Measure A backers celebrate check on power of sheriff

LOS ANGELES (CNS) — Dozens of supporters of Measure A, which was approved by voters, last week, and gives the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors the authority to remove a publicly elected sheriff from office for cause, gathered outside the Hall of Justice, Wednesday, to celebrate its passage.

More than 70% of voters were backing the measure, as of Wednesday morning, with the measure receiving more votes so far than Gov. Gavin Newsom has received for reelection. Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who conceded defeat, Tuesday, in his bid for reelection against challenger Robert Luna, has blasted the proposal as unconstitutional, calling it a blatant power grab by a Board with which he has repeatedly clashed.

Leticia Vazquez, the mother of Marco Vazquez Jr. — who suffered from mental illness and was fatally shot by sheriff’s deputies, in 2019 — said she has felt “invisible to the system behind us.”

“We were noticed by the people,” Vazquez said of Measure A passing. “The people heard us. They saw our cries. They heard our screams. They shouted in the streets with us.”

Measure A gives the Board the power to remove a sheriff “for cause” with a four-fifths vote of the five-member panel. Although Board members supporting the measure denied it was political in nature, the move was a clear response to its battles with Villanueva, who has accused Board members of defunding his agency at the expense of public safety and has rebuffed subpoenas to appear before the county’s Civilian Oversight Commission.

Hugo Soto-Martinez and Eunisses Hernandez, two council member-elects who will take office, next month, spoke at the downtown news conference, Wednesday. Both have worked on issues concerning the sheriff’s department, with Soto-Martinez as a labor organizer and Hernandez as a community organizer.