The Board of Public Utilities, 540 Minnesota Ave.
tljungblad@kcstar.com
A Board of Public Utilities employee says he faced repeated harassment in a 10th lawsuit filed against the Kansas City, Kansas, utility.
Eric Lindsey, who is Black, filed the federal lawsuit on Tuesday. He has been a carpenter for the BPU since 2012.
The BPU faces several ongoing lawsuits alleging race and disability discrimination. Last year, lawsuits against the BPU were filed by an employee who alleged a coworker used the n-word, another employee who said a supervisor made “racist and sexist comments” and an employee alleging disability discrimination.
Five other employees in 2022 similarly sued the Unified Government, which owns the utility company, alleging they faced racial discrimination from colleagues, hostile work environments created by supervisors or targeted investigations.
A ninth lawsuit was filed earlier this month by a woman who alleged she was passed over for a job and denied other opportunities given to white coworkers.
Lindsey claims that another employee allegedly admitted he was “yes, kind of” racist and another responded to a request by Lindsey to pass an equipment part by saying, “Yes‘em boss.”
The same two employees also removed a breaker from an electrical panel, preventing Lindsey from opening a garage door to provide ventilation when he was sanding materials, the lawsuit said.
In February 2022, Lindsey was assigned to removed flooring that contained asbestos, but only found out later that asbestos was present. About three months later, he was called a slur for an individual with developmental disabilities by another employee, the lawsuit said.
“The continuing series of events planned and carried out by Defendant Unified Government, as described above, are discriminatory, abusive, and harassing,” the lawsuit read.
Lindsey said he made several complaints, but little was done or in some cases, he faced retaliation.
Spokesman David Mehlhaff said the BPU cannot comment on pending litigation.
Katie Moore, an enterprise and accountability reporter, started with The Kansas City Star in 2019. She covers justice issues, including policing, prison conditions and the death penalty. She is a University of Kansas graduate and began her career as a reporter in 2015 in her hometown of Topeka, Kansas.
