Long Beach has agreed to pay $60,000 to settle a lawsuit from a former police detective who alleged she was passed over for a coveted assignment in the homicide division because she is black and because she took time off to take care of a sick family member.

The detective, Jacqueline Burke, sued Long Beach in November 2016. In response, the city argued that Burke didn’t get the job because other applicants were more qualified. After almost two years of legal wrangling, the City Council approved a settlement Tuesday.

Burke’s lawsuit said the Long Beach Police Department has disproportionately few African-American employees, especially at high levels and in its homicide division.

“On one occasion, a city of Long Beach human resources employee told Burke, ‘You’re it; you’re going to be the one,’ implying that the department would only allow at most one token African-American female to rise to detective in homicide,” the lawsuit said. “This department human resources employee identified other African-American female officers and mentioned why they could not make it that far, including stating that one was ‘too militant.'”

The LBPD had 46 black officers out of 814 total officers at the beginning of this year, according to numbers provided by the department. Of those 46 black officers, four were women, according to the department.

Long Beach’s attorneys contended Burke damaged her own chances in the application process because she failed to disclose all of her previous internal affairs cases, including failure to complete a qualifications test with her service weapon. One of the detectives selected over Burke is also black, the city noted in court papers.

Burke also alleged the department allowed a racist cartoon to be posted in common areas along with a picture of President Obama on a trash can. However, Burke never actually saw either one for herself, the city said in court documents.

After Burke and her supervisor clashed over a time card, the department used an internal affairs investigation to get back at her, the lawsuit alleged.

“The department had and has a practice of retaliating against employees who complain,” Burke’s lawsuit said.

In court papers, Burke’s attorney said she took a sick day on a Friday and came in on the weekend to make up the time. She hadn’t yet corrected her time card to reflect that when her supervisor confronted her, according to the lawsuit.

The city alleged Burke missed her shift without telling anyone, meaning she wasn’t able to properly handle a stabbing case.

In July 2015, the department decided to fire Burke after an internal affairs investigation, but she retired after getting word of the pending discipline, according to court documents.

The attorneys who handled the case weren’t immediately able to answer questions about it.

Jeremiah Dobruck is managing editor of the Long Beach Post. Reach him at [email protected] or @jeremiahdobruck on Twitter.