Villanueva $63 Million Budget Blowout Boils Over At Board Of Supervisors
Written by 991KBU on October 1, 2019
Embattled L-A County sheriff Alex Villanueva is likely going to battle with county supervisors today.
Villanueva under fire from supervisors for several reasons.
But after 10 months in office … Villanueva has seen his budget shoot into the red by 63 million dollars … and the supervisors say he has refused to do anything about it. The Board of Supervisors is considering slapping a partial hiring freeze on Villanueva — a move the sheriff says would “cripple” the department and threaten public safety.
KPCC Radio reports that the fight comes amid concerns over Villanueva’s efforts to re-hire deputies terminated for misconduct.
Also … his decision to open a criminal investigation into the county inspector general …. who serves as the public’s chief watchdog over the sheriff’s department.
The sheriff’s budget is out of control … supervisors say,.
They’ve already sent a 16 million dollars to the sheriff to cover the Woolsey Fire roadblock expenses.
And they’ve written an 11 million dollar check to pay for litigation costs from settlements … incurred over previous years.
But unchecked overtime expenditures has ballooned the sheriff’s deficit from 10 million to 63 million dollars.
Supervisor Sheila Kuehl tells KPCC they “are giving him the opportunity to come up with a mitigation plan himself.”
A motion co-authored by Kuehl not only demands the sheriff pay back the 63 million dollar bailout … but also slaps a hiring freeze on all new hires except new sheriff’s deputies.
The sheriff called the move “political grandstanding” that threatens public safety, adding the deficit is the supervisors’ problem — not his.
Villanueva told KPCC … ”All they can do is write a bigger check to cover it, because we don’t have any fat.”
The sheriff sees the effort to rein in his spending — and his other battles with the supervisors — as political payback from a board that supported his predecessor in last year’s election.
Kuehl told KPCC that county officials tried earlier this year to work with Villanueva to address the growing deficit but the sheriff basically blew them off.
