After Sacramento fire chief took over, his brother was promoted. Was it nepotism?

Four months after Chris Costamagna was named city of Sacramento’s new fire chief, his brother Patrick was promoted within the same department.

Patrick Costamagna’s January 2023 promotion to assistant fire chief came with a nearly $50,000 raise, bringing his base salary to $210,433. He had previously held the position of battalion chief, which is one rank lower in the organization.

The promotion was cited in a recent racial discrimination lawsuit against the department and is now being criticized by a current captain in the department.

City spokesman Tim Swanson defended the city’s process in confirming Patrick Costamagna’s advancement. City Manager Howard Chan, Swanson said, took the appropriate steps to avoid nepotism in the hiring process and in the handling of any future disciplinary actions, should there be any.

Typically, the fire chief is involved in the interview and selection process for assistant chiefs, Swanson said. In this case, Chris Costamagna was not a member of the panels that promoted his brother, Swanson said.

However, Patrick Costamagna does answer to a deputy chief who reports directly to his brother.

Promotion process of fire chief’s brother

Chris Costamagna joined the Sacramento Fire Department in 1995, and Patrick Costamagna joined in 1999, Swanson said. Patrick Costamagna is known for his work involving Urban Search and Rescue. He has been deployed multiple times over the years to provide mutual aid following hurricanes and other natural disasters.

Swanson also noted that Patrick Costamagna’s promotion wasn’t out of the blue.

“In addition, it’s worth knowing that Patrick — prior to Chris Costamagna’s promotion to fire chief — had tested and interviewed for Fire Assistant Chief and was offered the position,” Swanson said. “Patrick did not accept the position at the time and later decided to reapply for it.”

City Manager Chan directed Chris Costamagna to avoid all participation in decisions regarding his brother, Swanson said.

The city’s nepotism and conflict of interest policy, which applies Chris Costamagna in his role as chief, says a person cannot supervise a family member.

“An employee shall not directly through the chain of command supervise or act in a lead capacity to a person with whom they have a familial, cohabitant, or amorous relationship.”

However, the policy also contains a clause that allows the city manager to make exceptions for “special circumstances.” That exception was used in Costamagna promotion, Swanson said.

“They both have decades of valuable technical and leadership experience in careers that are separate, distinct and independent of each other,” Swanson said when asked for the reason for the exception.

The panels that promoted Patrick Costamagna included Assistant City Managers Leyne Milstein and Mario Lara; Sacramento Fire Assistant Chief Kim Iannucci; a manager at the West Sacramento Fire Department; Sacramento Fire Deputy Chiefs John Danciart; Mike Taylor and Tilden Billiter. The fire department was under Milstein’s purview at the time of the promotion and she made the final decision on three fire assistant chief promotions after hearing the panels’ recommendations and talking to Chan, Swanson said.

McGeorge School of Law adjunct professor Chris Micheli said he believes the city acted properly, even if the timing of the promotion created a “perception problem” similar to Assemblywoman Mia Bonta being on a committee tasked with overseeing the budget of California Attorney General Rob Bonta, her husband.

“This is one of those situations where certainly there wasn’t anything improper or unethical and certainly using a panel as a way to interview and promote is the proper way,” Micheli said. “What you run into in these situations is a perception problem. Even though there isn’t any likely conflict of interest, it certainly raises concerns. But so long as the chief stays out of any hiring or disciplinary matters then that’s the best approach to take.”

Could family ties become a problem?

Even though City Manager Chan was careful to keep Chris Costamagna out of the process of selecting his brother for promotion, there was also the matter of how to handle potential future conflicts of interest with both brothers in leadership roles at the same department.

On Jan. 5, Chris Costamagna sent a memo to his deputy chiefs on the matter.

“I am writing to inform you that I must now take extra steps to avoid the slightest perception of improprieties regarding either a conflict of interest or nepotism concerning my brother, Assistant Fire Chief Pat Costamagna,” the memo stated. “As Pat enters the position of Assistant Chief, I will recuse myself from all matters involving Pat, including any discipline to which Pat may be subject to. Or he may be disciplining a staff member, which I also will recuse myself of for the same reasons.”

Swanson said Chris Costamagna’s recusal from all disciplinary issues involving his brother was done at the city manager’s behest.

“Any potential violation of the nepotism and conflict of interest policy was addressed by the city manager’s action restricting Chris Costamagna’s supervisory responsibilities over Patrick,” Swanson said.

Despite those measures, the situation could still be problematic if the deputy chiefs were afraid to discipline the brother of their boss, Micheli said. Pat Costamagna is reporting to Deputy Chief Mike Taylor, Swanson said. Taylor reports to Chris Costamagna.

“Obviously that’s one issue one would be concerned with,” Micheli said. “But you hope the individuals in those high ranks are tenured professionals who have the public interest at heart and care about preserving integrity because they will be on the proverbial hot seat. They will know their actions will be scrutinized so folks in that position knowing they’re gonna be scrutinized will go above and beyond to ensure that what they’re doing is entirely above board and beyond reproach.”

Concern within the fire department

Despite those safeguards, Fire Captain Jaymes Butler said the promotion still creates an illusion of nepotism and exacerbates the racial diversity issue in the department.

“Is his brother qualified? Yeah, his brother is qualified. Now does it look bad? Oh yeah it looks bad,” said Butler, who has been with the department since 1995 and is Black. “But what I can tell you is that (Chief Costamagna) has had the opportunity to fill two positions and he had two qualified minority candidates and he passed them over. It just perpetuates what’s been going on. I was disappointed in his decision.”

The two other men promoted to assistant chief the same day were also white.

In a lawsuit filed last month, Battalion Chief Jonathan Burgess alleged department officials have refused to promote him partially because he is Black, while fostering a culture that protects its white employees despite wrongdoing. He was the third Black firefighter to publicly accuse the Sacramento Fire Department of racial discrimination since 2021.

“The city takes any allegation of discrimination and harassment very seriously and currently is evaluating the complaint filed by Mr. Burgess,” Swanson said in response to the lawsuit. “The city remains steadfast in its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in all matters related to employment.

Only about 20 of the Fire Department’s roughly 650 employees are Black, according to a 2020 city audit.

In 2021, Desmond Lewis publicly resigned from the department citing racial harassment and hazing as his reasons for quitting. Lewis, a Black firefighter, in 2021 left the department and in an exclusive interview with The Sacramento Bee described “a culture of hazing, sexism and racism.” Lewis later rejoined the department, in part, he said, to help change the organization from within, but other similar complaints followed.

In December, Waris Gildersleeve, another Black firefighter, filed a federal lawsuit alleging white fire officials attempted to set him up to fail a test by giving him old training materials, and damaged equipment causing him a physical injury. The lawsuit also alleged white firefighters used profanity to disparage the Black Lives Matter movement and uttered a racial slur, but they were not disciplined.