COUNTYWIDE : Officer Selects 5 for Minority Panel Seats

Five Ventura County Sheriff’s Department employees have been appointed to a minority relations committee that will meet for the first time today, authorities said.

Committee members, who represent a variety of minorities, were chosen on the basis of such factors as leadership, said committee leader Lt. Dante Honorico, who made the selections.

Sitting on the committee are Deputy Mike Colon and records supervisor Anita Gutierrez, who are Latino; Honorico, who is Filipino; Deputy Jesse Hicks, who is black, and Deputies Bob Lemay and Barbara Anderson, who are white.

The committee will investigate complaints of racial, cultural and sexual harassment and bias. It will also evaluate racial and cultural sensitivity training programs and consider the way that the department recruits and selects employees, authorities said.

Last month, 11 of the department’s 15 black deputies filed claims against the county, complaining of racist and sexist behavior among peers and supervisors that ranged from derogatory jokes to a death threat. Another black employee who works in the jail subsequently filed another claim against the county.