Housing Panel Suspends Chief Until He Fixes Rental Unit : Code Violations: Fair Housing Council says David Quezada may return to his job when a duplex he owns in Fullerton is brought up to par.

The board of directors of the Fair Housing Council of Orange County voted unanimously Wednesday to suspend its executive director without pay while he brings a rental apartment he owns up to city and state code.

David T. Quezada, 40, will be allowed to return to his position once he repairs health and safety violations found this week by city and county inspectors at a duplex he owns in Fullerton, board chairman Gerardo Mouet said.

The action came after board members questioned Quezada at a meeting Wednesday morning about apparent code violations uncovered after a tenant complained of rotted floors, broken windows, leaky plumbing and other problems at the duplex apartment on East Truslow Avenue.

Stronger action was not taken, Mouet said, because of Quezada’s long history of working as an advocate for tenants’ rights.

“David Quezada has been a good executive director and has many years of experience in fair housing, as well as in other nonprofit services,” Mouet said in a statement prepared by the board. “However, the board recognizes that Mr. Quezada made an error in judgment.”

Quezada was not in the Fair Housing Council office later Wednesday and could not be reached for comment.

During Quezada’s suspension, the agency’s assistant director, Dee Dinnie, will be in charge, said Mouet, who is assistant director of the Educational Opportunity Program at UC Irvine. The Fair Housing Council, established in 1965, is a private, nonprofit agency that fights housing discrimination in Orange County and helps in tenant-landlord disputes. It receives most of its funding from cities and the county government.

The inspections were prompted by complaints from a tenant who was living in an illegal third unit added to the back of the duplex. The tenant said she had complained to Quezada over several months but got no action, Fullerton code-enforcement officer Kitty Jaramillo said.

After two investigations in May and a telephone call to Quezada, he removed the third unit and moved the tenant to one of the front units, Jaramillo said. Once the city got involved, Quezada was at the unit several times making repairs, she said.

Quezada has said he had no complaints from the woman until he tried to evict her in early May to remove the illegal third unit. Once inspectors brought the problems to his attention, he said, repairs were made. Quezada has owned the duplex since 1977 and lived in the built-on unit until 1985, when he rented it to the woman who filed the complaint against him.