Can you impeach a sheriff

And Los Angeles may amend its charter to adopt a specific sheriff removal procedure. The California Constitution requires that a county charter shall provide for an elected sheriff.

Los Angeles County is not limited to employing the recall as its sole procedure for removing its sheriff — nothing about the constitutional requirement for providing a removal procedure requires using one particular method, or only one method. For example, the county governing body could be given the power to remove the sheriff by a four-fifths vote.

Any California county can remove its sheriff. For charter counties, removal may be done by recall, either by charter provisions or charter amendment, or potentially under existing statutory law. As an alternative to a recall, a charter county may empower its governing body to remove the sheriff for official misconduct.

But a county is not necessarily limited to just one procedure for removing a sheriff: it may provide for recall, governing-body removal, or both — or still another procedure. Multiple means of removing a sheriff are not conflicting, or mutually exclusive. The bottom line is that California sheriffs are not exempt from removal before their term expires. County of San Bernardino at noting that when performing law enforcement functions a sheriff is a state actor and immune for 42 U.

See Venegas v. County of Los Angeles A district attorney is an elected local officer that for some purposes is a state official. See Pitts v. County of Kern at district attorney represents the state, not the county, when preparing to prosecute and when prosecuting crimes. Bushey at Accordingly, a county sheriff cannot be converted into appointed position.

Younger v. Board of Supervisors at County of San Diego at The Dibb opinion at —08 describes in detail the differences between charter and general law counties, and between charter counties and charter cities.

State Assn. Forward at 19; see also Dimon v. County of Los Angeles at ; Curphey v. Superior Court at manner of appointment or removal of a county officer is not a matter of statewide concern but of local concern, the county has control over it under its charter ; Becker v. If the sheriff be impeached, and thereupon convicted, he shall not be eligible to hold any office in this state during the time for which he had been elected or appointed to serve as sheriff.

Justia Legal Resources. Find a Lawyer. Current Sheriff Alex Villanueva , although no fan of Baca, appears to agree with him regarding sheriff power. He has branded oversight commission members as political appointees with no formal power over him. The supervisors have begun to see things differently, especially after clashes with the sheriff over his hiring and spending practices. Sheriff impeachment would not be parallel to presidential impeachment because county government is so oddly assembled, with supervisors who act as executives as well as lawmakers.

Proper county checks and balances would require a strictly legislative board with either a mayor-like elected executive or an appointed county manager who in turn appoints a sheriff, in much the way cities pick police chiefs. Short of a major county government revamp, there are serious questions to be asked about the wisdom of sheriff impeachment.

County residents are no longer willing to acquiesce to the notion that sheriffs are invulnerable to civilian oversight. The editorial board opines on the important issues of the day — exhorting, explaining, deploring, mourning, applauding or championing, as the case may be.

The board, which operates separately from the newsroom, proceeds on the presumption that serious, non-partisan, intellectually honest engagement with the world is a requirement of good citizenship.

Column: Fraternities are incubators of sexual assault and other violence. Why is USC defending them? Letters to the Editor: For the love of God, stop showing photos of vaccine needles. All Sections. About Us.

B2B Publishing. Business Visionaries. Hot Property.