Democratic Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has long decried the L.A. County Board of Supervisors’ order requiring all county employees to be vaccinated — without exception. Earlier this month, Villanueva explained why he would not be enforcing the order among his own deputies: He can’t afford to lose any additional deputies.
The sheriff noted that his department was already short-staffed by nearly 1,000 employees following what he said was a “politically motivated” hiring freeze following the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.
In a note to the public posted to his website Thursday, Sheriff Villanueva warned that the vaccination mandate has created a “mass exodus.”
