County’s Health Services Probed for Bias After Latino Complaints

The practices of the county Health Services Department in the hiring and promotion of Latinos is the subject of a federal investigation, officials disclosed Thursday.

A member of the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said that several complaints of discrimination against Latinos prompted the probe.

Robert Arias, head of the county’s Affirmative Action Compliance Office, said that the inquiry is unusual in that federal authorities are “asking for a universal look” into the representation of Latinos within the Health Services work force.

Few in Number

After being told that news of the inquiry had surfaced, Tony Gallegos, a commissioner with the federal agency, said that “a considerable number of complaints” prompted the inquiry.

“We get a certain amount of evidence presented to us, and if we think there is some merit to it, we will investigate,” said Gallegos, a Pico Rivera resident and past president of the Mexican-American Opportunity Foundation in Los Angeles. President Reagan appointed him to the commission in 1982.

“I would say very clearly when you see the numbers (of all Latino county employees), they are nowhere near the availability” within the community, Gallegos added. “That’s a problem.”

By statute, the inquiries of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are intended to be confidential, and agency employees are prohibited from discussing cases under investigation, lawyers for the agency said. Such confidentiality is intended to foster the commission’s goal of resolving discrimination problems, “short of going to court,” agency counsel Carla Barbosa explained.

With Latinos now making up 27.6% of Los Angeles County’s population, Arias said that of all ethnic minorities, only American Indians have a lower representation within the county’s work force.

Focus on Medical Center

Federal officials initiated their inquiry about two weeks ago, Arias said, showing a particular interest in County-USC Medical Center.

Reached late Thursday, Arias said he was unable to provide precise data on the ratio of Latino employees at the hospital. However, Arias said, the hospital “is probably where we have the highest concentration of Hispanics, both as clients and employees.”

Arias defended the efforts of Health Services Director Robert C. Gates to keep hiring and promotions proportional to the county’s growing Latino population. One year ago, Gates had created a task force involving several Latino supervisors in an effort to increase Latino representation, Arias said.

“What we do is very innovative . . . very pro-active,” the affirmative action officer said.

Meanwhile, the under-representation of Latinos in another county agency, the Probation Department, has prompted officials there to step up recruitment efforts. Although an internal memo suggests that concerns of the federal probes inspired the recruitment campaign, Chief Probation Officer Barry J. Nidorf said his department’s efforts were simply prompted by an obvious need.

Aggressive Recruitment

After explaining that the Health Services Department was the subject of a federal inquiry, Probation Department Personnel Director Al Lecesne said that Nidorf endorsed an aggressive Latino recruitment plan “to avoid a similar occurrence. . . .”

In an interview, Nidorf said he wasn’t even aware that the Health Services Department was the subject of an inquiry. The recruitment effort is needed, he said, because only 13% of the county’s probation officers are Latino.

“We need to at least double that,” he said.