Treasury officials accused of breaching discrimination settlement

Black agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms want Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill held in contempt of court for the Treasury Department's alleged failure to reform personnel practices following a 1996 class action lawsuit settlement.

Attorneys for the black ATF agents filed a motion against O'Neill in federal district court last week. The agents filed a lawsuit against the bureau in 1990, contending they suffered discrimination in promotions, discipline, awards, assignments, hiring, terminations and other personnel practices.

An unrelated investigation found that some white ATF agents attended annual "Good Ol' Boys Roundups," held by law enforcement officials, where they would dress up like Ku Klux Klansmen and participate in racist skits. Soon after this revelation, ATF settled the black agents' lawsuit for $5.9 million and promised to develop new promotion assessment policies, objective criteria for awards, training, transfers and assignments. A monitor was assigned to make sure the agency adhered to the agreement.

"The settlement required them to put in a validated performance system to make sure that people got promoted on what they knew and their potential rather than who they knew and their skin color," attorney Ronald A. Schmidt said.

The new complaint said the agency did not put the required reforms in place "nor used its best efforts to complete the mandated reforms in the time required." ATF "has yet to put in place a validated promotion assessment system - and no anticipated completion date has been set," the complaint said.

Treasury Department officials declined to comment on the complaint.

"We felt we had to take them to court and take this extraordinary move," Schmidt said.

Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is expected to rule on the motion in the next few weeks.