Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has hit out at the progressive Board of Supervisors for its efforts to oust some 4,000 members of his department – including 3,000 deputies – for refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
In a 4-0 preliminary vote last week, with one member abstaining, the Board approved a motion stripping Villanueva of the power to enforce the county’s vaccine mandate, which he has refused to exercise, and hand that responsibility over to the county personnel director, who will be authorized to discipline and terminate non-compliant employees.
Villanueva slammed the decision as a ‘death blow to public safety’ that would cause his department to lose more than a third of its workforce amid rising crime rates, including a shocking 94 per cent increase in homicides over the last two years.
Speaking to Fox News Digital this week, Villanueva, who described himself as a Democrat in the mold of ‘JFK and FDR,’ lashed out at the Board for attempting to change county Civil Service rules to shift the responsibility for disciplining employees from individual department heads, such as the sheriff, to the county personnel director.
‘This is nothing but a power grab by the board,’ Villanueva, who heads the nation’s largest sheriff’s department, told the conservative outlet.
The proposed changes will go to a final vote during a Board meeting set for March 15.
Lo Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has condemned the County Board of Supervisors for making a push to fire 4,000 of his employees for being unvaccinated
Villanueva did not mince words, accusing the members of the Board of ignoring the public’s mounting safety concerns amid skyrocketing crime rates in the service of their progressive political agenda.
‘They’re that power hungry in there, so walled off from normal life,’ he said. ‘It’s really an immoral position these people have adopted, and just shame on every single one of them.’
Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Holly Mitchell introduced the motion to transfer the mandate enforcement authority to the personnel director, pointing out that in the sheriff’s department, less than 60 percent of employees were vaccinated, reported ABC 7 Los Angeles.
‘Unsurprisingly, approximately 74% of the more than 5,000 COVID-19-related workers’ compensation claims filed by county employees as of Jan. 29, 2022, have been filed by employees in the sheriff’s department,’ according to the motion.
At the beginning of last week’s Board meeting, Villanueva addressed the members over the phone, predicting them that enforcing the vaccination mandate will have only a minimal effect on COVID rates within his department, which will be achieved at a catastrophic cost to public safety.
‘Your motion is going to seek to basically cause us to actually lose 4,000 employees, for a grand total of 0.4% improvement in positivity rate,’ he said. ‘[That] is not exactly benefit to public safety. We’re coming off two years of a historically high 94% increase in homicide rate, 64% increase in grand theft auto. And this is just not sustainable.’
Villanueva has refused to force his employees to get vaccinated. Instead, he has proposed subjecting deputies to regular testing.
Kuehl said that employees’ refusal to comply with the county’s vaccine mandate puts lives at risk and is ‘simply unacceptable.’ She added if a department head was unwilling to enforce the mandate, ‘the director of personal is willing to do so.’
Board members Kuehl, Mitchell, Janice Khan and Hilda Solis voted on Tuesday to approve the change, with Kathryn Barger abstaining.
Supervisors Sheila Kuehl (left) and Holly Mitchell (right) introduced a motion to transfer the vaccine mandate enforcement authority from Villanueva to the county personnel director
Supervisors Janice Khan (left) and Hilda Solis (right) voted to approve the motion last week
Barger said she did not think it was appropriate to change county rules over the actions of one employee.
Villanueva called the Board’s decision a ‘suicide pact’ borne out of political ideology.
‘There is nothing that is driving them that’s based on science or combating the coronavirus because we’re surrounded by five counties who don’t have vaccine mandates, and now they’re actively recruiting members of my department and with even sign-up bonuses,’ the sheriff fumed.
Supervisor Kathryn Barger abstained from the vote, saying she did not think it was appropriate to change county rules over the actions of one employee
Villanueva noted that the push to oust some 3,000 of his deputies comes on top of an ongoing hiring freeze at his department, which has been imposed by the Board as part of what the sheriff has described as its ‘defund the police’ agenda.
‘We’re the most understaffed law enforcement agency in the entire nation, and on top of that, they want to erode our presence even further. And that is just shocking. And we’re in the middle of a crime wave,’ Villanueva said.
The irate top cop called of the Supervisors to ‘quit right now’ over their ‘reprehensible’ decision-making.
A spokesperson for the Board of Supervisors said that the motion voted on last week applies to all heads of departments, not just Villanueva, and its overarching goal is to protect the health of employees and the general public.
She also said that more than 2,000 exemptions on medical or religious grounds have been granted to employees refusing to get vaccinated against COVID.
