The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a motion Tuesday directing county staff to look into how to either impeach or take away some of the responsibilities of Sheriff Alex Villanueva, as well as to explore how to shift the position of Sheriff from an elected one to an appointed one.
During their regular meeting Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to approve a motion directing Los Angeles County staff to explore options for removing or limiting the power of Villanueva, with Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas, Sheila Kuehl, and Hilda Solis voting in favor, and Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Janice Hahn voting against the motion.
“Under the current Sheriff, hard-fought vital progress is being undone, and community trust is rapidly eroding,” the motion reads. “While the board has been able to navigate challenging times with previous Sheriffs, this Sheriff’s actions demonstrate the dire need to explore options for removing a Sheriff who refuses oversight or, at a minimum, mitigating damages caused by unacceptable behavior.”
Authored by Ridley-Thomas and Kuehl, the motion instructs the County Counsel to work with the Office of the Inspector General, the Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the Civilian Oversight Commission (COC) to find “options for removing or impeaching,” Villanueva, as well as “legislative changes required to potentially remove certain existing responsibilities of the Sheriff,” and report back within 30 days.
“We hold a popularity contest for arguably our most important law enforcement position,” Ridley-Thomas said during Tuesday’s meeting. “We have something worse than democracy, we have the illusion of democracy.”
The motion was originally placed on the agenda for the board’s Oct. 27 meeting, but was pushed back to Nov. 10 in order to give the supervisors adequate time to review it.
“Given the recent but persistent refusal to provide the transparency and accountability that the community rightly demands, the County should consider whether the status of the Sheriff’s office should be reexamined in order to better serve the more than 10 million residents of the County,” the motion reads.
While the text of the motion acknowledges the “more limited” authority that the board has over elected positions such as the Sheriff, it argues that the board “has general supervisory authority over elected officers to the extent that they function as County officers and may review and assess the officer’s performance of those County duties.”
“The need for mechanisms to hold an elected Sheriff accountable is painfully obvious today, at a time when communities across the County are reeling from violence – including much-too-frequent deputy involved-shootings,” the motion reads.
The motion also directs county staff to look into the possibility of shifting the position of Los Angeles County Sheriff from an elected one to an appointed one, citing how the Chief of Police for the Los Angeles Police Department is appointed by the mayor of Los Angeles and approved by the Police Commission and the City Council.
Ridley-Thomas and Kuehl argue that this structure provides for “robust civilian oversight.”
“On the other hand, with an elected Sheriff, the County has had to maneuver different ways to create checks and balances on the Sheriff,” the motion reads. “Through the board’s leadership, the OIG and COC now have better tools to perform their oversight of LASD and the board continues to use its budgetary authority. However, it has become increasingly clear that the Sheriff’s blatant disregard for transparency and accountability requires a more forceful response.”
Barger was one of the two votes against the measure, stating that while she has had disagreements and concerns with Villanueva, she supports the office and the department as a whole.
“We cannot make long-term policy decisions based on the short-term personalities that be,” she said. “I believe this motion is based more on personality than need.”
Hahn offered the second vote against the motion, calling it “unnecessary.”
“It’s not within this board’s authority to remove an elected official,” she said. “If the voters want a new Sheriff, they have options.”
For his part, Villanueva addressed the board when the motion was originally introduced in October, stating that he has been “more transparent” than his predecessors, and asked the supervisors to meet with him privately before proceeding.
“We are a county family, and when there’s collaboration, we can do great things,” he said. “Let’s set aside the past and work out our differences.”
The full motion can be read here.
See Related: L.A. County Sheriff Villanueva Responds To Calls For Resignation
Tuesday’s motion is the most recent development in a long line of confrontations between Villanueva, the County Board, and the COC, which have included back-and-forth statements on social media, and borderline threats of bureaucratic retaliation as tensions have risen during the coronavirus pandemic that have only been exacerbated by curfews, protests, and budget changes
COC member Robert Bonner, a former U.S. Attorney and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator, was the first to call on Villanueva to step down during the final hours of a commission meeting back in September.
“It’s with great reluctance that I’m calling for Sheriff Villanueva to resign,” Bonner said. “The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department itself deserves better. The men and women of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deserve better.”
The commission expressed doubt over the sheriff’s version of events leading to the filmed arrest of a reporter and asked county attorneys to prepare a report on legal responsibilities involved in law enforcement activities at protests.
“I don’t take this step lightly,” Bonner said. “I only do so because it’s become apparent that he has demonstrated on occasions that he lacks the judgment needed to be the sheriff, and he’s unable to provide the leadership needed by the sheriff’s department.”
The Los Angeles County Office of Inspector General later confirmed that it had initiated an investigation into the Sept. 12 arrest by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department of reporter Josie Huang, a KPCC/LAist reporter who was arrested while she was covering a protest following the ambush shooting of two LASD deputies in Compton.
Members of the commission also noted Villanueva’s handling of the deputies who inappropriately took photos of the Kobe Bryant helicopter crash scene in January, and shared them with the media, resulting in public backlash.
During a press conference in September, Villanueva said that the COC was overstepping its role.
“There’s a fine line between being a watchdog and a political attack dog,” he said. “That’s pretty much the line they’ve crossed. They crossed the line a long time ago. This is just the latest example of it.”
Villanueva also called the commission a “political body appointed by the Board of Supervisors,” with whom the sheriff has repeatedly clashed on budget and other issues.
“They’re just part of the echo chamber of the board,” Villanueva said. “And unfortunately, the route they take is not one that’s going to engender goodwill … between myself or the organization, because there’s a fine line being a watchdog and an attack dog, a political attack dog.”
That same day, Kuehl and Ridley-Thomas said that they supported the calls for Villanueva to resign.
“Like the members of the Civilian Oversight Commission, I remain troubled by the Sheriff’s conduct and the way he has interfered with advancing reform and enhancing accountability,” Ridley-Thomas said in a statement.
In response to the comments made by the COC, Ridley-Thomas and Kuehl, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department released an official statement, calling the motion “morally repugnant and emblematic of the political animosity of the politically-appointed commission,” in light of the fact that the calls for Villanueva’s resignation come while two deputies are recovering from a shooting ambush in Compton.
“It is becoming painfully obvious this commission is acting in retaliation against the sheriff for his efforts in investigating potential criminal conduct from county officials and for challenging the legality of subpoenaing the sheriff himself versus the LASD,” read the LASD HQ statement. “The sheriff will remain focused on serving the residents of Los Angeles County as he leads the department in investigating the ambush, overseeing the response to the Bobcat Fire evacuations, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic’s impact to the jail system.”
Then, on Oct. 21, Villanueva took to social media to address a resolution from the COC published on Oct. 15, which states that the Commission “has lost confidence in Sheriff Villanueva’s ability to effectively govern the Sheriff’s Department.”
“The Commission finds that Sheriff Villanueva enables a culture within the Sheriff’s Department of deputy impunity, disregards the constitutional rights of Los Angeles County residents, disdains other elected officials and disrespects the will of voters who support robust civilian oversight,” the resolution reads. “The Commission finds that the ongoing issues within the Sheriff’s Department point to a serious lack of judgment and leadership by Sheriff Villanueva.”
Villanueva proceeded to go through the text of the resolution, stating that he has “a lot of concerns” regarding the document.
“If they want to maintain a respectful dialogue, well I think there’s better ways to do it than to call for my resignation,” he said.
Villanueva attacked the COC multiple times, referring to them as the “attack dogs of the Board of Supervisors.”
“They are political animals,” he said. “They act exactly like you’d expect a political attack dog to perform.”
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