In a February memo, Probation Department Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa announced plans to redeploy 250 field officers on 60-day rotations to Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall and the Barry J. Nidorf Secure Youth Treatment Facility, where persistent under-staffing has led to such poor conditions that state regulators ordered the facilities to close if improvements are not made by April 16.

The redeployments, chosen by seniority, came with a caveat that employment attorneys say could lead to a slew of lawsuits.

Anyone unable to report as “full duty” or to pass training requirements was instructed to remain at home and not report to their regular work location. Those employees, some of whom have medical restrictions, were expected to use sick or vacation time to cover their missed shifts, even though they are physically capable of performing the office work they did previously.

“That seems to be classic disability discrimination,” said Brad Gage, an employment attorney who is not currently representing any probation officers. “The department is making these adverse actions and punishing employees because of disability.”

The Probation Department did not respond to questions about the legality of the mandate. Viera Rosa’s memo stated an “interactive process meeting,” in which an employer determines whether reasonable accommodations can be provided, will be initiated for every employee who is sent home, but it does not specify a timeline.

Can’t switch roles

Employees with medical restrictions who are capable of doing their existing jobs can’t be switched to a new role with different responsibilities and then punished for being unable to do it, Gage said. The new policy likely exposes the department to litigation, damages employees’ morale and could scare away new recruits, he said.

“What is going to happen in the future is going to become an even bigger crisis,” Gage said.

At least one class-action lawsuit has already been filed as a result of a policy that sent field officers on light duty to the juvenile halls twice a week.

Five probation officers filed the suit, estimated to include a class of at least 100 employees, against the department March 12. The five officers — Raul Gutierrez, Jason Herrera, Daniel Parra, Paul Perkins and Jeffrey Zetner — allege they were denied reasonable accommodations for their medical injuries and restrictions when they were sent to the juvenile halls, where they exacerbated existing injuries or received new ones after having to physically intervene to either protect themselves or others.

The lawsuit alleges they did not receive adequate training or the appropriate equipment.

Officers in Catch-22

The employees faced a Catch-22, a paradoxical order in which they were told to avoid physical altercations but put in situations where it was impossible to do so, according to their attorney, Arnold Peter.

Two of the officers, both on light duty, were left alone for half an hour in a unit with 30 youth — in violation of minimum staffing requirements — and had to defend themselves from attacks, Peter said. Another officer had to step in to help a female officer during an assault.

“His choice was to sit there and not do anything or come to the aid of the female officer who was being physically assaulted,” Peter said.

Protective order will be sought

Peter’s firm receives about 15 to 20 calls from Probation Department employees every day, he said. He now plans to request a temporary protective order barring the department from redeploying officers on light duty from the field.

The Los Angeles County Office of Inspector General, in a March 7 report, criticized the department for placing officers on light duty at key outposts at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, where they ultimately became the “last line of defense” during an escape attempt in November.

Gutierrez, one of Peter’s clients, was recently sent home as a result of the new mandate and told to stay there until he is able to return to full duty, Peter said.

“These deputy probation officers are sitting at home, not doing anything,” he said. “They’re not performing their regular duties, they’re not at the juvenile halls, their workloads are getting backed up.”

Peter’s firm, the Peter Law Group, recently settled a lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections for $5.1 million that accused the department of failing to provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant employees.

Is it retaliation?

Both Gage and Peter questioned why the department would not simply allow those unable to work in the juvenile halls to continue performing their existing duties. Forcing them to use sick or vacation time instead could be seen as retaliation, they said in separate interviews.

“There are specific regulations that say you cannot require someone to use paid leave as a form of reasonable accommodation,” Peter said.

One probation employee who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for their employment said the department has struggled to find enough employees to meet the initial 250 redeployments. Officers were called based on seniority and the department was contacting people with more than 15 years of service as of the week of March 18.

“If you can’t get the first 250, who is going to come after them to do the next 60 days?” the employee said. “They’re going to be stuck.”

The employee estimated hundreds could not comply with the order due to “light duty” restrictions.

“I would say over half of the field staff at this point are over 50 years old,” the employee said. “You have a lot of people who have health problems.”

Many of those affected work in adult probation and either have not worked in juvenile halls for decades, or have never worked in the halls. They travel to probationers’ homes or meet with them in the offices. Their work isn’t strenuous and there isn’t the same potential risk of physical violence that there is in the juvenile halls.

Adult supervision critical

The department reported in June that the adult field services division handled about 20,000 individuals total, with a majority of officers averaging about 51 cases at a time.

Some impacted by the mandate produce critical reports evaluating criminal defendants used by judges every day.

“If you have any work restrictions at all, you have to stay home. They are not allowed to work in their offices and they are unable to work in the juvenile halls,” the employee said. “This has resulted in entire area offices being depleted.”

The employee worried that probationers and parolees, especially those released under AB 109, are not receiving proper supervision as a result.

Last year, the Los Angeles County Office of Inspector General found the department failed to act on information that a probationer was using drugs and carrying a firearm in the weeks before he killed two El Monte police officers and then himself in 2022.

In a March 19 statement, the department denied the redeployments have affected the field offices.

“Supervisors are on-site and available to ensure client and supervision services are provided as needed,” Deputy Chief Kimberly Epps stated.

Long-term staffing plan

Later this month, the Los Angeles County Probation Oversight Commission plans to call an emergency meeting to demand answers about the department’s long-term staffing plan. Chair Eduardo Mundo, a former probation officer of 30 years, said he believes field services has room for “right-sizing,” but that he doesn’t know how the department intends to sustain the unpopular mandate without staff buy-in.

“That’s what I want to know,” Mundo said. “What’s the end game on this? Are we going to be in front of the board of corrections every 60 days?”

