A Golden Fire Department worker was terminated after a Black doll was found hanging by a noose in a station stairwell this past March. The incident only became public recently, prompting the city's diversity task force to demand greater accountability.
The "Snoop on a Stoop" doll and the March stairwell incident
The incident centered on a novelty item known as a "Snoop on a Stoop" doll, which is a parody of the Elf on a Shelf designed to look like Snoop Dogg. According to the statement read by Mayor Laura Weinberg, the doll had been moved around the Golden Fire Department during the preceding holiday season before it was discovered hanging by its neck in a stairwell in March.
The city's official response acknowledged that the display evoked a "horrific history of racial terror and violence." While the City of Golden stated the doll was removed immediately upon discovery, the delayed public disclosure of the event has created a rift between city leadership and the community they serve.
Why the REDI Task Force waited until Tuesday to learn of the act
The Race, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (REDI) Task Force, which was established in 2020 to support diversity within the City of Golden, was kept in the dark about the incident for months. Member Holly Olivarez told Denver7 that the team only learned of the racist act via an email on Tuesday, shortly before the matter was brought before the Golden City Council.
This communication gap has led the REDI Task Force to question the city's commitment to transparency. Olivarez suggested that accountability only began to materialize once the news leaked beyond the control of the city manager, indicating that internal mechanisms for reporting bias were either ignored or bypassed.
Scott Vargo's cancellation of the Annual Summer Picnic
City Manager Scott Vargo attempted to address the internal turmoil through a series of emails to staff, in which he apologized for the impact of the situation.. As Denver7 reported, Vargo announced that the City of Golden's Annual Summer Picnic would be rescheduled, noting that a celebratory event would be "incongruent" with the current atmosphere of distress and anger.
To mitigate the damage, the City of Golden hired an outside consultant to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion training specifically for the Golden Fire Department. Vargo admitted in his correspondence that he failed to share general information about the incident with leaders outside the fire department, a lapse that contributed to the feeling of a cover-up among other city employees.
The racial terror symbolized by the noose in Golden
The use of a noose is not merely a workplace policy violation but a potent symbol of lynching and systemic violence against Black Americans.. By allowing the incident to be handled as a private personnel matter for months, the City of Golden inadvertently signaled that the trauma associated with such imagery was secondary to administrative discretion.
This event echoes a broader national struggle where public institutions struggle to balance employee privacy with the public's right to know when hate symbols appear in government facilities. The REDI Task Force is now pushing for mandatory training and transparent reporting of bias incidents to ensure that the Golden Fire Department does not return to a culture of silence.
The missing timeline of the employee's termination
Despite the confirmation that the employee responsible for the display was fired, a critical piece of information remains missing: the exact date of the termination. The City of Golden has declined to provide this detail, citing the fact that it is a personnel matter, leaving it unclear whether the firing happened in March or only after the story broke.
Further clarity may come from records requests submitted by Denver7 on Monday, which are currently pending. Until those documents are released, it remains unverified whether the city took decisive action immediately or if the termination was a reactive measure to the public outcry and the involvement of the REDI Task Force.
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