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Ex-LA County Sheriff Villanueva to testify on deputy gangs next month By City News Service
VOL. 8,
NO. 153
Los Angeles orders more residential hotels to stop renting to tourists By Robin Urevich, Capital & Main, ProPublica This story was originally published by ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. Series: Checked Out: LA’s Lost Residential Hotels 2008 city law was intended to preserve Los Angeles’ residential hotels as safety net housing. But the city has failed to enforce the law, leaving some lowerincome Angelenos with nowhere to go amid a homelessness crisis. The Los Angeles Housing Department has ordered the owners of four buildings meant to house some of the city’s poorest residents to stop renting rooms to tourists, following a review that was prompted by reporting by Capital & Main and ProPublica. The news organizations documented how some owners of the buildings, known as residential hotels, were advertising short-term rentals online despite a 2008 law aimed at preserving the rooms as residential. Landlords who convert the buildings to other uses or demolish them must replace the units or pay into a city housing fund. The new enforcement actions bring the number of residential hotels cited by the Housing Department for violating the residential hotel law to 21. The agency had sent violation notices to 17 residential hotels within weeks of the Capital & Main and ProPublica investigation. In all, about 750 residential hotel rooms could be turned back into low-cost permanent housing for LA residents who have few other options — if the city’s citations are upheld in court and if the city aggressively enforces the law. The most recent Housing Department orders to stop renting to tourists were issued earlier this month to the Hollywood Hills Hotel, which offers rooms with city views for up to $200 per night; the Motel 6 San Pedro; the Central Inn Motel near the University of Southern California; and the Royal Hawaiian Motel in Mid City. The Hollywood Hills Hotel is permitted to offer some rooms to tourists, but inspectors found more rooms were rented short-term than is allowed. Dinesh Vora, one of the Central Inn’s owners, said he plans to appeal the Housing Department orders. “To have someone say you can only rent long-term, that wouldn’t be sufficient for us,” Vora said. Ricky Patel, the registered agent of the Royal Hawaiian, declined to comment on the enforcement or whether the hotel intended to appeal. “It’s a touchy subject,” Patel said. One of the owners of the Hollywood Hills Hotel, Cole Harris, declined to comment on Dec. 12
A | Photo courtesy of LASD
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ormer Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has agreed to appear in front of the county's Civilian Oversight Commission next month after years of resisting subpoenas to testify under oath about deputy gangs, it was reported Tuesday. Villanueva's lawyer notified the commission of the decision in a letter stating that Villanueva "is very willing to testify" at the Jan. 18 meeting and will "answer any questions you have under oath," according to the Los Angeles Times. The reversal came days after a county judge scheduled a hearing to decide whether to order the former sheriff to comply with the commission's subpoenas, the Times reported. Villanueva's attorney, Linda Savitt, confirmed in an email to newspaper that her client plans to appear in front of the commission. "He is going to testify
under oath," according to the email. "He's a private citizen now." The former sheriff is running for county supervisor against incumbent Janice Hahn. Savitt is out of her office until next month and did not respond to a request by City News Service for comment. Sean Kennedy, who chairs the oversight commission, also did not respond to a request for comment. Earlier this year, the commission's special counsel issued a 70-page report, saying at least a half dozen deputy gangs or cliques are currently active throughout the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, and that misbehavior by members has already cost taxpayers more than $55 million. The report determined that new deputy cliques form as members of existing groups retire or otherwise leave the sheriff's depart-
ment. The special counsel also found evidence to suggest that gangs are re- emerging in the Men's Central Jail after efforts over the years to eradicate the problem of excessive force behind bars. Supervisors voted to implement the commission in January 2016 with the mission to oversee and improve transparency and accountability with respect to the department. The legal dispute with the former sheriff began in 2020, after the Board of Supervisors granted the commission subpoena power, which voters then affirmed by approving Measure R. A few months later, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law granting subpoena power to oversight bodies statewide. Also in 2020, the commission issued a subpoena directing the sheriff to testify about his response to COVID-19 inside the jails,
and the dispute ended up in court, with Villanueva avoiding a contempt hearing by agreeing to answer the commission's questions voluntarily, according to the Times. Oversight officials issued more subpoenas, and Villanueva resisted them, which led to multiple court cases. The former sheriff's lawyer argued that the 2020 legislation Newsom signed described a two-step process and that the judge first needed to issue an order directing Villanueva to comply with the subpoena, according to the Times. Only if he ignored that could he be found in contempt, his lawyer said. In September, an appeals court agreed. This month, lawyers for the county started on the two-step process by asking for a hearing so a judge could decide whether to order Villanueva to comply with the subpoenas.
See Residential hotels Page 32