The Board of State and Community Corrections, the state regulatory agency responsible for overseeing jails and juvenile facilities, is expected to decide the fate of Los Padrinos and Barry J. Nidorf at its April 11 meeting. Inspectors will visit both facilities before the meeting to determine whether the department has corrected a series of troubling deficiencies identified last year.

Almost all of the areas of noncompliance relate to low staffing.

The school district, in state receivership since 2012, has struggled to retain students, dropping from an enrollment of 18,000 in 2002 to less than 7,000 today, according to state-appointed administrator James Morris. Projections estimate the district will have 65% available capacity by the 2029-30 school year.

“This means that 65% of the seats in our school will be empty,” Morris said. “Simply put, we’re operating more schools than we can afford to operate.”

Under the plan, Inglewood Unified will close Hudnall, Highland and Kelso elementary schools, Crozier Middle School and Morningside High School by the end of next school year. Students and staff from Kelso Elementary will relocate to Daniel Freeman/Warren Lane Elementary, which will reopen as a transitional kindergarten through eighth grade school, Morris said.

Crozier, meanwhile, will stay open for eighth-graders only next year to allow the current seventh-graders to complete their middle school experience.,

“These actions are necessary based upon our current financial picture and enrollment outlook,” Morris said. “I recognize that these planned changes will present challenges but, as a result, Inglewood students will benefit.”

The announcement was met with sadness, skepticism and anger.

“In the 12 years that I’ve been involved, the district has never had a plan to increase enrollment,” said Sherrie Stelik, who founded the Morningside alumni group Friends of MHS with her husband, John. “At this point, the alumni hope that they at least have a plan to preserve our history and our heritage.

“It’s a sad, sad day,” she added.

Though Inglewood has experienced an economic transformation over the last decade — thanks in large part to the arrival of SoFi Stadium and other surrounding investments — Inglewood Unified continues to languish in state receivership, dragged down, in part, by debt payments on a $29 million bailout the state provided to keep the fiscally mismanaged district afloat in 2012.

Since then, residents have witnessed a revolving door of state-appointed leaders who each arrived with different plans and then seemingly left without accomplishing them. The Los Angeles County Office of Education appointed Morris in 2023 with the hope the experienced superintendent could finally guide the district out of receivership.

The district pays $2.1 million in debt payments and other related costs every year as a result of the continued receivership and yet still owes $21 million to the state, according to Morris. Though Inglewood has met 127 of the 155 standards necessary to return to local control, it is unable to score high enough in categories related to “finances and facilities,” he said.

Some of the schools slated for closure sit on extremely valuable property as result of Inglewood’s renaissance. Morningside High School is about a block from the Clippers’ new arena, the Intuit Dome.

Kelso Elementary is across the street from the Kia Forum and SoFi Stadium.

Ernesto Castillo, vice president of IUSD’s Board of Trustees, said he has faith in Morris’ plan, even if it will be unpopular, and that he doesn’t believe the real estate values played a factor in the decision.

“If he made this decision, he made it because it is absolutely necessary for the betterment of the schools and the betterment of the programs,” he said.

Castillo grew up in Inglewood and was in high school when the receivership began. He recalls canceled field trips and missing educational programs.

“Unfortunately, our students are paying for the mistakes of previous administrators and school board members,” Castillo said. “This is going to cause a lot of confusion and mixed emotions for the year to come.”

The funds spent on running half-empty schools will instead help make the district more competitive with its neighbors, he said.

“We can’t compete value wise with some of these other districts,” Castillo said.

Morris described the planned closure as an opportunity to direct more money to each of the remaining facilities. The consolidations will mean the remaining elementary schools will have the same transitional kindergarten through eighth grade system, he noted.

The district plans to invest $200 million to “reconstruct Inglewood High School” into a “breathtaking, brand new, state-of-the-art campus,” Morris said.

Inglewood Unified also will build a new “high school academy” on the City Honors Preparatory School campus to give high school students an additional option, he said. A proposed “education and innovation” hub, built in partnership with the city of Inglewood, will connect all of the high schools to Inglewood’s library system.

Parents will get a chance to reserve seats for their children at new schools later this year, according to the district.

Probation Chief Deputy Kimberly Epps announced the department’s stance Thursday, March 14, to the county’s Probation Oversight Commission, telling the commissioners the department has not “begun plans to relocate and we will not begin plans for a coordinated relocation” of the two juvenile facilities, Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey and the Barry J. Nidorf Secure Youth Treatment Facility in Sylmar.

“We plan to come into compliance in the facilities where we are,” Epps said. “We believe no one can care for our youth better than we can.”

Epps’ message mirrored what her boss, Chief Probation Officer Guillermo Viera Rosa, told the executive board of AFSCME Local 685, the union representing the department’s rank-and-file officers, during a Feb. 29 meeting, according to a memo to its members.

“We were informed that Chief Rosa does not plan to close any facilities and there is no plan for layoffs,” the executive board wrote. “The Chief explained to the Executive Board that the current placement and location of the juveniles in the institutions is the safest place for them to continue to receive care, services, protection and rehabilitation.”

The Board of State and Community Corrections, the regulatory agency overseeing California’s juvenile detention system, disagreed with that assessment in February when it declared both facilities “unsuitable” for the confinement of minors for failing to meet the state’s minimum standards. State law stipulates that any “unsuitable” facility must be emptied after 60 days and cannot be used until a reinspection confirms conditions have improved.

The Los Angeles County Probation Department declined to address what will happen if it fails the final inspection, issuing a statement saying it continues to “provide appropriate care to the youth in our facilities.”

“We are maintaining all our necessary operations and will continue to move toward compliance with state regulations,” the statement read. “We are required to continue housing and providing care for the young people placed with us by the courts, and we will do that.”

In a statement, county Supervisor Janice Hahn, whose district includes Los Padrinos, agreed relocation is not ideal.

“Moving youth is incredibly disruptive and has not worked in the past, so I hope that the Probation Department is right about their ability to come into compliance in time,” she said.

