Social Worker’s Remarks Ignite Bias Inquiry

A social worker at the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services is under investigation for allegedly making racist and sexist remarks about fellow employees in a telephone conversation that was accidentally recorded, officials said Friday.

Charles Harris, 62, made offensive comments about Jews, gays and women during a March 25 phone call with a representative of a private counseling agency, according to a transcript of the conversation.

Harris disparaged two colleagues at the department’s West Los Angeles office, the transcript shows. He spent the past nine months working in that office as an acting community development coordinator, one of eight people in the department who deal with outside counseling agencies.

In the aftermath of the taped conversation, Harris has been transferred to his old job--with less pay--as a social worker in the Century office near Los Angeles International Airport. He was on vacation Friday and unavailable for comment.

Department officials expressed shock at Harris’ words and said his sentiments were an aberration among the more than 2,700 social workers countywide.

“The feelings are disappointment and a certain amount of disgust,” said Yvonne Hudson, division chief of human resources, which is conducting the internal probe of the phone call. “He is a social worker, and the expectation is that he would have a little better handle on these kinds of matters.”

Department officials said they plan to conclude their investigation next week. Harris’ punishment could range from a written warning to dismissal. Officials said they expected to hand down “a significant suspension, at least at this point.”

Even as department officials moved forward with their investigation, at least one group was calling for Harris’ resignation.

“The gay and lesbian communities are outraged that people who provide services to youths and adolescents would engage in such homophobic and bigoted behavior,” said Darrel Cummings, deputy executive director of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center. “This individual should have nothing to do with the health and welfare of young people.”

The phone call in question was mistakenly recorded while Harris was speaking with a worker from Triangle Christian Services, an agency that contracts with the county.

The two were talking when Harris, using a three-party line, put his caller on hold so he could leave a voice-mail message for a fellow social worker. But Harris failed to hang up after leaving his message--clicking the dial only once instead of the required two times--and his conversation on the first line ended up recorded on the colleague’s voice mail.

An anonymous letter detailing Harris’ comments and a copy of the taped conversation were distributed recently to various officials, including Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.

Earlier this week, Yaroslavsky wrote to the director of the children services department, Peter Digre, to call for an investigation.

Department officials already had initiated their internal probe two days after the March 25 phone call.

“Copies of the material which I have received--including a clearly audible audiotape and verbatim transcript--raise troubling questions indeed about the conduct of Mr. Harris and its implications for his official decision-making capacity,” Yaroslavsky wrote.

Harris joined the department in 1990. His job as acting community development coordinator paid nearly $52,000 a year. As a social worker in the Century office, he will earn about $48,000, department officials said. But they stressed that Harris was transferred, not demoted, while the investigation is ongoing.

“It is in the best interest of the employees to have him in another location while we do the investigation,” Hudson said. “We are trying to get that office back in order. We had some real concerns about the impact this thing was having on the office.”