LOS ANGELES, CBSLA – The Los Angeles County Board will reconvene Tuesday to decide whether to proceed with a proposal that will examine whether it has the authority and ability to remove elected sheriff Alex Villanueva from office.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alexei Villanueva at a press conference at the Justice Hall on the 30th. September 2020. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images)
If the proposal is adopted, the Council will be asked to convene a meeting of the legal experts, its Inspector General, the Civilian Supervisory Commission and its acting Director-General to examine the possibilities of withdrawing or retiring Mr Villanueva before the end of his term of office in 2022.
The Council will also consider whether, for example, the head of the Los Angeles police force should be appointed rather than elected in the future.
Under the title Report on Options for the Sheriff’s Deposition, the proposal was presented by heads of state and government Mark Ridley-Thomas and Sheila Quel.
Since his election in 2018, the Supervisory Board has been at odds with Sheriff Alexey Villanueva.
With the current sheriff, it is difficult to make decisive progress and public confidence is quickly eroded, according to the petition. Although the committee may have gone through difficult times with former sheriffs, the actions of this sheriff show that options for removing a sheriff who refuses to supervise, or at least limit the damage caused by unacceptable behaviour, urgently need to be considered.
Ridley-Thomas and Kuel also claim that Viljanoea failed to balance the sheriff’s department’s budget, reduce youth programmes and liquidate the park’s service office – actions that were also criticised by the deputy union.
A vote on this issue was postponed by Ridley Thomas two weeks ago, when it became clear that he would not get enough support. The deceased supervisor, who was elected last week to succeed Herb Wesson on Los Angeles City Council, said he was concerned that his colleagues did not have enough time to review the proposal.
At a meeting on the 27th. In October overseer Kathryn Barger said she was in favour of voters deciding the fate of Villanueva.
Understand that I continue to believe the Sheriff will be elected in 2022, if not for… Efforts have been made to vacate this site, voters will have the right, Barger said.
According to spokeswoman Liz Odendaal, overseer Janis Khan intends to reject the proposal because he believes that power is in the hands of the voters.
Other possibilities are the removal of Villanueva from certain positions and the appointment of a district police chief.
The Council’s proposal came after the Civilian Oversight Commission demanded the sheriff’s resignation last month. Villanueva rejected the committee’s vote and accused the group of punishing him for investigating possible corruption.
In their comments on the meeting of 27. In October, Villanueva asked the leaders to meet him alone.
We’re a county family, and if we work together, we can do great things, the Sheriff said. Let’s put the past behind us and settle our differences… I look forward to finding common ground in the interests of public safety and fiscal responsibility.
Despite the fact that the union representing the rank and file had its own problems with the sheriff, who could not agree with them about large staff transfers, it still seems to support Villanueva.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All rights reserved. City News Service contributed to this report).
Related Tags:
