Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva addressed a vaccine mandate for county workers on Tuesday, an order he has designated an “imminent threat to public safety.” Villanueva warned last week that the mandate could force a “mass exodus” of deputies from the department, putting the safety of L.A. County residents at risk.
In a press conference at the Hall of Justice on Tuesday morning, Villanuva said deputy retirements were up nearly 20% compared with the 2019-2020 fiscal year. He said those retirements could disproportionately impact the department’s homicide bureau.
“These are the people who are starting to walk away,” the sheriff said.
Only 52% of L.A. County Sheriff’s Department personnel are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and only 42% of sworn officers. Villanueva said as many as 4,185 department employees may be subject to termination for not complying with the mandate.
Villanueva said early retirements and filings for worker’s compensation were also abnormally high in 2021.
“Typically we lose about 500 [deputies] to normal retirement” each year, the sheriff said. “Now it’s bumped to 600.” He estimated another 300 would file for worker’s compensation before the end of 2021, an attrition rate of roughly a third of the department’s staff.
“We are attributing it to the vaccine mandate,” Villanueva said of the uptick in staff departures.
Jesus A. Ruiz, a spokesperson for the L.A. County Chief Executive Office disputed Villanueva’s forecast, telling KNX 1070 the county “has not seen an increase in early retirements or resignations among sworn staff in the sheriff’s department” since implementation of the vaccine mandate.
Ruiz said the county had reviewed attrition data from Oct. 1, 2020 to Sept. 20, 2021 and determined not only was there “no increase in attrition,” but attrition over the past year for the sheriff’s department has been slightly lower than the overall county rate.
“There were nine LASD retirements in October, which is not considered a high number,” Ruiz said.
In Tuesday’s press conference, Villanueva bristled when asked if his stance on the mandate was sending the message that sheriff’s deputies could simply ignore rules they don’t like. He shifted blame to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors—which he described as “hostile” toward his department—for pushing a vaccine policy not based in “facts” or “science.”
He also noted that the mandate is not a county law, but instead an employer mandate.
“The Board of Supervisors does not run the sheriff’s department,” Villanueva said.
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