Minneapolis ? Hailed as a pioneer when she became Minneapolis fire chief two years ago, Bonnie Bleskachek left the job Friday with apologies to the city and a demotion that strips her authority but keeps her in the department.

The City Council voted 8-5 to accept Mayor R.T. Rybak’s recommendation to settle with Bleskachek, after the city’s attorneys warned the city might not win a lawsuit. But some dissenters on the council favored firing Bleskachek, one of the nation’s first openly gay big-city fire chiefs.

Under the agreement, Bleskachek takes a more than $40,000 pay cut and becomes a staff captain, where she will primarily be at a desk doing administrative work for the department’s emergency preparedness unit.

The settlement ends a nine-month ordeal that cost the city more than $420,000, including the settlement of two of five lawsuits filed by other firefighters against Bleskachek alleging discriminatory treatment and sexual harassment. Three of the suits are pending.

On Friday, the city released a summary of the independent investigation into Bleskachek, which concluded the chief had intimate relationships with three firefighters under her command and substantiated at least 19 allegations of inappropriate conduct, retaliation against adversaries and other instances of abuse of authority.

On three occasions in 2004 and early 2005, the investigation also found that Bleskachek “was naked in a hot tub when Fire Department employees were present,” the summary said. And in the summer of 2005, the chief “was seen making out” with another employee “on the floor of the workout room at Fire Station 5,” it said.

The investigation also substantiated claims the chief “intentionally and inappropriately touching a female firefighter’s leg and foot on two separate occasions” and had “a history of dating and romantic pursuits of others in the fire department, which clearly had a negative effect on the conduct of others.”

According to the report, Bleskachek also brought someone not employed by the city to a command post at the scene of a fire and used the department’s dispatch system for personal purposes.

The investigation substantiated allegations that the chief’s conduct had created “an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment.”

“I will not risk having her return as a manager in this city,” Rybak said after announcing the settlement, adding Bleskachek showed “exceptionally poor judgment and her actions were irresponsible.”

Before the allegations, Bleskachek never had a disciplinary record. After viewing the summary, her attorney, Jerry Burg, said, “I would conclude from this the sentiment is that people are uncomfortable working around lesbians in a workplace like the fire department.”

Bleskachek, 43, has adamantly rejected the allegations against her. As a condition of the settlement, Bleskachek has apologized in writing to the city, the department and Minneapolis residents.