With Sheriff Alex Villanueva declining to enforce the county’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate among his deputies, the Board of Supervisors today voted to develop a proposal that would give the county’s personnel director overriding authority to discipline any employees who fail to comply with the requirement, including Sheriff’s deputies.
Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Holly Mitchell introduced the motion, saying countywide compliance with the employee vaccine mandate “remains a challenge four months after its issuance.” They noted that as of Feb. 1, 81.5% of the county’s 100,000 employees were fully vaccinated as required by the mandate.
But in the sheriff’s department, less than 60% of employees were in compliance with the vaccine mandate. By comparison, LAPD Assistant Chief Beatrice Girmala told the Los Angeles Police Commission today that 10,216 LAPD employees, or 82.9% of the department, are fully vaccinated, a half-percent are partially vaccinated, and 16.6% are unvaccinated. Currently, one Los Angeles Police Department officer has been fired for violating the city’s vaccine mandate and termination proceedings are underway for seven others.
“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. “This data illustrates vaccinations’ vital role in limiting the spread of COVID-19 and thus, the urgent need to increase vaccination rates across the entire county workforce.”
The Sheriff’s Department is the only county department that has refused to enforce the mandate, according to one board member. Villanueva said last October that, based on budget cuts and employee reluctance, “we have to pick and choose,” which mandates from the Board to enforce. It’s an interesting stance since the Board Of Supervisors effectively oversees Villanueva’s department.
The resources argument is also baffling given that, of the 18,000 LASD employees, in October 10,000 had either had Covid or been quarantined as a result of close contact with someone who was infected. That’s more than 55% of Villanueva’s department whose productivity had likely been impacted significantly by the virus. And that was before Omicron. That’s hard to square with the 22% Villanueva guesses have a problem with the vaccine which, the Sheriff says, he personally has received.
The motion directs county attorneys to work with its CEO and personnel director to develop proposed amendments to county Civil Service rules, giving Director of Personnel Lisa Garrett “overriding authority to discipline the employees of any county department for noncompliance with the county’s policy or directives related to the policy.”
Those proposed amendments will be reviewed by the board at its March 15 meeting for final consideration.
The authority to discipline — or terminate — employees who violate the mandate currently rests with individual department heads, such as the Sheriff. The new motion states that such an arrangement “has allowed for inconsistent application and enforcement of the policy and wide variety from department to department.”
Villanueva has spoken out against the county’s vaccine mandate, saying it would decimate the ranks of what he calls an already depleted department. He said deputies should have the option of undergoing regular testing rather than being forced to get vaccinated.
The sheriff today called the proposed shift in disciplinary authority a “death blow to public safety in Los Angeles County” that would have little impact on vaccinations.
He said 9,881 department members are fully vaccinated, and in the last 30 days, just 342 have tested positive, for a 3.46% positivity rate. Among the 5,766 unvaccinated members, 221 tested positive in the last 30 days, for a 3.83% positivity rate. It was unclear how often employees were testing, however.
Another factor, Garrett said, is that “in around December, the Sheriff’s employees stopped putting their numbers in.” There are apparently 2,000 sheriff’s department employees not even in the system.
Villanueva later claimed, “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. The current situation is not sustainable. The hiring freeze is not sustainable.”
“This is ill-advised, illogical and probably in the long run illegal,” Villanueva said, despite the fact that the county’s counsel said it does have the authority to make the move. “And by the time we figure out the legality of it, we’re going to be past the pandemic, which will make the result irrelevant. I urge you to deescalate, dial back the rhetoric and find some common ground — testing or vaccination, and we’re doing that right now.”
On Monday, an attorney for the Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Association sent a letter to the board objecting to the proposal, saying it would violate the county charter and amount to an overstepping of the board’s authority.
“Any attempt to take over the sheriff’s ability to oversee the disciplinary process for his employees, it is submitted, would certainly not survive legal scrutiny by the courts who would likely fine the BOS exceeded their authority under well-established legal principals,” attorney James Cunningham wrote.
Citing a 1977 court ruling, Cunningham added, “Such supervisory control by the BOS would directly conflict with the admonition that ‘the board has no power to perform county officers’ statutory duties for them or direct the manner in which duties are performed.’ “
City News Service contributed to this report.
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