County Official Linked to L.A. Slumlord Fired

A high-ranking Los Angeles County health official has been fired for keeping secret his business dealings with a notorious slumlord while he served on a government task force that was attempting to criminally prosecute the slum operator.

Francisco Gutierrez, chief sanitarian in the county’s Environmental Health and Public Health programs, was fired Feb. 28 for “conflict of interest, dishonesty, deceit (and) serious failure to exercise sound judgment,” according to the letter of discharge.

Gutierrez is appealing his firing to the county Civil Service Commission. On Wednesday the commission agreed to set a hearing on the matter.

In the mid-1980s Gutierrez served on a multiagency task force formed to prosecute Los Angeles’ worst slumlords. But when he testified in an unrelated civil lawsuit that he had been a “straw buyer” for convicted slumlord Joe Fitzpatrick, Gutierrez was removed from the task force and targeted for investigation of conflict of interest and for allegedly leaking information to suspected slumlords.

In an appeal to the Civil Service Commission, Gutierrez has denied any wrongdoing and contended that the discharge was in retaliation for his complaints about racial bias in the county Department of Health Services.

Gutierrez claimed that department officials were aware of his real estate activities since 1980 and that they “quietly consented to these activities . . . without protesting or advising me against them.”

Gutierrez’s business involvement with Fitzpatrick was revealed by chance when Los Angeles Deputy City Atty. Stephanie Sautner happened to see Gutierrez testify in a civil lawsuit that “I let him (Fitzpatrick) use my name on property. . . . I did things for Joe.”

Sautner notified county officials of the connection between the men, and Gutierrez was removed from the task force.

According to his letter of dismissal, county officials determined that Gutierrez was involved with Fitzpatrick in at least five transactions affecting four properties while he served on the task force and while Fitzpatrick was the target of an investigation. In one case, Gutierrez was paid $1,200 by Fitzpatrick, the letter alleged.

Fitzpatrick later was convicted of safety and health code violations at three of his buildings.

Sautner said there was no evidence found that Gutierrez was leaking information to slumlords, but she noted that the leaks stopped after he was removed from the task force.

Upon returning to his normal duties with the county, Gutierrez was promoted from senior sanitarian to chief sanitarian. He continues to hold the appointed position of planning commissioner in the city of Carson.

After the county investigation was completed, officials concluded that the 18-year veteran of county government “acted in a dishonest and deceitful manner, demonstrating at the very least a serious failure to exercise sound judgment and a total lack of commitment to the best interest of the department and the public.”