Public Safety Commission still grappling with role in overseeing law enforcement
Tensions over the sheriff’s contract with West Hollywood flared up again during Monday night’s Public Safety Commission meeting, with both skeptics and defenders of the department doing their best to avoid the dreaded D word: “defunding.”
The commission was tasked with writing recommendations to City Council on a revised agreement with the department ahead of the current contract’s upcoming expiration.
From the outset of the discussion, Commissioner Brandon Blau expressed dismay about the terms West Hollywood had agreed to.
“It says in the event of a dispute between services rendered between the sheriff and the city, the final determination as to the dispute goes to the sheriff,” Blau said. “Speaking about the services that our sheriff does for us, and the sensitivity of their nature, we’re talking about policing and safety. If there is a dispute and an inability to come to an actual compromise, and it defers to the sheriff, I personally see problems with that.”
Community Safety Director Danny Rivas explained that the Commission’s role was not to evaluate the contract, and that individual cities like West Hollywood cannot alter the contract independently; instead, they participate in a collective negotiation process involving representatives from all 42 contract cities in the county. These representatives, typically city managers, incorporate feedback from their respective city councils and the California Contract Cities Association, which advocates on behalf of the contract cities.
The renewal process is collaborative, involving not only the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department but also the Los Angeles County Council and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, which ultimately approves the contract. Rivas emphasized the role of the Public Safety Commission, which is to provide input on the annual service level agreement, specifically focusing on the authorization of services rather than the overall five-year contract terms.
He also mentioned a current moratorium by the Sheriff’s Department, preventing additional staffing beyond the agreed annual service levels, despite recent approvals for new positions by the city council. These positions are being filled through an alternate process using overtime, approved by the department, without additional cost to the city.
Vice Chair Robert Saltzman reiterated broad complaints about the sheriffs’ operations published by the county’s inspector general, including lack of transparency and accountability, pretextual stops and the improper use of body cameras.
Public commenter Colin Boyd also attacked the contract. Comparing the situation to hiring roofers who don’t fulfill their job, he argued that merely increasing the number of sheriffs without clear objectives wouldn’t solve the underlying issues or enhance public safety. He said that service agreements should be concrete, outlining specific tasks rather than vague commitments, to ensure that the city receives tangible benefits for its expenditures.
“It’s completely unacceptable that we cannot negotiate this contract,” said Boyd, who insinuated that the agreement requires nothing more of deputies than to show up to work. “This contract is terrible. We are getting fleeced as taxpayers.”
Other members of the public pushed back against that sentiment.
“It’s a little disturbing to assume that our deputies check in and then sit around with their finger up their ass,” said former Councilmember Steve Martin during public comment.
“Every sheriff does more than just clock in and clock out, and I will not allow our men and women in uniform to be diminished,” resident Nicholas Roybal said. “I feel we are getting lost in the mechanics of a contract and theory over policing.”
Commissioner George Nickle cited work by Dartmouth professor Dr. Steven Mello that argues additional police officers reduce crime by deterring potential offenders. The study, titled “More Cops, Less Crime,” demonstrates the significant impact of additional police officers on crime reduction. Key findings include that each additional officer prevents an average of four violent crimes and 15 property crimes, translating into a substantial social value exceeding $352,000 per officer in 2018 dollars and $432,119.92 in 2024 dollars. The research further details reductions in specific crime categories, noting that an additional officer prevents 1.9 robberies and 5.1 auto thefts, and every 9.5 officers hired can save one life by preventing murders.
Blau then sought to clarify his position.
“It seems that there was maybe a miscommunication regarding my stance as it seems it’s being purported. I’ve never said we should defund the police or drop levels of service in lieu of something else. That’s not my stance and that’s not what I think is effective,” Blau said.
“But I also want to know what we’re going to do with additional police. What is ‘fully staffed?’ And to some of the community members’ comments, people don’t feel safe, and that is important, that feeling of safety. But as well, when you look at the numbers, we’re at 62 sworn law enforcement total now, I think as of the beginning of February now. I guess sworn deputies, that’s a specific limit in there, but when we look at the total calls for service, 62 is the most we’ve had since 2013 as a city, as far as I can tell from documentation, at least within that category. And last year, 2023, we had the third lowest calls for service, but we’re far lower in terms of calls for service than when we were more highly staffed.”
“So my question would be, what is fully staffed, and if we have an inability to adjust and increase the sheriff right now, what are we going to do in that interim? What are the other options that we’ve got? Do we increase, do we recommend that we increase some of our other service providers, because as it’s been pointed out time and time again, one of the key factors of local municipal government is safety, Community safety. And the legislative branch of that, which is what our job is here to do, is to advise the City Council on legislative, is the vehicle to start that.”
