Board of Supervisors News Briefs: Two Motions Ensure Continuity of Enforcement Services on Metro and Preventing Overdoses in Jails

Hahn Wants Metro to be Prepared If Sheriff Pulls Deputies from Buses and Trains

LOS ANGELES — Supervisor Janice Hahn wants LA Metro to be prepared for the possibility that LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva follows through with his threat to end his department’s contract with the transit agency and pull his deputies from buses and trains in July.

The Los Angeles Metro board of directors operations committee April 1, unanimously approved a motion authored by Supervisor Janice Hahn, Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, and Inglewood Mayor James Butts. The motion directed the chief executive officer to report back to the Metro Board in May on how Metro can modify its existing contracts with the Los Angeles and Long Beach police departments to ensure continuity of service and continued law enforcement services coverage throughout the Metro transit system should the sheriff chose to end his department’s contract at the end of June. The motion will go in front of the Metro board of directors next week.

On April 13, the Los Angeles sheriff held a press conference stating that he will not extend the existing five-year contract beyond its original June 30, 2022 expiration date, if Metro continues to also contract with LAPD and LBPD.

Supervisors Take Steps to Prevent Drug Overdoses in Jails

LOS ANGELES — In an effort to mitigate inmate deaths due to drug overdoses, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors April 20, unanimously approved a motion by Supervisor Kathryn Barger and co-authored by Supervisor Janice Hahn that calls for more proactive prevention strategies, including drug detection efforts, after seeing a rise in narcotics use.

The motion approved by the Board of Supervisors references a 2021 study by the Department of Justice that found drug related deaths in jails have risen by 623% nationally. County executives and the Sheriff’s Department have 60 days to present the board with recommendations to prevent the presence of drugs in jails.  

Details: https://tinyurl.com/spervisors-motion