KTLA

Vote to consider motion seeking options to remove Sheriff Villanueva postponed by 2 weeks

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva speaks at the graduation ceremony for Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Academy Class 451 at East Los Angeles College amid the COVID-19 pandemic on August 21, 2020, in Monterey Park. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The bitter discord among Los Angeles County’s top elected leaders ramped up a notch this week with a push by two supervisors to explore what it would take to remove Sheriff Alex Villanueva from his elected position.

The Board of Supervisors’ vote on the matter was postponed by two weeks. Questions remain, though, about whether the board has the power to force Villanueva out or if the proposal is more of a symbolic gesture to pressure him as he faces mounting calls to resign.

The answers are complicated, and Villanueva has suggested he would challenge any effort to remove him.

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas — who authored the proposal in one of his last moves before next week’s election, in which he’s running for a City Council seat after serving the maximum 12 years on the board — said it’s still worth at least looking into.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.