Collision course

The county’s refusal to plan for possible closures has seemingly placed it on a collision course with the state. If L.A. County does not comply with the BSCC order, the state would need to seek judicial intervention.

State law does not describe a specific enforcement mechanism. Only two facilities — both in Los Angeles County last year — have ever been shut down by the BSCC.

A BSCC spokesperson declined to comment on how it would enforce the order. The BSCC meets on April 11 to “make the final decision for both facilities” and plans to conduct new inspections before the meeting.

While the Probation Department’s leadership has expressed confidence it can resolve the remaining deficiencies before the deadline, critics say the county’s refusal to plan for the worst-case scenario is dangerous.

“The lack of a plan is irresponsible,” said Sean Garcia-Leys, an oversight commissioner and co-executive director of the Peace and Justice Law Center.

There is not enough space in Los Angeles County’s other juvenile facilities to take the nearly 300 youth housed at Los Padrinos and the SYTF. Alternative arrangements to send youth to other counties, or to reduce the juvenile population, should have begun by now, Garcia-Leys said.

“We’re headed toward a situation where there is no facility in Los Angeles County that is lawful to confine pre-adjudication youth,” he said.

County presentation ‘baffling’

Commission Chair Eduardo Mundo, a former deputy probation officer with 30 years of experience in field, described the county’s presentation at Thursday’s meeting as “baffling” because it did not address longstanding staffing issues, the primary driving force behind nearly all of the areas of noncompliance.

“They were so unprepared that it is appalling,” he said. “There is something that is giving them the idea that they’re not going to be forced to empty the halls.”

Epps told the commission L.A. County is meeting weekly with the BSCC for technical assistance and has developed an internal “corrective action plan” to address nine areas of noncompliance remaining at Los Padrinos and five remaining at the SYTF. The department’s leadership now holds thrice-weekly meetings to review and confirm progress, she said.

The county is aggressively recruiting new officers, though it continues, much like other law enforcement agencies, to struggle to find enough qualified candidates willing to stick it out.

The new internal CAP states the department is in the process of onboarding recently reassigned officers from field services as a stopgap measure. It has developed new policies around staff training, juvenile discipline, room confinements and safety checks, all of which were flagged as noncompliant earlier this year.

Mundo compared the fixes to applying a “used Band-Aid to a bleeding cut.” The redeployment of officers from other divisions may allow the department to pass an inspection now, but forcing inexperienced officers to work in the halls against their wishes is not sustainable, he said.

“You don’t want somebody who doesn’t want to be there working with the kids,” he said.

Staffing crisis years in making

L.A. County has struggled to address the staffing crisis for years and has repeatedly found itself in the BSCC’s cross hairs as a result.

Central Juvenile and Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall were first declared “unsuitable” in 2021, but they managed to avoid closure by passing an inspection before the clock ran out. The BSCC went back and forth with L.A. County for two more years, before finally ordering the closure of Central and Nidorf, minus the SYTF unit, in July.

Instead of fixing Central and Nidorf, the county opted to consolidate and transferred the juveniles to a reopened Los Padrinos before the 60-day deadline expired.

Though the Probation Department managed to pull off the move, it has been in a near perpetual state of emergency since.

Staff members continued to call out at alarming rates. Los Padrinos, once seen as a fresh start, experienced two violent escape attempts within the four months, highlighting the newly opened facility’s physical flaws and depleted workforce. Youth complained of broken air conditioners, late arrivals to school and a lack of recreational activities. They told inspectors they were forced to urinate in the corners of their rooms because there weren’t enough staff to take them to the restroom overnight.

Meanwhile, the county has spent nearly a year trying to stop a proliferation of drugs within the facilities since a youth died from a fatal overdose in May.

The BSCC inspected Los Padrinos and the SYTF in August and found both out of compliance with state law. The county had until January to fix the identified problems, and, though county officials announced they had completed the work, both facilities ultimately failed reinspections, triggering another unsuitability determination in February.

Pleas for workers to show up

Staff morale has plummeted to such a low point that union leaders are pleading with members to show up for training sessions and to cooperate with an unpopular mandate reassigning 250 field officers to the halls on 60-day rotations.

“As your President, I am asking you to please work with the department with deployment and reassignment so that we may pass the BSCC inspection,” wrote Stacy Ford, the president of Local 685. “If we don’t pass the BSCC inspection, nothing else will matter because our department may not exist as it is now.”

Garcia-Leys, the oversight commissioner, said he worries the county is simply trying to reset the clock.

“Best case, the department is planning to get through this inspection and then going right back to being noncompliant and starting this whole process again,” he said. “It’s impossible to accept any of these things at face value when they’ve done this so many times before and always turned out to have exaggerated their successes.”

Failures acknowledged

In a February letter to the BSCC, Viera Rosa, who took over the department while it was already in crisis, acknowledged L.A. County’s repeated failure to uphold the state’s minimum standards.

He urged regulators, ahead of the suitability vote, to give L.A. County more time so it could finally break the cycle, “rather than continually putting us on 60-day timelines towards shutdown that are literally impossible to meet due to existing Union Memoranda of Understanding, DOJ oversight requirements, and other legal obligations.”

“While this may be somewhat in tension with existing statutory deadlines, we believe increased flexibility would allow the BSCC and DOJ to harmonize their requirements and timelines, and effectively work together with Probation towards the common goal of solving the hard problems that, to date, have limited Probation’s ability to bring about real and lasting change,” he wrote.

The BSCC wasn’t swayed and unanimously passed the vote to declare Los Padrinos and the SYTF unsuitable.

The female officer, who has not been identified, was charged with arranging a meeting with the minor for a lewd purpose, sex with an inmate, bringing contraband into a jail and unauthorized possession of a cellphone in a secured area.

The Probation Department’s Juvenile Safety and Welfare Task Force, formed in February to combat the spread of drugs and other contraband, will forward the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office once the investigation is complete, according to the department.

