Firefighters proudly participated in the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Parade in Downtown last weekend. However they did so voluntarily because the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department revised its policy requiring firefighters to participate in local parades last summer.

The “backdraft” that followed the lawsuit filed by four firefighters – all members of Station 5 located in the heart of Hillcrest – who claimed their battalion chief ordered them to ride in the annual San Diego Pride Parade, has now reportedly led each firefighter to ask for $750,000.

“The city asked for mediation, and they asked us to come up with a number,” said Charles LiMandri, of the Thomas More Law Center, the nonprofit Christian legal organization representing the firefighters.

“That was supposed to be a confidential opening number, and then someone from the city disclosed that,” he said, regarding the amount reported on the VoiceofSanDiego.org Web site, Wednesday, Jan. 16. “I’m not in a position to confirm or to deny, because under the laws of evidence we’re not supposed to be talking about what figures were discussed in mediation.”

Chad Allison, John Ghiotto, Jason Hewitt and Alex Kane all filed complaints with state authorities Aug. 1, seeking the right to press sexual-harassment claims against the city’s fire department. The men said Pride parade attendees taunted them with sexually explicit comments while they drove a fire engine through Hillcrest on July 21.

The firefighters claim their battalion chief ordered them to ride in the parade, and that they followed the order out of concern they would be suspended or punished.

Under the new policy agreed upon between Fire Chief Tracy Jarman and the local firefighters’ union, firefighters will be asked to volunteer to participate in parades and be paid four hours overtime for doing so.

“Because of legalities involving the litigation process, any comment on the case involving the firefighters will have to go through the city attorney’s office,” said the department’s spokesperson Maurice Luque.

Numerous attempts to reach City Attorney Mike Aguirre and his media relations representative for comment received no reply by press time.

LiMandri said all four plaintiffs are still working for the fire department.

“However, the crew has been split up and is no longer working in Hillcrest,” he said.

As a result of being sent to new postings, at least two of the firefighters are now earning less than they used to, said LiMandri, who is also the involved with the city’s defense of the Mount Soledad Cross.

“That’s because the firefighters don’t have the same opportunities at their new positions as they did in Hillcrest. Fire Capt. John Ghiotto has seen his pay drop by 10 percent,” he said.

The case, which is expected to continue for some time, is currently in the litigation process.

“We are gathering evidence in terms of what transpired and what could or should have been done, if not only for next time,” LiMandri said, noting there have been objections to the complaint, and that the city has challenged the firefighter’s complaint several times.

“In no shape or form will anybody in the fire department, civilian or uniformed, be ordered, mandated or otherwise coerced to participate in a parade if they don’t want to. It is not going to happen,” the department’s spokesperson said when the suit was originally brought about.

“The complaint has survived the initial round of attacks, and now there is a second round of attacks. It’s clear that the lawsuit will go forward past the initial litigation, and we will continue on in terms of discovery. Hopefully, we will have a trial date scheduled by the end of this year, hopefully by the end of this summer,” LiMandri said.