Your guide to Measure A, which would allow L.A. County supervisors to oust sheriff’s deputies while protecting public safety.
Public safety director Michael S. Bernacchi could lose his job if Measure A is passed, a step officials have proposed. The measure would allow L.A. County supervisors to oust sheriff’s deputies while preventing public employees from being fired without cause.
Bernacchi is the only administrator in the county government to have publicly voiced concern that Measure A could be a threat to public safety. The county has faced the threat of a lawsuit over the controversial law since it was passed five months ago.
But with the possibility of supervisors firing Bernacchi as the primary public safety official now on the books, the Sheriff’s Department is under intense scrutiny. Sheriff’s deputies have already said they’re concerned that having Bernacchi take the reins of the agency could end up as a dangerous precedent for future deputies.
Here’s how the measure would affect sheriff’s deputies and public safety officers.
What would Measure A do if passed?
Measure A would allow L.A. County supervisors to oust Sheriff’s Department employees who have “engaged in misconduct or abuse,” and suspend or discharge them without cause. It could also allow them to fire employees based on “other reasons.”
While the measure would also make it easier to fire employees who are on the verge of being disciplined, it would allow supervisors to fire people before discipline has been established.
It would also raise the threshold for firing, with the threshold being “reasonably related to performance” under the county charter. In other words, supervisors could fire people if they felt the public wasn’t getting an accurate representation of the department.
That doesn’t mean supervisors would be able to fire employees without cause, though. The measure also provides a process for employees to be fired without cause if they’re engaged in “misconduct or abuse.”
What would supervisors need to do to fire Bernacchi?
Under the measures, supervisors would have to fire Bernacchi within 10 days of the supervisors’ election, and would also have to have evidence that Bernacchi was actively involved in misconduct or abuse.
Here’s how it would work:
The measure would give supervisors enough time to figure out if there was misconduct or abuse involving the sheriff’s deputies. They would be able to use information