Denny’s Hires San Diego Consultant for Civil Rights Job : Liaison: Irvine-based restaurant chain, facing bias charges, created post as part of a pact with the Justice Department.

Denny’s restaurant chain, beset by allegations of discrimination against black customers, said Tuesday that it has appointed a civil rights monitor who will be based at the company’s corporate office in Irvine.

As part of an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, Denny’s appointed Joseph D. Russell to the newly created post. Russell, who owned a business consulting firm in San Diego, will oversee sensitivity training for Denny’s employees and monitor random testing for bias.

“We feel good about doing the things that the Justice Department has asked us to do,” said Edna K. Morris, senior vice president of human resources for Flagstar Cos., the restaurant chain’s parent company in Spartanburg, S.C.

Flagstar signed the consent decree in March to settle government charges that some of its restaurants in California forced black customers to pay in advance or denied them service altogether. A number of lawsuits have been filed against Denny’s, including one representing five Orange County residents and five people in San Diego.

Russell, 50, most recently was president of Russell & Associates, a San Diego human resources management and consulting firm. Before starting his own company in the mid-1980s, Russell worked for 20 years in the human resources department of the Minneapolis-based computer company Control Data Corp., where he directed the company’s equal opportunity and job training programs.

In an interview with the Associated Press on Tuesday, Russell said he wants Denny’s employees and customers “to know there is someone they can talk with who has a background in dealing with these issues.”

“It’s always difficult for people to overcome differences,” he said. The training will “help them work through that.”

Morris said that Denny’s selected Russell out of about 10 top candidates uncovered by an executive search firm. “We were impressed with his background,” she said. “He is very sharp and very committed.”

Russell will act as a liaison between the Justice Department and the chain. In accordance with the consent decree, Denny’s will regularly use “undercover” investigators in its California restaurants to detect any discriminatory practices.

Allegations of discrimination at Denny’s restaurants have not been confined to California. In May, six black Secret Service agents in Annapolis, Md., complained that whites were served more quickly.

Denny’s has denied bias.

Flagstar will conduct nationwide spot checks of its restaurants under an agreement it signed in July with the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. The company also agreed to provide $1 billion in minority business opportunities during the next seven years, pledging 325 new management positions to be filled by minorities at its 2,000 restaurants and increased purchases from minority-owned businesses.

Frank Berry, an executive assistant in the NAACP’s Los Angeles office, applauded Denny’s for “working quickly to ensure that the consent decree is carried out on the front line.”

Berry said the publicity surrounding incidents of apparent racism at Denny’s restaurants “sends up a red flag to all businesses that they must be very mindful of treating people fairly.”