After the latest spate of stories about Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer, we’ve come to expect hypocrisy and an agenda that has nothing to do with public health. Back in May 2020 RedState exposed Ferrer’s social justice agenda, then two weeks ago Jennifer O’Connell published leaked audio in which Ferrer admitted that her focus was labor unions and that she was using public health orders to “protect the workers.” In one clip Ferrer said:
“I think we really need to respect our labor unions and our workers in being able to negotiate what creates safety for them as well. We need them to be safe, and we need them to feel comfortable doing what are very hard jobs.”
Another:
“We’ve used health officer orders to try to, like, get around sort of the sort of lack of, you know, what I’d say, strong worker protections. But even right now we have to continue to like, sort of figure out — in the absence of having a strong national, or strong state response, how are we going to protect our workers.”
So it should shock no one to learn that while Ferrer is all about caring for labor unions, their ability to negotiate, and protecting “our workers,” when it comes to her own front-line workers she doesn’t give a damn about their safety and has used the State of Emergency declaration as a weapon against those who aren’t down with her agenda. You know, the people who want a public health department to do what it’s designed to do.
According to a whistleblower who spoke to RedState on condition of anonymity, Ferrer has set up the Environmental Health division as her personal enforcement army, charged with issuing as many COVID violations as possible, with no warning and regardless of intentionality, to fill the coffers with revenue from fines; sent inspectors out during the “two weeks to slow the spread” time period with no PPE, leading to employee deaths; forced night/weekend/holiday overtime for the plebes while never working those extended hours themselves; and refused to grant leave to employees on COVID quarantine. Workers are not entitled to any redress due to the State of Emergency.
In short, while Ferrer expects private businesses to abide by her “health order” diktats regarding providing PPE, shutting down entire industries, and providing employees with paid time off to quarantine, she refused to do any of that in her own department.
Environmental Health is headed by Liza Frias and her assistant Brenda Lopez. Carl Kemp, Chief Communications Officer, also serves as the chief communications officer. Yes, the Carl Kemp we wrote about Monday, who is a felon convicted of tax fraud for failing to report $750,000 in “lobbying” income received from clients like drug kingpin John Walker. (Walker paid Kemp and a few other Long Beach insiders thousands of dollars a month in exchange for receiving favorable treatment from Long Beach authorities at a time when marijuana collectives who didn’t have such well-connected lobbyists were being raided by the Long Beach PD.)
As RedState’s Bob Hoge reported last week, the Environmental Health Division is already offering training for employee “volunteers” who will plan to work overtime this coming weekend to enforce a renewed mask mandate. Our whistleblower has this to say:
With the impending return of the mask mandate, the department has sent out an email asking for “volunteers” for the overtime shift. It is clear that the department justifies any forced shift changes with excuses such as not having enough volunteers. Even if they meet the required numbers, they would just move the goal post so “enough” volunteers are never really reached. They are not interested in facts and data that isn’t related to their agenda.
Employees department-wide are hoping that the county will rescind the declaration as soon as possible so the perverse incentives driving DPH’s direction are removed, and so employees’ schedules and job duties aren’t subject to the whims of Frias and Ferrer. Career DPH employees are terrified of the retaliation and potential blackballing because “the current people at the top are vindictive and cruel,” and that Frias is “extremely retaliatory” but many more are coming forward to RedState and other outlets. This whistleblower is the latest:
This department’s past crimes, harms, and tyranny are unacceptable and must be exposed.
Below are some examples of the ways Ferrer & Frias have used State of Emergency and Pandemic to harass their workers. Most of these workers belong to a union.
