Incoming fire chief vows to tackle racial tensions

CLEVELAND (AP) -- The man who will be Cleveland's first black fire chief says one of his top priorities will be easing racial tension between black and white firefighters.
"If I can remove some of the suspicion, that's a big barrier right there," said Paul Stubbs, a Cleveland firefighter since 1977.
Stubbs, 48, was to be named Cleveland's fire chief today. He replaces Kevin Gerrity, who retires next week.
A group of black applicants filed a lawsuit in federal court 30 years ago accusing the department of racial discrimination in its hiring. That lawsuit led to a settlement mandating that one of every three firefighters hired must be a minority.
Nearly 75 percent of the city's 930 firefighters are white.
Mayor Jane Campbell said it was Stubbs' record, not his race, that led her to choose him.
"He really is the consensus choice," Campbell said. "This is not a situation where I had to intentionally go around the process to create a historic situation."
For now, Stubbs is technically the interim chief. Campbell expects to name him the permanent chief after he passes civil-service testing and interviews.