Seattle settles discrimination claim with former spokeswoman

SEATTLE – Seattle officials have agreed to pay Mayor Ed Murray’s former spokeswoman $125,000 and give her a new job with the city with a $100,000 salary to settle a discrimination claim.

The Seattle Times reported that Rosalind Brazel on Monday signed the agreement with the city’s Finance and Administrative Services Department.

Brazel was press secretary when Murray began his term in January 2014. She was reassigned a few months later and fired in May 2014 following an incorrect news release misidentifying a former city official as having died. Brazel said Murray and Murray’s communications director gave her faulty information.

In September 2014 she filed a discrimination lawsuit contending that as an African-American she was treated differently, and was replaced by a white male with a salary $5,000 greater than hers.