tentenLA County CEO Sachi Hamai will receive $1.5 million from the county after claims that she was harassed by L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, as first reported by FOX L.A.
Serving as LA County CEO since 2015, Hamai will be retiring this coming Monday and requested that the Board of Supervisors accept her request of $1.5 million in “combat pay,” as well as full-time private security for the remainder of the Sheriff’s term. The letter further reads that she is asking for the compensation “for all she’s been put through.”
“She wants to be protected from the Sheriff and the crazies he’s instigated,” Attorney Louis R. Miller wrote on her behalf in a letter addressed to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors.
In that letter, Villanueva was accused of harassment and even defamation, citing a social media livestream where Villanueva insinuated that Hamai committed a felony while serving.
The letter adds that Hamai was “attacked continuously” by the Sheriff in matters of the countywide hiring freeze and “trying to bring fiscal discipline” to the LASD budget, as well as claiming she became the Sheriff’s “whipping post.”
L.A. County has agreed to pay outgoing CEO Sachi Hamai $1.5 million in “combat pay” & provide her private security through the end of the Sheriff’s term after she claims his repeated criticism of her is harassment and led to threats against her. See letter leaked to me. @FOXLA pic.twitter.com/2HpPoMIufK
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) August 28, 2020
Villanueva received a copy of the letter and addressed its contents on a social media livestream Tuesday, adding that he was going to leave it for the Attorney General’s office as it seemed like a “theft of attorney-client product.” As Villanueva went through the letter, he said:
“I think for the 700-plus Sheriff’s department employees who will be losing their jobs because supposedly we’re in a financial crisis, giving any county employee $1.5 million on their way out the door as a ‘golden handshake,’ that really, I think that’s outrageous and maybe the Board of Supervisors can clarify this information.”
Villanueva also said that he believes that Hamai’s payout will likely be coming out of taxpayer money and called the claims against him “nonsense.”