{"id":446839,"date":"2026-08-29T03:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T03:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/446839\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T03:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T03:48:08","slug":"former-county-behavioral-health-director-evaluating-legal-options-after-public-dismissal-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/446839\/","title":{"rendered":"Former county behavioral health director evaluating \u2018legal options\u2019 after public dismissal \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

The attorney who represents Nadia Privara Brahms, San Diego County\u2019s recently terminated behavioral health director, said in an email Friday that he is \u201cevaluating all of our client\u2019s legal options\u201d in the wake of public statements made by the county Tuesday shortly after the release of a batch of employee discipline documents requested<\/a> by Voice of San Diego.<\/p>\n

Included among the 80 documents, which also contain records pertaining to sexual harassment at the county\u2019s psychiatric hospital, is an investigation summary report of a county behavioral health administrative analyst who allegedly made a racist comment during a virtual cultural competency training\u00a0on Feb. 28, 2025.<\/p>\n

The county\u2019s communications office released a statement<\/a> late Tuesday, after making the collection of documents public, which said that substantiated claims of racist comments \u201cprompted a leadership change in Behavioral Health Services,\u201d with executive Jennifer Bransford-Koons temporarily leading the department \u201cafter the departure of Director Nadia Privara.\u201d<\/p>\n

The county\u2019s statement also said that \u201cCounty executive leadership called for a closer examination of processes to strengthen expectations around decision-making accountability and leadership conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comment, made via an accidentally unmuted microphone during the training,\u00a0according to the county\u2019s summary report, was heard by six people who said they heard the analyst say: \u201cI thought this wasn\u2019t going to be political, but what do I expect when it\u2019s taught by a bunch of Black people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The county has not elaborated on why Privara was fired. She was named behavioral health director in April 2025, two months after the incident. Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe quickly released a statement Tuesday supporting the county\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur responsibility goes beyond any one department or one person,\u201d Montgomery Steppe said in her statement. \u201cWe must ensure these values are reflected throughout the county operations and that every employee knows they will be heard and treated with dignity and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked for more information on why she supported the replacement of Privara, a representative said that the supervisor \u201ccan\u2019t comment about a personnel issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former behavioral health director Luke Bergmann was running the department during the period when the behavioral health-related incidents listed in the disciplinary files occurred. Asked for comment Tuesday, Bergmann did not respond.<\/p>\n

Will Small, the attorney representing Privara, said in an email Friday that his client was told she was terminated \u201cbased on conduct and judgment that is inconsistent with the standards expected of your position,\u201d adding that she\u00a0\u201cabsolutely disagrees with this stated reason, which has no basis in reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen she requested specific examples or further details, County representatives refused to provide them,\u201d Small said.<\/p>\n

Privara, he added, has spent her entire career at the county, a span of more than two decades, including more than 10 years working in the behavioral health department. Prior to her directorial appointment, the executive was assistant director and chief strategy and finance officer for behavioral health services, according to a profile<\/a> posted by the California Behavioral Health Planning Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe excelled in her role and was highly respected by both County employees and community partners,\u201d Small said.<\/p>\n

He further noted that the incidents made public this week preceded his client\u2019s appointment as interim behavioral health director, which was noted in a county meeting on April 8, 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was not involved in the investigations of any of those incidents, nor was she the subject of any complaint regarding sexual harassment or racism,\u201d Small said. \u201cIn fact, Ms. (Privara) actively worked to create a culture of equity, safety and belonging during her tenure with the County.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The attorney who represents Nadia Privara Brahms, San Diego County\u2019s recently terminated behavioral health director, said in an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7,1570,23,100,74,84,76,75,1696],"class_list":["post-446839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-california","tag-health","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}