LA Sheriff Responds to Supervisors’ Attempt to Remove Him

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

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