Pimp costume, discrimination complaints disrupted ousted Sacramento fire chief’s tenure

Several controversies, including some related to race and gender in the workplace, disrupted Gary Loesch’s tenure as Sacramento fire chief before the city manager fired him this week.

Sacramento ousted Loesch chief Thursday, with the former chief saying he was fired from the role for “incompatibility” with city management along with other causes he said he could not yet discuss for legal reasons.

Loesch said he needed to consult with his attorneys before discussing the matter further, but vowed “major litigation” in a brief phone interview Friday morning with The Sacramento Bee.

The former chief, who served for more than three decades with the Philadelphia Fire Department before coming to Sacramento, said City Manager Howard Chan fired him during a 4 p.m. meeting Thursday at City Hall.

Loesch took over as the leader of the Sacramento Fire Department in October 2018, hired as the city’s 22nd fire chief.

During his 3½-year tenure in Sacramento, the Fire Department along with Loesch himself have been the subject of controversy on a several occasions. They include allegations of racist and sexist harassment and hazing within the department, the surfacing of a photo showing Loesch dressed as a pimp during a Halloween office party and the chief and city’s decision to allow a reality TV series to film emergency personnel.

It is unknown what role, if any, these controversies may have played in Loesch’s ouster. City spokesman Tim Swanson in a statement said the city would not comment on an individual personnel matter.

Harassment, racism allegations

Black and female employees of the Sacramento Fire Department said they faced harassment, bullying, hazing and racial insensitivity from fellow employees, according to a Sacramento Bee investigation published in March 2021.

After an employee resigned and cited a “hostile work environment” at the Fire Department, the city launched an internal investigation.

“I regularly heard racially charged remarks, was suggested not to ‘congregate with just my own’ and was even questioned about my loyalty to the department because of the color of my skin,” Desmond Lewis, a 27-year-old Black man, wrote in a resignation letter emailed to Loesch in January 2021, less than a year after Lewis passed the academy and joined the department in March 2020.

Months later, Lewis began the process of returning to the department after initially declining to do so, saying he hoped he could help shift the department’s culture.

The Sacramento City Council also approved $2.2 million in the 2021-22 budget toward addressing issues of diversity, equity and inclusion among the Fire Department’s ranks.

“Our department sets clear expectations that workplace discrimination and harassment will not be tolerated. In partnership with the City’s Office of Diversity & Equity, we are committed to building a more representative, equitable and inclusive fire department,” Loesch said in a statement following Lewis’ resignation.

In October 2020, a former administrative employee of the Fire department sued Loesch and the city of Sacramento in Sacramento Superior Court alleging workplace harassment, discrimination, retaliation, whisteblower protection violations and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The plaintiff, a Black woman, alleged she was terminated, re-hired and demoted in 2019 as retribution for filing harassment claims with the city related to discrimination on the basis of sex, gender and age.

Reality TV show

First-response efforts on the streets of Sacramento were among those aired on national TV, part of the A&E reality show “Live Rescue.”

Some critics and criminal justice reform advocates argued the show exploited Sacramento residents in the midst of emergencies, compromising their privacy.

In one clip filmed in Sacramento, posted to the A&E website and YouTube page with the title “Faceplant on the Sidewalk,” a woman who had fallen on concrete in downtown Sacramento was shown with her face blurred, but her clothing not blurred and her voice unaltered.

Loesch, who had prior review of footage shot in Sacramento, in early 2020 cited the show as an opportunity for recruitment and public education, and said it offered transparency. He said city employees in the city manager’s and attorney’s offices approved of signing a contract with “Live Rescue,” and that Chan, the city manager, also approved.

Amid scrutiny, then-Councilman Steve Hansen, called for the city to pull out of the show, calling the appearances “distasteful.”

“Live Rescue” stopped filming in Sacramento in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Loesch wore pimp costume for Halloween

Loesch dressed as a pimp at a 2019 Halloween office party.

The Sacramento News and Review obtained photos of Loesch attending a Fire Department party dressed in “full pimp regalia,” including a purple suit with cheetah-print linings, a roll of cash hanging from his necklace and a cane.

The incident triggered a human resources complaint, Sacramento News and Review reported. Loesch in a statement to the publication apologized and said the costume was a “poor choice.”

Chan in a statement to Sacramento News and Review said he was “frustrated” by the incident, calling the costume insensitive.

As Sacramento News and Review reported, the costume choice was considered particularly insensitive given the context of sex scandals at the Sacramento Fire Department earlier this century. One firefighter resigned and three others were fired in 2006, weeks after being accused of having group sex at a Hollywood Park fire station.

The Bee’s Theresa Clift and Marcus D. Smith contributed to this story.