Agency Changes Locks on Official Who Is Assisting Probe : Investigation: Laboratory manager says sanitation district is trying to force him out. District calls action a security measure.

The Orange County Sanitation District, the subject of a continuing state work safety investigation and a separate inquiry by the county district attorney’s office, has ordered locks changed on the doors of a laboratory complex managed by an official who is aiding the prosecutors’ investigation.

The action came last week, a day after an attorney for laboratory manager Dr. Louis Sangermano informed the district that Sangermano was helping the district attorney in a probe of certain sanitation agency activities.

A sanitation district spokeswoman acknowledged that the locks were changed on about 10 doors at the Fountain Valley complex, where Sangermano oversees a staff of about 46 employees, for internal security reasons. The office provides analysis of local coastal waters, monitors industrial discharge, scans local beaches for the presence of bacteria levels and is engaged in general sanitation research.

Sangermano, who called the district’s action an attempt to force him out, was on an indefinite medical leave last week when the locks were changed. Calls to his office Monday were being referred to the sanitation agency’s personnel department.

“They are trying to nail me in every way they can,” Sangermano said when reached at home. “What they are doing is amazing.”

Sanitation spokeswoman Corrine Clawson characterized the changes as only a “security measure.” She declined any comment about the security concerns of the district or whether the changes were related to the recent disclosures by Sangermano’s attorney, Mark H. Freeman.

In a letter to sanitation agency officials last Wednesday, Freeman said that Sangermano has been working with the district attorney in its investigation of certain “illegal activities” within the sanitation district.

Neither Freeman nor Sangermano would talk about their discussions with the district attorney, but officials said that county investigators have received numerous documents about alleged irregularities in agency operations. Prosecutors also have said they are reviewing reports that sanitation officials may have improperly accepted gifts from contractors doing business with the district.

In a separate investigation, state authorities Friday sanctioned the district and an Ontario engineering firm for eight safety violations relating to a fire that killed two employees of the engineering firm at the district’s Huntington Beach treatment plant earlier this year. A criminal investigation of the matter is continuing by the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Since his apparent discussions with authorities, Freeman said in the letter that Sangermano has been “the object of unwarranted internal investigations, harassments, retaliations and other acts of misconduct.”

Sangermano said Monday that harassment contributed to his decision to get a stress-related medical leave granted last week.

The laboratory manager said he attempted to return to work Monday and arrived with a note from his doctor pronouncing him fit, but was reportedly told that he would have to get clearance from sanitation district physicians before he was allowed to work.

In conversations with his colleagues since his leave, Sangermano said he learned of the lock changes and was told that officials were prepared to turn his duties over to a “new manager.”

“They (colleagues) were told not to talk with me,” he said.

While declining to offer details about Sangermano’s leave, sanitation agency spokeswoman Clawson said Sangermano was still employed by the district. She said no changes had been made in the manager’s duties.

Clawson acknowledged that Sangermano’s calls were being referred Monday to the personnel department.

“That was a mistake,” Clawson said. “I don’t know why that happened, but they are now being referred to his boss.”