At the height of Pandemic, Sent Inspectors to Spread Disease
Los Angeles County issued a state of emergency due to COVID on March 4, 2020. DPH then suspended all fieldwork on March 16 to ensure the safety of its workers as well as the general public. But due to Ferrer flubbing an interview and refusing to issue a clarification, inspectors were sent back into the field within the “two weeks to slow the spread” time frame, without PPE, with deadly results. This is what the whistleblower said:
LA County broke the rules by sending inspectors without PPEs into the field in order to restart routine inspections. LA County was the first county to restart field inspections. Because Barbara had falsely claimed that inspectors were still out in the field a few days prior to this interview. The department did not correct Barbara’s mistake and instead sent them back into the field to continue regular inspections.
This is the start of the pandemic, with massive shutdowns and no PPEs. Data on the virus are largely unknown. Our inspectors refused out of safety concern since no PPEs were given by the health department and points were raised of inspectors’ potential role in spreading the virus since they have to go from business to business and interact with the public indoor with no PPEs and when social distancing is being preached. These types of prolonged, close interactions and visits to indoor spaces without the use of PPEs are not what you want, unless you intend to spread it.
Ferrer’s statement led to the endangerment of her staff and the deaths of some department employees for being forced to be in the field. LA County would have been able to save their own lives had it stayed on the same level as the other counties.
The FAQ informs Environmental Health Inspectors they don’t have PPE.
Those inspectors who refused to go out and possibly spread COVID — who are certified as Registered Environmental Health Specialists — were threatened with retaliation. All because the “leader” couldn’t bear to admit making a mistake.
Emergency Declaration for Exploit Workers
Using the Emergency declaration as justification, Ferrer’s Environmental Health Division expanded the hours of operation so COVID compliance officers can be out issuing citations and levying fines seven days a week, even until 11 PM Wednesday through Sunday, without having to pay them overtime. It was decided to implement two shifts: Monday through Friday, 7 AM to 5 PM, and Wednesday to Saturday from 12:30 to 11 pm. The staff that were to have to work on the weekends or evenings, were informed shortly before Thanksgiving.
Workers attempted to use the “meet and confer” clause in their contract to object to the forced schedule change, but due to the Emergency declaration, the whistleblower reports, “any negotiations or checks are bypassed because we are in an “emergency” and therefore they can do so.” That’s backed up by the Memorandum of Understanding. In general, DPH can’t change the work week hours of operation to avoid paying OT:
Fair Labor Standards Act rules stipulate that the workweek cannot be altered indiscriminately in order to avoid overtime payments.
However, all of those protections are out the window when there’s an “emergency.”
Management may make emergency assignments at any time. This does not limit their authority to assign temporary work tasks to other locations or shifts. These emergency assignments cannot be extended beyond the time of an emergency.
Of course, management didn’t have to take part in the new hours of operation schedule, and rescinding the State of Emergency would remove Ferrer and Frias’s ability to threaten inspectors:
This schedule didn’t affect the management. They continued their vacations, evenings, and weekends. Leadership! This forced schedule is key in forcing inspectors to “volunteer” in doing visits for Barbara’s mandates Since inspectors are impliedly threatened with compliance or being forced to comply, they will likely do so on weekends or evenings.Barbara and Liza could tap into the pools of inspectors, but the removal of the current state of emergency may make it more difficult or impossible to declare mandates.
COVID emergency dollars and COVID mandate violation citations are used to fill DPH’s coffers
This scheme is more dangerous than CHP Speed Traps. In the whistleblower’s words:
None in the lower branches want to visit, cite, and close businesses over Barbara’s mandates. They are not performing the tasks they were supposed to, and most believe that it is an elaborate scheme to make money out of the COVID Emergency Fund. The upper management will continue to have local offices, and inspectors visiting businesses in compliance with mandates that are still being issued. Every inspection inspector makes is billed to COVID Emergency Fund. The issuance of citations are another source.
Environmental Health will not visit businesses to enforce COVID if they don’t have the funding. It is difficult to know exactly where this money goes, as we are not sure if it goes to those in the field.It is unlikely that the appeal will be heard in court.
