UPDATE: This story has been updated to include Hilda Solis' response to concerns raised by the LASD union.
On Wednesday evening, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chair Hilda Solis issued an executive order that requires all 110,000 county employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
While some county employees criticized the sudden move, Janice Hahn, L.A. County Supervisor for the 4th District, defended the decision as necessary.
Hahn told KNX 1070 In Depth the mandate, in addition to being vital, can send a message to other businesses.
"We have 110,000 employees," Hahn told KNX In Depth. "We’re the largest employer here in the region and I think it sends a message and we hope other companies and businesses will follow our lead.”
Hahn said the vaccination mandate comes down to protecting employees who are returning to the buildings.
"We’re gonna be bringing them back into our buildings and going to be opening up our county buildings in the fall," she said. "We’re gonna be interacting with the public again so I think it’s a workplace safety issue."
She said she's not interested in the mandate becoming a reason to fire any employees who are against it.
"I think one of my fellow supervisors is interested in not making the testing so much of a punishment, but more of an inconvenience or a burden so that at some point they think, unless there’s a medical exemption or religious exemption, ‘You know what? It might be easier to get vaccinated,'" she said.
Hahn said the goal is really just to get more people in the county vaccinated while protecting county employees.
"Get vaccinated and if you don’t, your fellow employees need to know whether or not it’s safe for them to be sitting in the cubicle next to you," she said.
Hahn is not the only official weighing in on this mandate. James Wheeler, the vice president of the Association For Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, one of the two police unions that represent L.A. Sherrif's Department officers, said the organization was "blindsided" by the mandate.
"ALADS, like other stakeholders, was completely blindsided by this hastily issued order, which will affect more than 100,000 county employees," Wheeler wrote in a statement.
"We believe the Board of Supervisors should have collaborated and communicated with the parties who stand to be impacted by this."
The union's legal team is reportedly reviewing the mandate.
In response to concerns raised by the LASD union about her executive order, Solis cited California Government Code sections 8550 and Los Angeles County Code Section 2.68.150 as giving her the power to make such a move.
"The Chair of Los Angeles County is empowered to issue an executive order. Additionally, under the second directive of the executive order, the chief executive office is to engage with the county's labor partner regarding the effects of the vaccination policy," she said.
"This means that CEO will meet and confer with labor partners."
