Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, 1st District, is the most powerful woman in Los Angeles County and the leader of the unincorporated area of East Los Angeles. Molina is one of two current supervisors – the other being Mark Ridley-Thomas, 2nd District – who has voted in favor of a permanent Citizen’s Oversight Commission for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept.
Ridley-Thomas has brought the item up for a vote multiple times, but it has failed by one vote each time because supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky, Don Knabe and Michael Antonovich have all voted against it.
This is expected to change on Dec. 1, however, when Molina and Yaroslavsky are termed out and their replacements are sworn in. Former Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who won the seat outright in the June primary, will replace Molina. Either former State Sen. Sheila Kuehl or Bobby Shriver will replace Yaroslavsky. All three have said they support a Citizen’s Oversight Commission and Ridley-Thomas has said he would bring the item up for a vote when the new board is in place. It is expected to pass at that time.
Molina is not alone in wanting a Citizen’s Oversight Commission. Her East Los Angeles Constituents want it as well. The East LA Community Corporation’s members and vendors are in favor of it, according to Mike Dennis, director of community organizing for the advocacy non-profit, which also goes by ELACC. They want it not only because of what is happening in the jails, but because of what Sheriff’s deputies do to street vendors – a major concern to Dennis and his colleagues. “From our perspective, our members and our vendors are experiencing these abuses outside of jails, in the streets. They’re kind of on the front end of the way the Sheriff’s Dept. behaves and treats people,” he said during a phone interview.
Dennis is of the belief that “intimidation is another form of violence,” and the victims of this type of abuse are mainly street vendors, who encounter this form of violence in the unincorporated area. He says they are easy targets for deputies who threaten to deport them or who confiscate their equipment because they are “extremely vulnerable.” Some of these street vendors then go to ELACC for assistance, including for trying to get their equipment back and for dealing with citations.
Specifically relating to tickets, Dennis says that there is no real system in place for their issuance. He explained that there is supposed to be a system in place within the Sheriff’s Dept. in which a warning is issued on the first offense and then a citation is written on the second. This supposed system, however, is “at the discretion of the officers,” he said, which makes the guidelines that are supposed to be in place practically non-existent.
Just because the problems relating to street vending have a greater affect on ELACC’s members than jail violence does, it does not mean the organization is not getting involved on that front. ELACC, along with the L.A. Street Vendor Campaign, which is a campaign ELACC leads, is working with the Coalition to End Sheriff Violence in L.A. Jails.
Dennis said that ELACC’s members have been involved, including in “building out the platform in what folks wanted to see in terms of citizen oversight.”
Although Molina is in favor a commission to oversee the Sheriff’s Dept., it is for a slightly different reason. Press deputy Megan Moret said, during a phone interview, the reason is that she believes “a citizen’s commission would further encourage accountability and transparency.”
Despite the different motive, Ridley-Thomas has “worked closely with community groups,” according to Moret, including groups within Molina’s district. His office, rather than Molina’s is undertaking this process because the item was his idea.
Moret was quick point out, though, that Molina’s staff “has continuously met with community advocacy groups on any law enforcement issue…because she wants to hear the community’s concerns about law enforcement because that is very important to her.”
The specifics of the commission will be worked out after Molina is termed out of office because that is when the item will have enough votes to pass. Molina, however, does have visions for certain specifics. Moret said Molina does expect that both the inspector general and the commission will each have unique jobs, but will both have the same larger goal, which she said is “to make sure the Sheriff’s Dept. is more accountable and transparent to the community.”
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