SAN FRANCISCO—On Thursday, September 4, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin announced that following an investigation, his office charged Heather Zalatimo, a former chief information security officer at San Francisco’s Department of Public Health (DPH), for entering the Department of Public Health into a contact in which she had financial interest.
According to court documents, back in 2016 while serving as the Manager of IT Operations at DPH, Zalatimo arranged for DPH to buy more than $1 million of cybersecurity products from the company Fidelis Cybersecurity. Her husband was the person coordinating the sale for Fidelis Cybsecurity. He netted a 65,000 commission from this sale, while she got promoted to acting Chief Information Security Officer of DPH.
On Thursday, the court arraigned Zalatimo on two charges of violating Government Code. The court charged her with a felony for breaking Government Code 1090 which restricts public officials from entering into contracts in which they have financial interest. The court also charged Zalatimo with a misdemeanor violation of Government Code 81700, which prohibits public officials from using their position to influence a governmental decision of which they may have personal interest. Zalatimo pleaded not guilty to the charges. Her next court date is a pre-hearing conference on November 12.
“San Franciscans deserve to know that their public servants act purely in San Francisco’s best interest, not to line their own pockets. When they don’t, my office will enforce public integrity laws to hold those public servants accountable for abusing the public’s trust,” said District Attorney Boudin in a statement.
