YOUNGSTOWN — Two Youngstown firefighters, who served as their union’s president and vice president, filed a defamation lawsuit against Mayor Jamael Tito Brown for remarks he made to The Vindicator characterizing them as being racist.

Jon Racco and Jordan Thomas, the firefighters’ union’s president and vice president, respectively, until the beginning of the year, filed the lawsuit Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. The case was assigned to Judge John M. Durkin.

The lawsuit cites an Oct. 11 article in The Vindicator, and republished in subsequent articles, in which Brown spoke about racial remarks made toward the two by fire Chief Barry Finley. Brown defended the chief saying the white union officials don’t recognize they are being racist toward the chief. Finley and Brown are black.

In the lawsuit, Stuart Torch, the attorney for Racco and Thomas, wrote: “Mayor Brown acted with actual malice, bad faith, in a reckless manner and / or in wanton disregard of plaintiffs’ rights or the lack of veracity of the false statements he published, and thus is liable to the plaintiff for damages, including punitive damages.”

It adds that “as a direct and proximate consequence of Mayor Brown’s unlawful actions” the two firefighters “suffered emotional distress and humiliation and have been otherwise injured. Some of all of plaintiffs’ damages will continue to accrue indefinitely into the future.”

Andy Resnick, the city’s spokesman, said Friday he couldn’t comment on litigation. Brown didn’t respond to a request to comment.

Two investigations by the city’s law department determined Finley made racial remarks to Racco and Thomas during a Sept. 6 meeting, but he wasn’t disciplined by Brown.

The firefighters union filed an unfair labor practice allegation against Finley with the State Employment Relations Board in violation of state law by attempting to intimidate the union.

A ruling hasn’t been made, but after the Aug. 20 SERB hearing, Finley sent a text to firefighters apologizing to Racco, Thomas and the fire department for his actions and to “ensure you that this sort of thing will never happen again. I’m also hoping that we as a department can set aside all the differences we have and focus on driving this department straight ahead.”

There’s been a long line of disputes between the fire union and Finley since his February 2018 appointment.

In the Oct. 11 article, Brown said: “It is a problem, but it’s on both sides and that’s what we want to look at. This whole work environment. We start questioning one side then we question the other side and a lot of things start coming up that we’re uncovering.”

Brown said: “There’s a relationship issue. I think there’s some racial issues there.”

Asked if it was from both sides, Brown said, “One side (the union) doesn’t see it and the other side (Finley) is feeling it and when they let it be known they want to call it that. But I think there’s some undertones because this has been going on for too long. We’re going to look at the bigger picture. This is just a symptom. There’s other bigger pieces going on.”

In response to firefighters saying they fear for their safety around Finley, Brown said, “There’s remedies to all that. No more than some of the insubordinate actions that have been taken against the chief, lack of respect towards him as the fire chief, not necessarily disrespecting his position, but looking at him as an African-American fire chief, the first fire chief, so it’s a bigger piece than just them saying their safety.”

Brown added: “There’s going to be onus from them to say this has been going on too long. I think he might be the one in a hostile work environment. We’re going to work through that.”

At the time, Racco said: “Mayor Brown’s statements and depiction of events are 100% false. They are only intended to draw attention away from the fact that he has appointed a fire chief who is unfit for his duties and that the city has repeatedly covered up his abuse.”

The lawsuit contends Brown “falsely portrayed plaintiffs as the aggressors in their interactions with Chief Finley, based on Chief Finley’s race, falsely suggesting that Chief Finley was the victim.”

It also states Racco and Thomas were “compelled to step down from their union leadership positions,” and had “difficulties at work” and “difficulties and hostility personally in the community.”