Residents Protest Housing Official’s Ouster : Government: San Fernando Gardens’ former services director says he was forced to quit because he urged the hiring of a bilingual job coordinator.

More than 50 residents of the San Fernando Gardens housing project demonstrated Friday in support of the project’s former community services director, who says he was forced to resign because he had urged the city of Los Angeles to hire a bilingual job development coordinator for the low-income apartment complex.

Carrying placards, the protesters, with children in tow, listened to speeches in front of the community services center in support of Al Ortiz, who resigned in November.

The protest was followed by an occasionally heated meeting among residents, city Community Development Department officials, congressional aides and representatives of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, who charged that the residents’ protest had anti-black overtones.

City officials declined to discuss Ortiz’s allegations.

Ortiz said he resigned after Community Development Department officials told him he was being fired because residents complained that he did not respect them and did not provide adequate services for them.

“But the reality is that I’ve always respected the community,” Ortiz said.

He said the biggest problem at the Pacoima housing project is that there is not a bilingual job development coordinator. Ortiz, who had directed the community services center since it was established a year and a half ago, said he was forced to resign because he repeatedly complained about the need for a bilingual job development coordinator.

The project houses about 2,000 residents, 92% of whom are Latino and 80% of whom speak only Spanish, city officials said. The current job development coordinator, Robert Freedman, is black and does not speak Spanish.

Ortiz said he cannot use city grievance procedures to try to regain his job because he was hired as a temporary contract employee. But he said he has hired a lawyer and is considering suing the city.

During a meeting with residents after the protest, Alonso M. Almeida, a deputy director at the Community Development Department, defended Freedman, saying he has done a good job as job developer.

Almeida noted that nine of the 12 staff members at the community services center are bilingual. Besides, he said, residents who do not speak English must take an English class before enrolling in a job placement program.

But that did not appease the residents who formed a committee in support of Ortiz. They submitted a petition with 300 signatures, asking to retain Ortiz. They also demanded that in the future the director and the job development coordinator be required to speak Spanish.

Almeida said the city plans to advertise for a director and that the ability to speak Spanish will only be preferred, not required.

“That is totally unacceptable,” said Javier Flores, founder of Proyectos Unidos de Pacoima, a group founded seven years ago to fight the eviction of undocumented immigrants from the complex.

Representatives of the NAACP accused Flores and other Latino residents of discriminating against Freedman and Ortiz’s temporary replacement, Ken Ashford, who is black.

“You cannot exclude all blacks from this community,” said Ed Kussman, an NAACP board member.

But Flores said the residents are not opposed to a black director or job coordinator. He said they just believe it is vital that the positions be filled with Spanish speakers.

“I don’t know why we are arguing,” he said. “It’s so clear what has to be done.” Residents also lashed out at Rose Casteneda, an aide to Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), claiming that she turned children and teen-agers in the project against Ortiz by discussing Ortiz’s shortcomings during gang prevention meetings.

Casteneda denied the allegations, saying that it was the youths who complained that they were not getting adequate job placement services from Ortiz. “It was never my intent or the intent of the congressman to divide families,” Casteneda told the residents at the meeting.

Residents also criticized Councilman Ernani Bernardi for failing to support their request that the positions be filled with Spanish speakers. A Bernardi spokesman said the councilman wants advertisements for the jobs to say that an ability to speak Spanish is preferred but not required.