Blau and Nickle expressed divergent views on determining the optimal number of sworn officers. Their discussion also touched upon the broader impacts of police visibility on crime deterrence and community perceptions of safety.
Commissioner Adam Eramian drew an analogy with the fire department.
“I think we need the number of deputies that’s going to keep our city safe to be on call just in case we do need to utilize their services,” Eramian said. “For example, what if fires were down? Are we going to get rid of half of our fire department? aAnd God forbid something happens, if a fire breaks out, what are we going to do? It doesn’t work that way. We need to have a healthy number of both fire personnel, law enforcement personnel so when something does arise. We all see what’s happening in New York right now. The New York City has sent out the national guard for the problems that’s happening in the New York City subway system. We don’t have to figure out how many deputies we need. Let’s just make sure that we have the deputies on hand, the 62, whatever number it is, to make sure God forbid something happens, we are taken care of, and we are safe.”
Later in the meeting, Eramian made motion to invite mental health team members to a future Public Safety Commission meeting to discuss their outreach efforts and services. He expressed appreciation for the recent Public Safety Appreciation Luncheon, commending its success and the community’s participation. Emphasizing the importance of community outreach and engagement, Eramian proposed organizing open house events in different city areas to enhance public safety awareness, involving various public safety departments and city council members. This initiative aims to foster greater community connection with local safety efforts and ensure residents are informed and involved in public safety matters. The proposal received support and a seconding motion from Chair Tod Hallman.
It all goes back to the broken promise of the city when it was formed…West Hollywood was promised it’s OWN PD!
The comparing hiring the Sheriff to hiring a roofer was not only absurd, it was childish and ill-informed. What other options does the City have? We can’t contract with the LAPD and Beverly Hills does not want to deal with West Hollywood. So the only alternative would be to create our own police department. In my opinion West Hollywood remains under-policed. For the greater part of our 40 year history, we were limited by the number of deputies we could afford; now we are limited by the number of deputies that the Sheriff’s Department has available. We are close to… Read more »
The federal,state and local levels all make more money off the tax payers by keeping the illegals,homeless and criminals running the streets ! There will never be a shortage of fires or crime it’s all by design to keep bring in extra people from other countries and keep them in the streets like the homeless,All the while the residents foot the bill,and there safety remains at hight risk ! SMH
This Robert xxxxxxx is constantly on the WeHo app turning in neighbors whose gardeners use leaf blowers and those that leave trash cans out a few days past pick up. He’s NOT pro-police..but he sure likes playing one in the neighborhood.
What a mess. Keep your MACE handy when out on the streets. Does the sheriff tell what he thinks the city really needs, best approach to policing our town ? What does the business community have to say?
I’m offended by this Commission period. Rivas is a public safety concern himself with his continued ego outbursts and misjudgments.
And Brandon Blau really enjoys to stirrup trouble. What are the qualifications for each of these talking heads besides cozying-up to council members? Back away from the Sheriff Department, hands off the budget. Shut up and go away.
I think we can say bye-bye to the idea of a fully staffed Sheriff. Brandon Blau’s sassy mode has been activated, and there’s no going back. Once Joy comes back, she’ll bring up all kinds of concerns used to defund law enforcement, and we’re back to the former commission.
Also, can someone tell Tod that it’s Nickle, not “Nichols”?
Sassy and snarky are not good looks in a deliberative body, especially when the underlying narrative is often demonstrably untrue.
I tried my best last night.
This Commission has no idea what they’re doing. No knowledge of how cities work and no understanding of how to run a public meeting. Doesn’t city staff have more important things to do than to sit through hours of this kindergarten class?…….Just curious.
That is not completely fair; it is really only two Commissioners that are using false analogies, dubious statistics and moon-beam logic to promote their personal ideology and that of Council members Shyne and Byers that put politics before public safety. Nickle, Harrison, Hallman and Eramian clearly understand that the their duty is to first and foremost protect the public.
Thanks Steve Martin for speaking up in support of our sheriffs! And thank you to George Nickle for once again being a voice of reason.
Nationwide the average is 2.4 per 1,000 inhabitants. So somewhere between 81 based on population and 240 based on weekend visitors. Beverly Hills with a similar population has 145 sworn officers or 4.6 per 1000. So around 145 seems right for WeHo.
Thank you for the Beverly Hills stats! Beverly Hills also has a high number of visitors, perhaps not as high as WeHo, but close. But Beverly Hills has always understood that public safety is essential to a visitor based economy.
Why was Block by Block not there to speak about their monthly report?
We were given a vague answer as to why the manager of Block by Block wasn’t there. I mentioned that it was unacceptable.
If I were the Block by Block representative, I would have quit by now. Managing security guards is hard enough, and then she basically gets harassed and grilled at every meeting.
What some people called harrassed and grilled I would call accountability.
And just what would you like a group that can’t take any action to be accountable for?