JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A member of the Human Rights Commission, which released a shocking report against the city's fire department in early August, said she was told members of the commission would be sued if they voted in favor of removing the fire chief and some of his staff.

When the Human Right Commission voted to recommend getting rid of fire Chief Rick Barrett and three top staff members, it was done under the threat of a lawsuit.

"As I understand it, there was a threat that came from one of the individuals that was supposed to be fired. He threaten to sue not only a commissioner; he threatened to sue all commissioners," said Dennis Wade of the Human Rights Commission.

Channel 4's Jim Piggott reported a commission member said the threat came from Dr. Richard Greenwood, the fire department's director of human resources and also one of the officials recommended in the commission's report to be fired.

In an audio recording of one of the commission's meetings, commission member Martha Valdes Pellino said she received a phone call the day before the commission signed its recommendation.

"I received a call yesterday from Rich Greenwood. He called to tell me that he has retained an attorney and he was going to be suing every commissioner on this board if we signed that," Pellino said during the meeting.

Greenwood was not available for comment about the alleged call, but the mayor's office has confirmed that Greenwood hired an attorney.

In an interview with Barrett last week, the fire chief said he had not heard anything about the threat of a lawsuit from Greenwood.

So far, the threat of the lawsuit has not been carried out.

Despite the alleged threat, the Human Rights Commission released its report, recommending the mayor replace the fire chief and other staff.

"That has not influenced my decision really honestly. But, it was kind of disturbing to me to get a phone call like that," Pellino said during a commission meeting.

Shortly after the release of the commission's report, Mayor John Peyton announced that he will stand behind the fire chief, however, he said some changes would take place at the fire department including the hiring a national company to do diversity training and putting together a committee of 13 people to look at the problems of racism and discrimination within the department.