Investigators discovered the relationship while investigating a phone recovered from a youth at the facility on March 7, according to a statement from the department. The Dorothy Kirby Center is a co-ed facility that houses “adjudicated youth with mental health issues,” according to the Probation Department.

“Information supported by a warrant led investigators to communications between the detained youth and Probation Officer,” the statement reads. “Some of these communications appeared to have occurred while the employee was at work and there were photos that are sexual in nature.”

The employee allegedly gave statements during interviews with investigators that confirmed the conversations were with her. Investigators found a cellphone, which is not permitted inside the facility, and a prescription pill container “with different types of pills in varying quantities” in her possession.

The department declined to comment further on the incident as it is “an ongoing investigation involving an employee and a minor.”

First arrest by task force

It is the first arrest — at least made publicly — by the Juvenile Safety and Welfare Task Force.

Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa formed the task force in February to investigate and prosecute drug traffickers within the juvenile justice system. Last year, Los Angeles County’s juvenile facilities experienced at least half a dozen overdoses, including the death of an 18-year-old in custody at the Barry J. Nidorf Secure Youth Treatment Facility in Sylmar.

A report from the Office of Inspector General found that drugs, fentanyl in particular, had spread throughout the facilities due to lax security. Since then, the department has increased the frequency of room searches and intensified its security checkpoints. It planned to install airport-style scanners at its largest juvenile hall, Los Padrinos in Downey, in early 2024.

Latest setback

The arrest marks the latest stain on the embattled Probation Department, which has been under fire from the state for its substandard operation of juvenile facilities.

Last year, the state shut down two of the county’s juvenile halls over deplorable conditions, forcing the department’s leadership to scramble to reopen Los Padrinos to house the hundreds of youth impacted by the decision.

Now, Los Padrinos and the SYTF at Barry J. Nidorf, could suffer the same fate. Probation officials have until April to bring both locations back into compliance with the state’s minimum standards, or those facilities will be emptied, too.

Rumors of employees bringing drugs into the facilities have circulated for months.

Last year, the department arrested Nicholas Ibarra, 22, a youth who was in custody at the SYTF, for drug possession following a series of overdoses. Two officers assigned to transport Ibarra later alleged he gave up the name of an officer who had been supplying fentanyl to youths at Barry J. Nidorf, but that they were placed on leave for trying to investigate, according to their attorney, Tom Yu.

In September, the Office of Inspector General reported that security at Barry J. Nidorf allowed a staff member to bring food in without scanning the container, which the Probation Department “later believed introduced contraband into the facility.”

The department has declined to comment on those incidents.

Los Angeles County is already facing hundreds of lawsuits from former juvenile detainees who alleged they experienced sexual abuse within the juvenile halls dating back to 1972. Los Angeles County CEO Fesia Davenport estimated the county could be forced to pay $1.6 billion to $3 billion for “more than 3,000 claims alleging childhood sexual assault at various County and non-County facilities,” according to a 2023 budget.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis called on the department to “thoroughly investigate this incident and discipline all, including staff who continue to harm our youth.”

“The County of Los Angeles is contending with lawsuits from the past about allegations of sexual trauma in our facilities and yet, there continues to be a disturbing pattern of staff, who are in roles to protect, preying on those that need guidance and protection,” Solis said in a statement.

“I applaud Probation leadership for taking swift action against the staff, however, there needs to be a clear message of zero tolerance policy on any forms of abuse and swift consequences that follow to eradicate the culture that enables these crimes to occur.”

Supervisor Janice Hahn echoed the criticisms, calling the allegations “disturbing.”

“The probation department is failing to adequately search every employee entering our detention facilities,” she said. “Simply requiring clear bags is not enough and security must immediately begin searching all employees.”

The escape attempt on Nov. 3 lasted just 12 minutes, but exposed multiple points of failure at the renovated Downey facility housing nearly 300 juvenile detainees every day.

Staffing levels were dangerously low as the shift began that night.

The department had scheduled 100 staff members — the minimum needed to run Los Padrinos — for the shift, but only 40 showed up. The facility’s supervisors managed to cobble together a team of 64 to manage the juvenile hall’s 18 units by pulling officers from other assignments, according to the March 7 report to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

In Unit X2, where the escape attempt began, two officers were overseeing 14 youth, slightly above the state’s requirement for one officer per 10 youth. At the time of the escape, one officer had gone to the bathroom and left the other alone with the youth, in violation of department policy and state law, the inspector general found.

“The Department did not staff the unit properly, assigning too few staff to meet the required ratio and assigning staff who lacked proper training and experience,” wrote Max Huntsman, the inspector general.

How it happened

At 7:52 p.m., one detainee asked the remaining probation officer — who typically was deployed in the field and had never worked in the juvenile halls — to unlock his room. As the officer unlocked the door, the youth grabbed the keys, while another youth pulled the officer away.

A senior detention services officer, who had been sitting in the unit’s office, intercepted the key-carrying youth in a breezeway, but a group of five other juveniles pushed out of the unit and attacked the officer. The juveniles managed to unlock the next door during the scuffle and scattered across a field toward the west perimeter wall, according to the report.

An officer stationed in a nearby outpost saw them, but could not call for assistance because his radio was not charged, investigators found. A juvenile “threatened him not to come out of the outpost” and he complied.

The officer, who was on light duty due to work restrictions, later stated that “due to safety concerns he did not intervene nor deploy Oleoresin Capscium (OC) spray,” according to the report. A second officer positioned on the opposite side of the field instead radioed in the escape attempt.

Meanwhile, the juveniles lifted the original instigator up to a conduit pipe on the perimeter wall and he scaled over it. Special Enforcement Operations officers arrived just before 8 p.m. and ordered the remaining juveniles to the ground.

The SEO officers searched the perimeter and found the escaped youth “with a female companion in a car approximately 600 feet from the facility,” the report states. A change of clothes was prepared inside.