According to the chat from an All-Staff meeting, employees questioned the tactic of immediately citing businesses instead of educating them on how to comply first, and one asked, “Where is the compassion from management for struggling business owners and overworked inspectors?” There is no date for this meeting, but the chat also reveals that as of that time over $800,000 in citations had been issued.
Management claims that the revenue from citations will be used to fund the appeals process.
But, there is a possibility that COVID Fund was fraudulently charged.
It’s interesting that there were not a lot of mandate complaints at night so inspectors ended up doing their regular night restaurants/bars/clubs inspections during the shift, which should have been paid overtime.
Every inspection inspector makes is billed to COVID Emergency Fund. The issuance of citations are another source.
It’s a fantastic grift.
Ferrer has to be provided with violations by Deputy Frias, and not Environmental Health.
Since the pandemic has provided Ferrrer with unending adulation from the media and progressive politicians and has provided DPH with a seemingly bottomless pile of COVID emergency funding, deputies in the department are ingratiating themselves to Ferrer by giving her what she wants, even if it’s unscientific or unethical:
Pandemics have changed [our normal]Barbara Ferrer has the responsibility of enforcing orders, including investigating, citations or closing down businesses that have inadvertently or knowingly broken the health officer order.
The upper management has local offices, and inspectors will visit businesses to verify compliance as long the mandates continue returning.
Barbara is more important to the top echelons than Barbara herself. They want her data (how many facilities were found not compliant, which were visited and what mandate citations were issued). They are collected through field visits, and inspectors were forced to comply with these orders because they fear reprisal.
COVID Quarantine is now available
DPH forced their quarantined employees into telework in December 2020 at a time LA County officials and California officials had been compelled to make it mandatory for private companies to provide paid time off to employees when employees were tested positive or exposed to COVID.
DPH uses unqualified inspectors for outbreak investigation
According to the whistleblower, environmental health inspectors conduct outbreak investigations rather than public health investigators or nurses trained for such work.
“The environmental health inspectors are not epidemiologists, and identifying workplace safety concerns are more of Cal/OSHA’s duties. It is a big jump from inspecting say restaurants to investigating outbreaks and giving preventative measures… this is not the training and job these health inspectors signed up for.”
Gyms and churches are exempt from proposed mask mandate – because they fought back
It turned out that gym and church owners were able to resist mask mandates. One of them sued LA County. According to the whistleblower
Indoor masking will not apply to gyms. It won’t mention churches, as the department is aware that these people cannot be bullied into submission.
Environmental Health’s regular work has suffered greatly due to COVID mandate focus
The COVID protocol enforcement activities have been conducted by the department. Other inspections have fallen to the wayside.
This is because the mandates were not being enforced. The department fell behind in regular inspections. Ensuring that apartments, schools lunches and swimming pools are safe is a priority. It is more important to protect public health than the inspection of businesses that employ masks.
Carl Kemp, a felon who was sentenced
As reported Monday, Carl Kemp’s hiring was announced by Ferrer herself on September 3, 2019 in a letter to all staff. There is little known about his hiring, though, or what he actually does, but it’s clear that he’s part of the untouchable class, according to the whistleblower.
Natalie Jimenez was the previous incumbent and he transferred to be Director of Public Affairs upon Kemp’s arrival. Given the article about Kemp that was found via a Google search, his appointment caused some concern.
We know that he is valuable because he sits at the same table with Lisa and Brenda. There is a lack of fingerprint on his work since his hiring….
The whistleblower’s bottom line:
It is not about safety for the public. The ship of that captain has passed. This story is about the director, who pursues her agenda. It also concerns a department that enriches itself by using COVID Emergency Fund to create mandates and do field visits in order to confirm those mandates. It is an extremely lucrative business model that must be revealed in the media. They’ve lost trust in the public and now rule by fear.
Given the cascade of information regarding malfeasance within the Los Angeles Department of Public Health under Barbara Ferrer, it’s time for the Board of Supervisors to conduct a full investigation into this at-will employee’s actions.
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