Los Angeles County sheriff doubles down on not implementing vaccine mandate as he warns of mass exodus

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Villanueva accused the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors of poor policy-making and pointed to an executive order issued by the chair of the board in August that required all county staff to be totally vaccinated towards Covid-19 no later than October 1.

Days after the county deadline, Villanueva stated he wouldn’t enforce the mandate.

“I do not wish to be able to lose 5, 10% of my workforce in a single day on a vaccine mandate,” Villanueva stated final month.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division employs about 16,000 folks within the nation’s most populous county, simply over half of whom are vaccinated towards Covid-19, based on the division.

On Tuesday, Villanueva said solely about 42% of the division’s sworn personnel have been vaccinated and three,137 deputies are vulnerable to termination as a result of mandate.

And, the sheriff stated, many unvaccinated deputies are voluntarily leaving the division to flee the vaccination requirement.

“Had (the Board of Supervisors) not talked all this nonsense concerning the mandate, I in all probability would have gotten higher outcomes at getting my staff vaccinated over time,” Villanueva stated.

In response to Villanueva, the division sometimes sees simply over 500 retirements every year, however that quantity is as much as simply over 600 prior to now 12 months.

Coupled with a further 238 staff leaving the division for causes aside from retirement, Villanueva stated the departures are “disrupting our capacity to offer public security companies to Los Angeles County.”

However the Board of Supervisors stated Villanueva’s numbers are flawed and there was no enhance in attrition for the reason that vaccine mandate was applied.

The numbers offered by Villanueva on Tuesday in contrast October 2019-2020 to October 2020-2021. The Covid-19 vaccine mandate for county staff went into impact October 1 of this yr.

“The LASD stage of attrition over the previous yr has been barely decrease than the general County charge,” the Government Workplace of the Board stated in a press release to CNN. “There have been 9 LASD retirements in October, which isn’t thought of a excessive quantity.”

Villanueva couldn’t present an actual variety of staff departing as a direct results of the vaccine mandate, however stated the development is being gleaned from worker exit interviews.

“Whereas there is a damaging factor going towards regulation enforcement basically, this might simply be the straw that broke the camel’s again,” the sheriff stated, acknowledging that there could also be different causes at play on the subject of shedding workers.

Villanueva’s criticism of the vaccine mandate comes as Covid-19 has turn out to be the leading cause of death amongst regulation enforcement, regardless of it being among the many first teams eligible to obtain the vaccine on the finish of 2020.

County Supervisor Janice Hahn stated Villanueva’s vocal opposition to the mandate is placing his workers in peril.

“As a substitute of implementing LA County’s vaccine mandate (like each different County division has completed efficiently), he’s placing each his deputies and the general public they arrive face-to-face with every single day at pointless threat,” Hahn stated on Twitter.

Throughout his information convention, Villanueva famous he’s vaccinated and prefers to “lead by instance,” relatively than by way of mandates.

“As a substitute of being an impediment,” County Board of Supervisors Chair Hilda Solis stated, “I encourage the Sheriff to work with us and assist present training and outreach to those that stay unvaccinated, so we will guarantee their security and the well being of these round them, and at last put this pandemic behind us.”

Supervisor Kathryn Barger promised to help and hearken to the division’s rank and file to “unravel what limitations and obstacles they’re going through so we will attain a decision. Finally, all of us share a dedication to public security.”

CNN’s Sarah Moon, Anna-Maja Rappard and Kelly McCleary contributed to this report.

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