Second attempt in 4 months

It was the second escape attempt at Los Padrinos in just four months. Yet, the OIG’s investigation suggests the Probation Department had failed to learn to from the first attempt in July.

Youth who had participated in that escape attempt were not separated. In fact, one juvenile involved had “used the same method to assist another youth to escape in the earlier attempt,” according to the report.

Investigators also determined the facility’s nearly 14-foot perimeters walls are too short and that there were not enough cameras covering the escape route. The supervising deputy probation officer who lost their keys at the start of the incident had never worked in the juvenile halls and had not received crisis management training in more than a decade.

Staff had work restrictions

The report also criticized the department for assigning staff with work restrictions to areas of the facility “that may require physically apprehending youths attempting to escape.”

“Currently, the Department assigns staff with reasonable work accommodations to the outposts, which are located near the walls and designed to observe areas away from the main facilities,” the report states. “But these staff positions also serve as the last line of defense if youths attempt to escape.”

Additionally, officers did not know how to contact local law enforcement for help and could not use their radios to connect to law enforcement channels. One officer tried to text the Downey Police Department to no avail, while another called 911 instead.

“In an emergency, the Probation Department cannot request that Downey or South Gate police departments dispatch units immediately or communicate with these police agencies directly via radio,” the report states. “In addition, the Probation Department does not provide staff with any instruction or guidance on how to respond and communicate with local law enforcement during an emergency.”

Fixes recommended

The inspector general’s report includes a series of recommendations, including the installation of keypad locks on unit doors, additional training for emergencies and deescalation, and periodic reviews of housing assignments to separate youths who should not be housed together based on past conduct and affiliations.

Huntsman wrote that the department should “immediately” disband all nonessential field staff units, retrain those employees and then deploy them to the juvenile halls.

Those recommendations are currently under review, according to the Probation Department.

Security upgrades

The department installed razor wire along Los Padrinos’ perimeter and implemented other new security features following the escape attempt in November. At least one staff member is under investigation for policy violations related to the incident.

“The Department is committed to full implementation of any corrective actions that strengthens and improves the operations of our juvenile facilities as well as cooperation with the OIG,” probation officials said in a statement.

An unpopular emergency staffing plan is expected to reassign 200 officers from the department’s field operations to Los Padrinos on 60-day rotations. Those officers will undergo training prior to their deployment.

Sworn managers also will be deployed to the halls for 90 days to assist with the department’s efforts to bring the facility back up to the state’s minimum standards.

“It is our hope that these changes will allow for effective operation of our juvenile facilities, protect the community from public safety risks and tighten our security protocols going forward,” the department’s statement read.

Los Padrinos and the Barry J. Nidorf Secure Youth Treatment Facility in Sylmar are facing potential shutdowns due to the poor conditions at both locations. The Board of State and Community Corrections, the regulatory body overseeing prisons and juvenile halls, ordered the Probation Department to fix a series of deficiencies, largely attributable to the staffing crisis, by mid-April, or it must empty both facilities.

‘Abdicated their responsibility’

County Supervisor Janice Hahn requested the OIG investigation in November.

In a statement, she said it is “critically important we not only find out what failures led to escapes from Los Padrinos, but ensure that the probation department puts in place measures to prevent them from going forward.”

“The report identifies multiple shortcomings that directly contributed to the escapes, but also makes commonsense recommendations like keeping radios charged and developing a direct line to local law enforcement,” she stated. “It is my expectation that the Probation Department make it a priority to implement all of these recommendations.”

Supervisor Lindsay Horvath, the chair of the board, said the OIG’s report makes it clear that probation staff “have abdicated their responsibility.”

“The young people in our care deserve a system that provides them with the resources and structure needed to successfully reenter our communities,” she said. “For this to happen, we need staff who show up for each other and model the kind of behavior we want to see in our young people.”

Though the new plan to redeploy field officers has drawn flak, the executive board of the Los Angeles County Deputy Probation Officers’ Union is urging its members to support the plan. The ongoing crisis “puts the future of the Department” and the officers’ jobs “in serious jeopardy,” they wrote in a recent post on the union’s website.

“Please do not call out or no-show,” the executive board wrote. “This will undermine the Probation Department’s ability to meet BSSC requirements and our Union’s responsibility to protect your jobs.”

The employees, Deputy City Manager Michael Behen, Human Resources Manager Patricia Nevarez and City Clerk Shanae Smith, filed the lawsuit in June 2022. Their complaint alleged former City Manager J.J. Murphy, who was fired without cause earlier that same year, and other administrators “terrorized” and discriminated against the employees for raising concerns about no-bid contracts, gender biases and other misconduct.

“I am pleased that we were able to vindicate our clients, seek justice for them and to send a message to the city that such conduct is not going to be tolerated in the future,” said Brad Gage, the attorney for the three employees. “When you give 30 years of your life, or more, to a company, you expect to be treated a lot better than my clients were.”

Under the settlement, Palmdale paid $845,000 to Behen and $4.4 million to Smith and Nevarez, according to Gage.

Tensions high at City Hall

Tensions at Palmdale City Hall in late 2021 reached such a level that an elected official wore a bulletproof vest to a council meeting, according to the lawsuit. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reportedly sent deputies and a helicopter to one meeting in response to concerns that Murphy, who had a permit to carry a concealed weapon, could potentially harm someone if the City Council decided to fire him that night.

Gage said the city attorney recommended his clients take voluntary administrative leaves that same month because the city thought it would be safer.

“That’s the reverse of what should have happened,” Gage said. “If you’re worried that people are likely to be victims of violence, or other acts of wrongdoing, you don’t punish them by sending them home. The alleged harasser should be sent home.”

Both Nevarez and Behen had spent decades working for the city and had positive reviews until they began to question the handling of certain contracts and a 1% interest home loan issued to Murphy, Gage said.

