected her to ridicule, contempt, disgrace and / or humiliation …”
The next court date listed in the case is a mediation meeting on November 30th.
