Head of Closed AIDS Unit Cites Cash-Flow Problem

The executive director of a recently closed AIDS information program for blacks in Orange County said Friday that he ordered the project shut down because the state was months behind in paying program expenses.

“It was a cash-flow problem” said Joseph Gatlin, who headed the Black Community AIDS Program, based in Santa Ana, until he closed it on Sept. 1.

The information program shut down shortly after state officials in Sacramento questioned how $54,000 in state funds given to the project had been spent, according to Thelma Fraziear, chief of the AIDS office in the state Department of Health Services.

Fraziear said an audit is being made of the defunct program’s expenditures.

During an interview Friday, Gatlin said “it was just a coincidence” that he decided to shut down the Black Community AIDS Program after questions had been raised by the state.

“The major reason (for ending the program) was lack of finances to continue the program,” Gatlin said. “The state just did not pay the money it owed. For instance, we didn’t get the money for April, May and June until Aug. 25. I was using my own money to pay bills.”

Gatlin disputed claims by two former employees that he had shut down the state-funded program without paying their last month’s salary. “We paid all staff employees the money due them,” he said.

Gatlin said “the black community failed to respond” to the information program on the acquired immune deficiency syndrome. He added that he believes that future efforts to disseminate AIDS information to Orange County blacks would be better coordinated through the county Health Care Agency.