Video circulated

Around the same time, a video purportedly showing Murphy receiving oral sex at a Quartz Hill hair salon and spa circulated through City Hall. Nevarez, Behen and Smith’s lawsuit alleges Murphy used public funds to keep the woman’s husband quiet and disrupted efforts to investigate the rumors.

In a separate lawsuit, Murphy accused an elected official of distributing the recording, which did not take place at City Hall or on the clock, to intentionally harm him.

Palmdale paid $2.23 million to Murphy last year to resolve a separate wrongful termination claim in which he portrayed himself as a victim of retaliation for refusing to cut corners to help out councilmembers’ donors.

Gun was unseen

Kevin Shenkman, who represented Murphy in that case and others, acknowledged that Murphy carried a firearm for his own safety, but he never threatened to use it or showed it to any of the employees who have claimed they felt unsafe.

Smith, Nevarez and Behen testified in depositions that they had not seen the gun personally, according to Shenkman.

“Mr. Murphy is a retired Air Force major. He is very familiar with firearms,” Shenkman said. “He had been receiving threats from one member of the community and so he had a concealed carry permit, and so he was legally carrying a firearm. Not on his person. He had it in a bag.”

Murphy was the one who feared for his life when the Sheriff’s Department sent five patrol cars and a helicopter to the December 2021 council meeting after being “falsely informed” that Murphy “was armed and dangerous,” according to his lawsuit.

The employees also never saw the sex tape, which Shenkman said they latched onto for the attention it would bring to the case. The recording, which he had not seen either, “purports to show a sex act not during work hours, not on the city hall premises” and not involving any other city employees, he added.

Allegations ‘ridiculous’

“What these folks started with is some scandalous, salacious things about guns and sex, that have nothing to do with their employment, and they tried to make a case around that,” Shenkman said. “Ultimately, you have a city that doesn’t want to go to trial on anything, so they pay out whatever money it takes to not go to trial.”

He called the allegations “ridiculous,” pointing to one, in particular, in which an employee reportedly felt threatened by an assistant city manager jiggling a locked office door handle.

Shenkman alleges employees were recruited to file the lawsuits as a pretext for firing Murphy. At least two other cases filed by employees during the same time period are still pending, according to court records.

Gage denied any such collusion occurred in his case, saying the city would not have paid such a large amount if the claims were false.

“They decided they were entitled to $5.25 million,” Gage said. “That’s a lot of money for someone who thinks it is made up.”

Palmdale released a statement calling the settlements a “fair compromise based on the totality of the facts.”

“We appreciate the mediator’s effort in achieving an equitable settlement on these claims,” the statement reads. “This marks a significant turning point for the City, allowing us to leave these longstanding cases in the past and direct our full attention to Palmdale’s promising future and the committed staff working each day to deliver for our community.”

The emergency plan will shift a minimum of 200 officers to Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall and at least 50 officers to the Barry J. Nidorf Secure Youth Treatment Facility on 90-day rotations, according to the Probation Department.

In a February memo, Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa warned field supervisors they will be expected to “cover area office operations utilizing reduced team sizes.” The transferred employees are needed to sufficiently bolster the ranks to avoid state-imposed closures at Los Padrinos and Barry J. Nidorf.

Every field officer is expected to work at least one rotation in the juvenile hall or SYTF over the next 12 months, Viera Rosa wrote. Those who cannot work on full duty or pass training requirements are being told to remain at home.

The Board of State and Community Corrections, the regulatory body responsible for overseeing California’s juvenile halls, in February declared Los Padrinos and Barry J. Nidorf “unsuitable,” a designation that will force the county to empty the buildings if it cannot resolve the remaining violations — most of which directly relate to low staffing — by mid-April.

State inspectors reported juveniles frequently arrived late to school, lacked recreational activities, and had to urinate in their rooms overnight as there was not enough staff available to take them to the restroom. Two of the county’s juvenile halls were shut down in 2023 over many of the same issues related to insufficient staffing.

‘Gearing up for battle’

Members of the Los Angeles County Deputy Probation Officers’ Union, Local 685, have flooded their leadership with confused and concerned emails and phone calls since Viera Rosa’s memo went out, according to a post by President Stacy K. Ford.

In response, the union is “gearing up for battle” and has scheduled meetings with its lawyers and the department to get clarification about Viera Rosa’s plan, according to Ford.

“Remember when everything was good in the Field and super bad in the Halls,” Ford wrote. “DSOs (detention services officers) were being held over for 30+ hours, being assaulted just about every day by youth. Remember that? Now the Field is under attack.”

Field officers are being unfairly “deployed all over the place” now, according to Ford. Officers are “leaving the department, either by retirement or quitting” because they feel mistreated, disrespected or unappreciated, he wrote.

“This is not fair and something has to be done about it,” Ford said. “As a Union, we will explore all of our options.”

A spokesperson for Local 685 declined to comment.

Public safety at risk?

Probation Oversight Commissioner Sean Garcia-Leys, the co-executive director of the Peace and Justice Law Center, has similarly received a barrage of emails from staff expressing concerns about Viera Rosa’s mandate. Officers fear the decision could harm public safety, as the Adult Field Services Bureau will have fewer resources to monitor the tens of thousands of probationers under its supervision.

Field staff members willingly worked shorter shifts in the juvenile hall under prior mandates, but they feel the 90-day rotations are too disruptive, according to Garcia-Leys.

The smaller scale redeployments over the last year did alleviate some of the staffing woes at Los Padrinos and Barry J. Nidorf, according to Garcia-Leys, who participated in recent inspections. However, he isn’t convinced the wider shift will pay off, as it could lead to the deployment of many staff members without the necessary skills, or physical condition, to handle working in environments where violence can occur.

Employees have cited low morale, increased violence and worries about excessively long shifts as the driving forces behind the staffing crisis. Now, a whole new group of employees could find themselves in similar situations.

