With Sheriff Alex Villanueva refusing to enforce the county’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate among his officers, the Board of Supervisors gave preliminary approval Tuesday to a proposal that would give the county’s director of personnel absolute authority to discipline any employee who does not meet the requirement.

Villanueva condemned the proposal, calling it a “death blow to public security” that would result in the firing of 4,000 members of his department.

Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Holly Mitchell introduced the motion, arguing that enforcement of the countywide employee vaccination mandate “remains a challenge four months after it was issued.”

They noted that, as of February 1, 81.5% of the county’s 100,000 employees were fully vaccinated as required by the mandate.

But at the sheriff’s department, less than 60% of employees were in compliance with the vaccination mandate.

“Unsurprisingly, approximately 74% of the more than 5,000 COVID-19-related workers’ compensation claims filed by county employees through January 29, 2022, have been filed by employees at the sheriff’s department,” according to the motion.

“These data illustrate the vital role of vaccines in limiting the spread of COVID-19, and therefore the urgent need to increase vaccination rates throughout the county’s workforce,” they added in the motion.

The motion directs county attorneys to work with the chief executive officer and chief personnel officer to develop proposed amendments to the county’s Civil Service rules.

Gives the director of personnel “primary authority to discipline employees, of any county department, for failure to comply with county policy or directives.”

Those proposed amendments will be reviewed by the board at its March 15 meeting for final consideration. The motion passed on a 4-0 vote, with Supervisor Kathryn Barger abstaining.

SHERIFF VILLANUEVA REJECTS THE MOTION

The authority to discipline, or terminate, employees who violate the mandate currently rests with individual department heads, such as the sheriff.

The motion states that such an arrangement “has allowed for inconsistent application and enforcement of the policy and a wide variety from department to department.”

Villanueva, who has encouraged people to consider getting vaccinated, has spoken out against the county’s vaccination mandate, saying it would decimate the ranks of what he calls an already depleted department.

The sheriff said deputies should have the option to undergo regular testing instead of being forced to get vaccinated.

The sheriff spoke by phone at the start of the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday and said it would have little impact.

He mentioned that 9,881 members of the department are fully vaccinated and in the last 30 days, 342 have tested positive, for a positivity rate of 3.46%.

Among the 5,766 unvaccinated members, 221 tested positive in the last 30 days, for a positivity rate of 3.83%.

“His motion will basically seek to cause us to lose 4,000 employees, for a grand total of 0.4% improvement in the positivity rate,” he said.

“That’s not exactly a public safety benefit. We are coming off two years of a historically high 94% increase in the homicide rate, a 64% increase in auto theft. And this is simply not sustainable. The current situation is not sustainable. The hiring freeze is not sustainable,” said the bailiff.

Villanueva described the decision as illogical and illegal. “By the time we find out the legality of this, we will have overcome the pandemic, which will make the result irrelevant. I urge you to scale back, scale back, and find 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 county statute and amount to an overreach of the board’s authority.

“Any attempt to seize the sheriff’s ability to oversee the disciplinary process of his employees would certainly not survive the legal scrutiny of the courts, who would likely fine the BOS for exceeding its authority under well-established legal principles,” attorney James wrote. Cunningham.

Citing a 1977 court ruling, Cunningham added: “Such controls by the BOS would directly conflict with the caveat that ‘the board has no power to perform the statutory duties of county officers, nor to direct the manner in which homework is done.”

When questioned by Kuehl, a county attorney said flatly Tuesday that the board has full legal authority to transfer disciplinary authority for the vaccine mandate to the director of personnel.

Kuehl said the refusal of employees to get vaccinated or at least apply for an exemption “really puts the lives of the county at risk and is just unacceptable.”

“To protect the lives of the counties, we have to enforce this mandate,” he said.

Kuehl added that “every department head needs to take enforcement of departmental and county policies seriously.”

“Not all of our department heads have recognized that this policy is critically needed and that it will save lives. We will not allow county lives to be compromised by an individual decision not to comply with county policy. If you, the county department head, don’t take this seriously, the county personnel director is willing to,” Kuehl said.

Barger abstained on the vote, saying he did not support the policy change in response to the actions of a single person, Villanueva.

“To change an individual or a manager now, I don’t think it’s appropriate,” he said.

She suggested that county managers need to do more to work with the sheriff’s department and union leaders to come up with a solution that doesn’t result in mass layoffs of essential workers.

Supervisor Janice Hahn said she hopes the proposed policy change will motivate more people to adhere to the mandate.

He hopes that “once they understand what the endgame is, they will take the opportunity to get vaccinated.”

Hahn also said the county should consider lifting the hiring freeze on the sheriff’s department. Increase recruiting academies to ensure the agency can maintain public safety if large numbers of officers are laid off as a result of the vaccination mandate.

Categorized in: