The vote came over the objections of L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who has declined to enforce vaccine mandates among his officers, just as he has declined to enforce coronavirus mandates on local businesses throughout the pandemic.

Local ABC affiliate KABC-7 reported:

Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Holly Mitchell introduced the motion, saying countywide compliance with the employee vaccine mandate "remains a challenge four months after its issuance."

They noted that as of Feb. 1, 81.5% of the county's 100,000 employees were fully vaccinated as required by the mandate.

But in the sheriff's department, less than 60% of employees were in compliance with the vaccine mandate.

The motion directs county attorneys to work with the CEO and personnel director to develop proposed amendments to county Civil Service rules, giving the personnel director "overriding authority to discipline the employees of any county department for noncompliance with the county's policy or directives related to the policy."

Villanueva issued a statement in protest against the board's decision, which comes during a crime wave in the county:

Today the Board of Supervisors followed through on their threat and voted 4-0 (1 abstention) to form a suicide pact and start the process to fire 4,000 deputies for not being vaccinated. Showing deliberate indifference to the obvious impact on public safety, the Board hid behind an alleged threat to public safety they couldn't back up with data. Tellingly, the Board's own County Counsel (Rodrigo Castro-Silva) couldn't offer even a basic legal opinion on the legality of the Board's motion, or the obvious legal challenges they will face.