“Part of the reason we’ve had these incredibly high absenteeism rates is because people are angry and frustrated about these exact problems,” Garcia-Leys said. “How many of those 250 people are going to actually show up when they’re told to?”

L.A. County needs the support of probation officers to meet the narrow deadline imposed by the state. If the officers challenge the mandate — either officially through the union, or unofficially by not showing up — the department could find itself in an even worse position when state inspectors return to check whether the county is still out of compliance.

Unlike last year, L.A. County does not have a backup facility large enough to house the roughly 300 juveniles currently at Los Padrinos and Barry J. Nidorf, and state law does not permit the BSCC to grant any more extensions.

Problems with adult oversight

Though the county’s attention is on the juvenile side of the agency right now, its poor oversight of adult probationers has faced significant criticism in recent years as well. Last year, the Los Angeles County Office of Inspector General found the department failed to act on information that a probationer was using drugs and carrying a firearm in the weeks before he killed two El Monte police officers and then himself in 2022.

The report found the department had not properly monitored Justin Flores, a convicted gang member, for years. Flores’ probation officer did not make contact with Flores, despite saying he had, on multiple occasions, and did not follow up after learning that Flores wasn’t living at the address provided to the department. Though he received warnings about Flores using PCP and carrying a gun a week before the shooting in El Monte, he did not pass that information along to law enforcement.

“Everybody has been focused on the juvenile system because the facilities have become such a crisis, but there were serious problems in the adult system before that focus was diverted,” Garcia-Leys said.

‘Delicate’ balancing act

In a statement, the Probation Department confirmed the redeployments and said it is “actively engaged in the delicate task of balancing the demands of the juvenile halls with those of the adult probation program.” Field supervisors will “address any gaps” created by the reassignments, officials said.

Asked how the remaining staff will handle the workload, the department stated that probation officers “understand the challenge of adapting to shifting responsibilities” and “will continue to prioritize their time and focus on high-priority cases while leveraging resources efficiently.”

The Probation Department is actively recruiting new probation officers to bolster its staffing, according to the statement.

“We recognize the unique needs and vulnerabilities of both populations and continue to work to implement strategic measures to ensure equitable attention and resources,” the statement read.

The Probation Department has yet to publicly unveil its plan to fix the juvenile halls before the April 16 deadline imposed by state regulators. A spokesperson for the BSCC said the county has not submitted a plan yet. Inspectors will revisit both Los Padrinos and the SYTF within the next month to determine if the facilities are still “unsuitable” to house youths.

Commerce was notified, but did not object, in March 2023 when Amitim Group LLC obtained state licenses to distribute and sell liquor, beer and wine wholesale to other license holders, even though Amitim did not — and still doesn’t — have the city’s approval to legally operate.

Amitim, which runs L.A. Wholesalers out of a Slauson Avenue warehouse owned by Commerce’s former redevelopment agency, has neither a business license nor a conditional use permit, both of which are required by the Municipal Code to sell alcohol anywhere in the city.

California prohibits the issuance of a state retail liquor license to a business without local approval, but it does not have the same requirement for wholesale and distribution. Instead, notices are sent to local law enforcement, the city’s planning director and the City Council asking if they object.

In Commerce’s case, there was no response, according to the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

Amitim applied for a Commerce business license and a conditional use permit for the cash-and-carry store last year, but did not complete either process, according to city officials. The business failed to receive approval from the county Fire Department, which flagged multiple violations at the store just days before it opened to the public without the city’s permission.

Rent below market rates

On top of ignoring the blatant violations, Commerce charged the company far below the market rate for a 25,000-square-foot-warehouse, potentially missing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue.

Amitim pays just $6.24 per square foot per year. A similarly sized warehouse on Slauson Avenue, less than two miles away, charges $22 per square foot annually, according to the real estate site LoopNet.

The lowest priced warehouse available in Commerce is listed on the website at more than double what Amitim pays the city.

The city’s $13,000 per month lease with Amitim, approved administratively in 2022 by since ousted City Manager Edgar Cisneros, appears to be largely for the surrounding parking lot. It explicitly states that the warehouse on the site is included in the lease “for the purposes of securing it for the licensor while plans for future development of a city facility are finalized.”

Prior deals with businessman

A prior investigation by the Southern California News Group found Cisneros had leased 26 acres of city-owned land for pennies on the dollar to a well-liked businessman capitalizing on the dire need for tractor-trailer parking during the pandemic-fueled gridlock at the ports. The businessman — Martin Fierro, owner of Fenix Entrepreneur — paid as little as $1,000 per month to lease 14.4 acres at one point, during a period in which real estate experts estimated each acre by itself could have generated as much as $30,000 to $50,000 per month.

City officials, in their quest to help Fierro secure land, convinced at least one other company to rent to Fierro as well and nearly drew a $5 million fine from Los Angeles County as a result. Fierro found support in his other businesses too. A cannabis company he backed was one of the few to receive the city’s approval, despite missing key deadlines.

Another Fierro entity operates an open air market every week in Commerce at a shuttered Montebello Unified School District property, a lease that was supported by Cisneros in 2014 when he served on the school board.

Cisneros previously denied Fierro and Fenix received any special treatment, saying that the city discounted the rents for truck parking lots in light of improvements made to the sites, including the removal of mounds of dirt illegally dumped on one of the properties.

Though Fierro is not mentioned in Amitim’s business filings, he lists L.A. Wholesalers’ website in the introduction section on his personal Facebook page, advertised store specials and answered questions about the available products alongside posts about his other businesses.

Amitim’s listed owner — Azael “Sal” Martinez Sonoqui, a former county probation commissioner — described himself as the “asst. clerk to Mr. Fierro” in emails in October 2022, the same month that Cisneros approved the Slauson Avenue lease.

