LOS ANGELES — Several members of the Civilian Oversight Commission for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have called on Sheriff Alex Villanueva to resign, citing his tense relationship with the county’s Board of Supervisors and claiming he has resisted oversight of the department.
The move marks an escalation in the increasingly tense relationship between the sheriff and his overseers, who have complained about his department’s lack of transparency and clashed over policing reform measures.
“It is with great reluctance that I call on Sheriff Villanueva to resign,” said Commissioner Robert Bonner during the commission’s public meeting Thursday. “The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deserves better and so do the people of Los Angeles County.”
Bonner said that Villanueva is the only sheriff in the county’s recent history “who has no effective relationship with the Board of Supervisors,” holding that “he has gone out of his way to alienate and insult supervisors.”
He also said that Villanueva done little to enforce a policy he issued to prohibit deputy cliques within the department and has resisted providing information to Inspector General Max Huntsman — even indicating the department would be investigating Huntsman itself.
Commissioners Prescilla Ocen and Casmiro Tolentino said that they support Bonner’s motion.
“I am very surprised to hear what is a very eloquent statement and I agree with it,” said Ocen.
The sheriff is independently elected and has only limited oversight from the commission and the Board of Supervisors. He could not immediately be reached for comment.
A Sheriff’s Department spokesman said they will not have a response until they can “fully review the entire meeting and place all comments in context.”
Since taking office in 2018, Villanueva has clashed repeatedly with civilian overseers and the Board of Supervisors, who have accused him of rehiring officials with tainted backgrounds and unraveling policing reforms instituted after a massive corruption scandal that brought criminal convictions against former Sheriff Lee Baca and other commanders.
The sheriff has pushed back on criticism, saying he believes the reforms hampered the department and that he was responding to concerns from rank-and-file deputies.
The last few days have brought more controversy. After two deputies were shot in an attack in Compton, the department arrested a public radio reporter in a move that has sparked widespread outrage., The department offered a narrative of the incident that was refuted by videos the reporter had recorded on her phone. Alongtime Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman posted tweets about the attack that employed racist stereotypes in reference to a reward for information leading to the arrest of the shooter.
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