Villanueva visits Norwalk to address hiring freeze

LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva speaks to the Norwalk City Council on Tuesday. (Sheriff’s Department photo)

NORWALK – LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva came to Tuesday’s Norwalk city council meeting to discuss their opposition to his moratorium on the hire of LA County sheriff deputies.

The sheriff’s action prevents the hire of Sheriff deputies in the city, despite residents’ vote to increase the sales tax to fund public safety.

During their meeting on Jan.18, council members expressed their disdain for the moratorium. Councilmembers Jennifer Perez and Margarita Rios called for a “strongly worded letter” to Villanueva and notifying the county supervisors of the issue.

“We are in crisis mode right now,” said Sheriff Villanueva on Tuesday. “We do not have the fiscal ability to extend any contract just because we do not have the personnel.”

He explained that the LA County Board of Supervisors has imposed a hiring freeze on the department and that sheriff stations across the board have a 29% vacancy rate.

“This has become an ideological position from the Board of Supervisors,” said Villanueva. “They’ve embarked on this path of defunding the sheriff’s department. It basically starves us out as people are leaving or retiring, we are not replacing them.”

The sheriff said he desperately wants to provide more personnel and noted that LA County Sheriff’s department remains the most understaffed law enforcement agency in the nation.

Perez expressed frustration with the moratorium because the city had planned to increase public safety and that Norwalk continues to pay its contract in full.

“If the county has a problem and they are taking your funding away, take their officers and their sheriffs away and fund those that are actually paying their bill,” said Perez. “Our residents are paying the bill for those additional deputies. So if the problem is not with our contract, relieve some of those deputies that are covering those positions in the county.”

While Villanueva supports her position, he explained that they cannot take a body from an unincorporated station and move them to a contract city. However, patrol schools of 40 students from custody in training will be moved out to help cover the deficit in public safety.

Villanueva encouraged the council to continue voicing their thoughts to the Board of Supervisors to change their policies.