Millions of dollars more are being added to the taxpayer bill in the landmark FDNY discrimination case, according to court documents.
Brooklyn federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis approved a $9.5 million payout for lawyers who represented a group of minority firefighters in a discrimination suit against the department that cost the city $98 million, court papers filed on Thursday show.
Spearheaded by the Vulcan Society, a group of black firefighters, the suit alleged that FDNY brass systematically suppressed minority hiring by the use of biased entry exams.
The Bloomberg administration fought the case vigorously in court before the de Blasio regime settled the case for the mammoth sum in 2014.
Among those sharing in the $9.5 million payout approved Thursday is the Center for Constitutional Rights, along with law firms that billed for roughly 28,000 hours of legal work on the case.
A total of 1,500 plaintiffs will receive varying pieces of the $98 million pie, depending on the circumstances of their FDNY applications.
Despite the massive payouts to date, the billable hours will continue to pile up, observers said.
As part of the the 2014 settlement, Garaufis appointed a federal monitor to scrutinize hiring reforms in the department.
Lawyers working on the implementation of FDNY changes will continue to get paid.