MELBOURNE, Fla. – An employee of the Melbourne Fire Department is accusing the department of discriminating against him, according to a compliant filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission earlier this month.
The complaint says that Aaron Starkey — a driver engineer employed by MFD — had filed a complaint against the department in 2018 after he was refused “reasonable accommodation and leave” to care for his children.
He filed another complaint in 2020 about the department’s “failure to pay for hours worked, refusal to pay for required training, and refusal to pay for course costs,” records show.
According to Starkey, he applied for promotion to training captain in 2020, though he was passed over in favor of his union president. During the selection process, officials reportedly called Starkey “Aaron-sue-the-department-Starkey” due to the previous complaints he had filed, Starkey said.
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A complaint alleges that the fire department also refused to reimburse Starkey for COVID leave in 2021 due to the prior complaints he had filed.
In his most recent complaint, Starkey said that one of his supervisors, Battalion Chief Jody Kahler, had posed as a Nazi and performed the Nazi salute while wearing a “Hitler-style mustache and German combat helmet.” Kahler did this while on duty and wearing the department’s uniform, Starkey added.
Starkey explained that he is Jewish and found the gesture offensive, so he complained to union leadership about the issue.
However, Kahler found out about the complaint and confronted Starkey on April 8, 2023 to try to dissuade Starkey from raising any additional complaints, Starkey claimed.
“Kahler admitted that posed as a Nazi but tried to downplay and trivialize his actions and he never apologized for his actions,” Starkey wrote in a complaint to the EEOC.
As a result, Kahler stated that he believes the department discriminated and retaliated against him on the basis of his reasonable accommodation requests, protected complaints and Jewish faith.
“Furthermore, I believe that department and the union have both failed to address valid complaints of antisemitism and allowed Kahler to retaliate against me by confronting me for raising valid complaints of antisemitism,” Starkey said.
News 6 reached out to the City of Melbourne about the accusations. They responded with the following statement:
“The City of Melbourne takes allegations of any kind of discrimination, harassment and retaliation very seriously. The City received notice of the EEOC Complaint to the Florida Commission on Human Relations on late afternoon on April 21, 2023. We will be conducting a thorough investigation in accordance with city policy. When conducting formal investigations there is established due process that must be followed in order to ensure the legal rights of all those involved. Upon completion of the investigation, any employees found to be in violation of the City’s policies will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including dismissal.”
Statement by the City of Melbourne
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