Conejo Mayors Peeved Over Surprise Becerra Appointment

AGOURA HILLS, CA — The Las Virgenes-Malibu Council of Governments (COG) voted Tuesday in an emergency meeting not to send a letter expressing disapproval of the governance of the Lost Hills-Malibu Sheriff’s Station.

The city of Malibu led the COG — which represents the cities of Malibu, Hidden Hills, Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Westlake Village, and several unincorporated areas — in the drive to send the letter to Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva.

The mayors were upset at the surprise June 3 appointment of Lieutenant Salvador “Chuck” Becerra to station captain. During a February meeting with the COG council board and the city managers of the five member cities, Sheriff Villanueva reportedly agreed to allow the city managers and two supervisor district representatives to interview new candidates for captain.

At the Tuesday meeting, COG mayors expressed disapproval of the revolving door of leadership at Lost Hills, not over Becerra himself. They also said that while they understood the strain placed on the station by coronavirus and the mass protests, it did not grant the station emergency powers to nominate captains without COG approval.

“What this is about is the bypassing the agreed-upon process,” said Malibu Mayor Karen Farrer. “And that process was agreed on with this particular group twice recently, and then was ignored.”

“We like Captain Becerra, too, and this is nothing against the captain. But it’s important to make a record,” said Agoura Hills Mayor Ilece Buckley Weber. “Sheriff Villanueva told us what he was going to do. He made promises that we were going to be part of the interview process and then completely disregarded it. Not only that—we didn’t even get a formal letter until it was all over the news. That’s not good communications. That’s not OK.”

Despite these complaints, the COG voted not to send the letter. While Farrer and Buckley Weber favored sending the letter, the mayors of Calabasas, Westlake Village, and Hidden Hills felt that it was not time to rock the boat during turbulent times.

“The sheriff that we currently have in office has indicated two times that he’s not going to abide by this agreement. This is the situation that’s ongoing ... and this is an elected official that has decided it’s not going to be part of his agenda,” said Westlake Village Mayor Kelly Honig. “I’m not interested in aggravating this problem any further.”