Man Denied Promotion Claims Reverse Discrimination

A longtime employee of California’s Youthful Offender Parole Board has filed a reverse discrimination lawsuit against the board chairman, the governor and a cabinet secretary, alleging that they denied him a promotion because he is white.

The lawsuit was filed in Sacramento Superior Court last Friday by Kenneth Van Buskirk, 52, of Folsom, who resigned as coordinating parole agent for the board in October, 1984, after his promotion fell through. He is now a private investigator.

Van Buskirk claimed that Welby A. Cramer, board chairman, told him in July, 1984, that he would be promoted to the post of administrative representative to the board. Van Buskirk, who earned about $39,000 a year as coordinating parole agent, a position he had held for 11 years, had applied for the new job, which pays about $50,000. In it, he would help conduct parole hearings.

In his lawsuit, Van Buskirk said that Cramer told the board’s staff about the promotion, and arranged for Van Buskirk to be trained.

Withdraws Offer

But then Cramer changed his mind, saying that he had been instructed to withdraw the offer by N. A. Chaderjian, cabinet-level secretary of the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, the lawsuit said.

The chairman told Van Buskirk that Chaderjian had ordered him to appoint a black man to the post, the lawsuit claimed, adding that Cramer later told Van Buskirk that the black man had been rejected by Gov. George Deukmejian’s office.

A Latino man was subsequently appointed.

When Van Buskirk asked Cramer if there were any reason other than race for his failure to get the promotion, Cramer told him, “ ‘Absolutely not. You are just not the right race,’ or words to that effect,” the lawsuit said.

The suit seeks appointment to the post and money damages.

‘Not Way It Happened’

Contacted Wednesday, Cramer said he was aware of the lawsuit but had not yet been served with it. In response to a reporter’s summary of its allegations, he said: “There are some issues there that are not as I recall them. . . . That’s not the way it happened.” But he declined to elaborate.

Attempts over two days to reach Chaderjian were unavailing.