Five Los Angeles County employees have sued their employer alleging a vaccine mandate for county workers issued by Board of Supervisors Chair Hilda Solis in August was unconstitutional.
The lawsuit filed in L.A. County Superior Court on Friday contended Solis' executive order, ratified by the whole County Board of Supervisors six days later, exceeded the government's scope of authority under the Emergency Services Act. Plaintiffs also alleged that ratification occurred during a board session that violated California's open-meeting law, and that the public did not receive adequate notice or opportunity to comment.
Solis' order has required L.A. County's 110,000 employees to provide proof of vaccination against COVID-19 by this Friday in order to retain their jobs. It allows limited exemptions for medical and religious reasons.
Thousands of county employees have not yet complied, according to the lawsuit, including the plaintiffs: L.A. County Sheriff's Department employees Vincent Tsai and Oscar Rodriguez, Enrique Iribe of the county's Probation Department, Mohamed Bina of the Sanitation Department and Shayne Lamont of the Department of Public Health.
"They will risk their jobs rather than violate their conscience and follow a plainly unlawful order," their complaint states. "The county must consider and offer reasonable accommodations as a middle ground between individual freedoms and collective rights."
The nonprofit organization Protection for the Educational Rights of Kids, which advocates for medical freedom for children and parents, was also named as a plaintiff.
"The people of Los Angeles will suffer irreparable harm from the mass termination of county employees, including firefighters, law enforcement, EMTs and other first responders," the complaint further alleged.
County officials have not yet responded or made comment on the lawsuit. KNX will update this story with more information as it is received.
