Three Santa Barbara County Public Health employees are accusing department leaders Dr. Henning Ansorg and Dr. Mouhanad Hammami of gender and racial discrimination, harassment, and workplace retaliation in a lawsuit filed last week.

Hammami “regularly disregards the opinions, concerns, complaints of mistreatment, and contributions of female and non-white staff and non-heterosexual staff,” plaintiffs allege.

The county failed to properly investigate workplace safety complaints and “knowingly allowed (plaintiffs) to be exposed to further harassment” despite their ongoing complaints and “their requests for protection from it,” the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit filed by Paige Batson, Dr. Noemi Doohan and Shellie Robles-Davis allege the issues started or escalated when Hammami was hired as department director last year. They name Hammami, Ansorg and the county as defendants in the case, which was filed in Santa Barbara County Superior Court.

“This harassment, discrimination, and retaliation suffused the entire Department of Public Health, but Defendants Ansorg and Hammami effected some of the most glaring occurrences,” the lawsuit alleges.

As public health officer, Ansorg was the frequent face of pandemic-related health orders and COVID-19 updates during county briefings.  

Batson worked for Public Health for more than 20 years, most visibly as deputy director of the community health division. She also was doing a lot of public information work during the pandemic.

She resigned about a year ago, allegedly due to Ansorg and Hammami’s behavior and the county’s failure to properly investigate complaints against them.

Doohan, the chief medical director for Public Health, also resigned last year.

All three plaintiffs filed claims with the county in August, which were rejected, and received right-to-sue letters from the state in December.

Ansorg, Hammami and others “engaged in unlawful discrimination (gender/race), harassment, retaliation and created an unsafe work environment due to complaints of illegal behavior in the workplace,” Batson and Doohan alleged in their claims.

They both claimed loss of income, loss of future income and benefits, and emotional distress.

Robles-Davis accused both men of unlawful racial discrimination “by refusing to hire/promote me, the most qualified candidate, twice, and instead promoted a less qualified, less experienced member of staff.”

They also created an unsafe work environment by ignoring complaints and/or pressuring employees to engage in illegal activities in the workplace, Robles-Davis stated in the claim.

All three plaintiffs are suing for monetary damages and allege they’ve suffered significant emotional distress, anxiety or panic attacks, migraines and other medical issues requiring stress leave.

The defendants’ actions led them “to despair of ever finding full-time employment appropriate to their training and experience in the health or public health sectors in Santa Barbara County.”

Hammami declined to comment for this story, and Ansorg could not be reached for comment as of Friday.

“The county takes any allegation made against the county and our staff seriously,” spokeswoman Kelsey Gerckens Buttitta said in a statement to Noozhawk.

“The county has not yet been served with the lawsuit. At this time, it would not be appropriate to comment on the specifics of the allegations.”

When asked whether Ansorg or Hammami have been or currently are subject to Human Resources investigations, Buttitta said the county “does not discuss personnel matters and neither does any member of staff.”

A Superior Court case management conference is scheduled for August.

The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Kristi Rothschild and Julian Alwill of Santa Barbara.

Details of the Lawsuit Against Public Health

Hammami has misrepresented himself as a licensed medical doctor and received bonuses in line with a medical doctor, the plaintiffs allege.

Hammami has a medical degree from Syria, according to the county, and is not a licensed physician in California, according to state Medical Board records.

The lawsuit accuses Ansorg of making homophobic comments and racist comments that staff reported to Human Resources and Hammami, with no corrective action taken.

Ansorg allegedly asked a gay coworker “why gay men have so much sex,” the lawsuit alleges.

He “made repeated racist remarks about the source of (a) Hepatitis B outbreak as likely arising from ‘Mexicans,’” the lawsuit alleges.

Doohan claims that during the pandemic, she heard Ansorg say the county shouldn’t prioritize COVID treatment in the northern part of the county, where infection rates were consistently high.

Doohan understood that to be a discriminatory comment because North County communities are primarily Hispanic, rural and lower-income residents, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit also alleges Ansorg made illegal demands to Public Health nurses: to administer vaccinations to patients without their consent, to estimate medication dosages administered, and to compound medications beyond the scope of their licensing.

Plaintiffs filed complaints to Human Resources in these cases, and no corrective action was taken, the lawsuit alleges.

The plaintiffs said they believe Ansorg had given similar directives to nurses in the past and was reprimanded by a previous Public Health Director.

That establishes “a pattern of malpractice that was not stopped, despite knowledge by the County of Santa Barbara,” the lawsuit alleges.

Workplace Safety Complaints, Investigations and Alleged Retaliation

The lawsuit details several incidents that reportedly prompted internal investigations.  

In February 2023, Ansorg allegedly told Doohan he wanted to get rid of Batson as his supervisor and install himself in her place, despite his limited management experience.

“Ansorg pantomimed loading and shooting a gun, which Doohan understood as a threat against Batson and Batson’s safety,” the lawsuit says.

Doohan reported the behavior to deputy directors, county HR, and Hammami.

An investigation was conducted and closed a week later with no protective action taken, according to the lawsuit.

Batson went to Hammami with her concerns and on the same day, Ansorg approached her in her office “in an effort to discredit” Doohan’s account, the lawsuit alleges.

Ansorg closed the office door, said Doohan had exaggerated everything, and “appeared visibly angry,” the lawsuit alleges.

Batson messaged a coworker to come in and interrupt the conversation, and she left the office. She advised Doohan to leave as well, and both women “fled” the county facility, the lawsuit alleges.

After that incident, the county placed Ansorg on administrative leave and investigated, according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs saw the investigation as “illegitimate and to have a predetermined result that Ansorg would be exonerated” because Hammami kept saying that he expected Ansorg to be back at work the next week.

The county did not appoint an interim Public Health Officer during his leave, as required, and attempted to have Doohan sign and backdate paperwork to fill that gap, the lawsuit alleges.

Doohan had offered to take the oath and do the job in advance, but Hammami rejected it, and said Ansorg would be back in a matter of days – “again indicating the investigation into defendant Ansorg’s threats of violence was a sham,” the lawsuit alleges.  

Human Resources found the allegations to be unsubstantiated and no protective actions were taken.

Batson did not feel safe working around Ansorg and resigned in March 2023, according to the lawsuit.

Ansorg was promoted into a management position and given some of Batson’s duties, according to the complaint.

Ansorg was a staff physician appointed by the Board of Supervisors to also do Public Health Officer duties such as issuing public health orders.

In July 2023, Hammami asked the Board of Supervisors to create a public health officer job classification with Ansorg as the incumbent, which they approved.

The new role is an executive management position overseeing disease control and prevention, the public health laboratory, coordinating with other agencies, and acting as the public health medical authority of the county, according to Hammami’s board letter.

Hammami allegedly retaliated against Doohan’s complaints by increasing her workload and excluding her from internal meetings.

Doohan resigned in mid-2023, the lawsuit states.

Robles-Davis applied to multiple positions within Public Health and did not get selected for them, despite having more experience than people who were hired, the lawsuit alleges.

She was micromanaged, undermined and excluded from being interviewed for open job positions, the lawsuit alleges. She saw this as retaliation for filing complaints about workplace safety violations.