LOS ANGELES—Sheriff Alex Villanueva called the county’s board of supervisors’ efforts unconstitutional and a “power grab” as officials moved ahead with plans this week to draft a ballot measure that would allow them to remove him from office.
The LA County Board of Supervisors passed a motion Tuesday, July 12, to direct county attorneys to draft an ordinance for November’s ballot that would allow the board to remove an elected sheriff.
The motion passed 4–1 with Supervisor Kathryn Barger voting against it. The issue will still need to return to the board for final passage before it goes before voters in November.
“The ill-advised measure from yesterday is unconstitutional—a massive power grab from the board of supervisors. As if they do not have enough power,” Villanueva said on Facebook Live Wednesday.
Under the motion, supervisors would be allowed to remove a sheriff “for cause”—with such cause defined as “a violation of any law related to the performance of their duties as sheriff; flagrant or repeated neglect of duties; a misappropriation of public funds or property; willful falsification of a relevant official statement or document; or obstruction of any investigation into the conduct of the sheriff by the Inspector General, Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission, or any government agency with jurisdiction to conduct such an investigation.”
The sheriff and supervisors have exchanged barbs over the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Villanueva also accused them of defunding the Sheriff’s Department. He also rebuffed subpoenas to appear before the county’s Civilian Oversight Commission.
“The current sheriff has been openly hostile to oversight and transparency and has tested the functionality of existing oversight structures by consistently resisting and obstructing these systems of checks and balances,” reads the supervisors’s motion.
The motion also refers to previous sheriffs Lee Baca, who was sent to federal prison on corruption charges, and Peter Pitchess, who “resisted any involvement in the first internal investigation of deputy gangs from outside the department.”
Villanueva disputed a claim by supervisors who said the sheriff’s department does not have oversight.
“I had to laugh at one supervisor in the third district discussing about the power of the sheriff,” Villanueva said. “I rely on the board for their budgets. They have the power and the authority to appoint an inspector general, an oversight commission. They can hound me relentlessly for my entire first term in office.”
Supervisor Barger said in a statement after the vote the proposal created a “slippery slope for the Board of Supervisors to override the will of the voters.”
“I remain concerned that this action, as approved by the board today, dilutes the voice of Los Angeles County voters and deepens voter apathy,” Barger said.
In contrast, Supervisor Mitchell took to Twitter after the vote, saying the motion’s approval “is a step toward stronger accountability, which is needed for public safety.”
Supervisor Sheila Kuehl said that the board probably would not have brought up the proposal had Villanueva “not been so egregious in his behavior.”
The sheriff, a Democrat, is running for a second term in November. All five county supervisors and the county’s Democratic Party have endorsed his opponent former Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna.
Luna did not return a request for comment by press time.
The sheriff said in a letter to supervisors this week that the motion was an attempt at intimidation and the supervisors were using their political offices to willfully affect the outcome of an election.
“If passed, this unprecedented motion would allow corrupt Board members to intimidate sheriffs from carrying out their official duties to investigate crime,” Villanueva said. “This motion is a recipe for public corruption, particularly when ‘cause’ remains so broad and undefined. Allowing political appointees with an agenda to determine ‘cause’ is fundamentally flawed.”
In the letter, the sheriff said the motion was illegal. His department did not return a request for comment by press time asking if he planned to file legal action against it.
Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department is the largest county sheriff’s office in the U.S., patrolling 200 Southern California cities and one of the world’s largest jail systems.
