The Civilian Oversight Commission for the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department hosted a virtual Commission meeting Oct. 15 and unanimously voted (8-0) to approve a “Resolution Expressing No Confidence In L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s Leadership and Condemning His Failure to Cooperate with Civilian Oversight. The resolution calls for the resignation of the Sheriff.
“The ad hoc committee spent a lot of time trying to come up with a resolution that would signal to the Sheriff that we’re serious and the ball would be in his court to make things better,” said Commission Chair Lael Rubin. “I don’t think he has any intention of making anything better.”
Rubin continued, “The Sheriff responded with a letter addressing the proposed resolution that was demeaning to the Commission and members of the community. It really gave a sense that he has no intention of working with us. I will join the colleagues of mine in calling for his resignation.”
After discussion, commissioners agreed on updated language to the resolution that underscored that they have no confidence in the Sheriff’s ability to effectively govern the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) and ultimately concluding that he should resign immediately.
“The resolution highlights that L.A. County residents deserve a Sheriff’s Department that is cooperative, respectful, transparent, accountable, trustworthy, and amenable to change,” said Brian K. Williams, executive director of the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission.
The sheriff said the county should have an “elected oversight commission,” saying the current makeup of the panel is “political appointees” of the board, “and they act like it.”
“Their political philosophies are they really, really hate cops or they slightly hate cops or they’re not too sure,” Villanueva said.
When some members of the commission last month called for him to resign, Villanueva accused the panel of being nothing more than an “attack dog” for the board.
“They’re just part of the echo chamber of the board,” the sheriff 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. And that’s pretty much the line they’ve crossed, along with [Inspector General] Max Huntsman. In fact, they crossed that line a long time ago, this is just the latest example of that.
“I’m just going to ignore it and move on,” he said. “I’m going to continue serving the community, and I just have to set that aside.”
