City Managers Bounced Off Sheriff Interview Panel As Villanueva Goes Back On Agreement
Written by 991KBU on March 2, 2020
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s office has infuriated the city of Malibu once again.
Three days after meeting with the mayor and the city managers of Malibu and four other West LA County cities … the sheriff has yanked back the agreement on selecting a new commander at the Malibu-Lost Hills SheriffStation.
The five cities have now fired off a letter to the sheriff saying they reject his new plan to select a sheriff’s captain … who would be the fifth commander at the Malibu-Lost Hills station in a year and a half.
The cities have in the past sent their city managers to the selection panel meetings.
Sort of a ho-hum regular process.
And the agreed-upon plan as of last Tuesday was the five city managers and the five mayors would pick the next captain.
But then on Thursday … the sheriff changed his offer.
He removed the city managers from the selection panel … and instead told the five cities they could each send three people to sit on the panel.
Any three people … except the city managers.
Why would the Los Angeles County Sheriff seek to remove the Malibu city manager Reva Feldman from the selection panel ??? .
The sheriffs office is not answering questions yet.
The story broke over the weekend … they probably will get back to us later today.
Relations between the cities of Malibu Agoura Hills … Calabasas … Hidden Hills and Westlake Village … and the sheriff’s office …. have sunk to a low level.
The cities collectively pay the LA County Sheriff 25 million dollars a year to function as their City police departments.
One official tells KBUU news that the sheriff has absolutely no right to tell cities who they send to pick from the candidates that the sheriff provides.
The current acting captain at the Malibu-Lost Hills station … Chuck Becerra … was rejected for that job by the mayors and city managers last summer.
Matthew Vander Horck was appointed instead … but he was yanked out by the sheriff and demoted … following complaints to the sheriff by his Malibu political operative … Cece Woods.
Vander Horck had his rank reinstated by the sheriff a week later … and Becerra … the rejected candidate … was installed as the acting captain at Malibu lost Hills.
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And over the weekend … yet another indication of serious leadership problems at Malibu Lost Hills … and in the sheriff’s department in general.
Deputies apparently showed off sensitive photos … perhaps gruesome pictures of the Kobe Bryant death scene in a bar in Norwalk.-The Los Angeles Times reports that the widow of Kobe Bryant is infuriated that first responders from the sheriff’s office later shared intimate photos of the crash that killed her husband and daughter.
The LA Times also reports at the Los Angeles County sheriffs office has failed to open an internal investigation into the illicit photos … but instead has quietly called in deputies to the Malibu-Lost Hills Sheriff Station to delete the photos from there personal phones.
The L A Times quotes law enforcement experts from outside the agency … who question why no internal affairs investigation has been opened.
The newspaper reports that sheriffs commanders have given conflicting stories about the issue…. casting even further questions into the issue of command-and-control in general … and at the Malibu-Lost Hills Station in particular.