At the time, Sonoqui was helping Fierro resolve a dispute in the City of El Monte after city’s code enforcement officers discovered Fierro was operating an unpermitted truck parking lot.

Two months after the Southern California News Group first published a story about Commerce’s low-cost leases with Fierro, some of the leases quietly shifted away from his company to others. One of the newcomers, Abee Trucking Logistics LLC, was registered by Sonoqui’s son less than two weeks before Cisneros agreed to rent 11.25 acres to it for $25,000 per month.

Working to get permits

Reached by phone, Sonoqui acknowledged that Amitim does not have a business license or permits, but said he is in the process of working with the city to resolve that problem and expects to have a license “in our hands by the end of the month.”

He declined to answer questions about whether Fierro has a financial interest, or about the company’s arrangement with the city, saying it is a “matter between us and the city.”

Fierro similarly refused to answer questions, repeatedly telling a reporter to check “the public records.”

“That’s all you have,” he said.

While L.A. Wholesalers moved forward without a permit on one side of town, Fierro opened his own market and liquor store with the city’s full blessing roughly two miles away on Washington Boulevard. Both L.A. Wholesalers and the new market used the same contractors, records show.

The business, CCM Market, features liquor sales, cigars, a butchery and plans to add a restaurant in the future, according to its applications with the city.

Actor Mark Wahlberg even visited the shop in its opening days to promote his tequila line.

Another business planned?

In February 2023, chef Federico Giugno, who listed himself as the executive manager and shareholder of CCM in emails with the city, told a reporter for What Now Los Angeles that he planned to open a pizzeria and brewery above the market with his business partner, Commerce Councilman Ivan Altamirano.

In an email, Altamirano denied having a business relationship with Giugno, saying the pizzeria was “discussed as a concept that never came to fruition.”

He did not respond to questions asking if he had any interest in CCM or Fierro’s other businesses.

Fierro, reached by phone, was already aware that a reporter had contacted Altamirano for this story. He hung up when asked if the two men had any business dealings.

A conditional use permit for CCM approved by Commerce’s Planning Commission in May indicated Fierro still intended build a pizzeria by the same name above the market.

Commerce promoted CCM’s grand opening on its Facebook and Instagram accounts in October, posting pictures of Councilman Hugo Argumedo exploring the market and paragraphs of text that read like an advertisement.

“CCM Market also has a grand variety of fine wine, and spirits, as well as over hundred of types of alcohol,” the post reads. “Visitors and locals can also purchase specialty hand-rolled cigars which are housed in a state-of-the-art ventilation system for their carefully procured collection of cigars.”

Commerce, which primarily uses its Facebook account to promote public events, made only two other posts about businesses opening in the preceding two years. Both contained short messages welcoming the stores to the community.

City leases scrutinized

Altamirano would not discuss the city’s past leases with Fierro and others, saying they were “completed administratively by our former city manager without action or approval by the City Council.”

“Our current administration is reviewing the management of all City properties, including these leases,” he wrote. “Currently, the City Council has limited information on these transactions. In addition, due to the terms of the separation agreement between the City and our former city manager, I am unable to provide additional comments related to events that occurred during our former city manager’s tenure.”

The Southern California News Group submitted a public records request for all of the city’s lease agreements on Oct. 20, 2023. Four days later, the City Council scheduled a closed meeting to discuss those same leases.

Cisneros, still city manager at the time, sent out a barrage of termination letters in the following weeks, ordering Fenix, Abee Trucking and at least one other truck company with ties to Fierro to vacate by Dec. 31, public records show.

Cisneros abruptly resigned in early November in exchange for a $214,000 severance package, according to a separation agreement. His one-sentence resignation letter did not explain why.

Assistant City Manager Vilko Domic subsequently sent out additional termination letters, including one to Amitim, after assuming the role of acting city manager.

However, Domic, in an interview, said the termination of Amitim and Abee Trucking’s leases has since halted, pending negotiations. Though he described Amitim’s months of operation without a business license as “a little extensive,” Domic said the business friendly city wants to work with the company to try to cure its deficiencies.

“I’m working diligently to review all of the leases,” Domic said. “The ones that have been terminated, and if the tenant doesn’t want to rekindle it, we’re just letting those die.”

Domic did not know why the termination leases were originally issued by Cisneros, and said the letters he sent out were only finishing what Cisneros started.

“I wasn’t any part of what happened as it relates to any of those leases,” he said.

Domic acknowledged that the rents charged to Amitim — and Fierro — were too low. Future leases will require close to market rate rents and will be approved by the City Council, rather than by the city manager solely, he said.

“I’m going to set up checks and balances that will oversee any kind of rental lease or terms with any city property,” he said. “Whatever needs to be remedied, I will do my best to right the ship and work collaboratively with the City Council and staff to make sure that going forward we do the right thing.”

Officials from the Los Angeles County Probation Department pleaded with the Board of State and Community Corrections, the regulatory agency that oversees prisons and juvenile halls in California, during a hearing Thursday, Feb. 15, to delay the decision and instead create a partnership in which the BSCC would participate in a joint “reconstruction strike team” designed to finally fix the county’s long-troubled juvenile hall system.

But the board, fed up with L.A. County’s repeated appearances before them over the past three years, was not swayed. Board members declared both Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey, open for less than a year, and the Barry J. Nidorf Secure Youth Treatment Facility in Sylmar to be “unsuitable” to continue housing youths.

Such a determination starts a 60-day clock, in which the county must either bring the facilities up to the state’s minimum standards or close indefinitely.

It’s the exact same position the county found itself in last year, when the BSCC ordered the closures of Central and Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Halls, minus the SYTF unit, over similar concerns. The county, in response, scrambled to renovate and reopen Los Padrinos, previously closed in 2019, as a new home for the juveniles before the deadline elapsed in July.

This time, however, Los Angeles County does not have another Los Padrinos to fall back on, and its various juvenile camps are too small to hold more than a fraction of the youth at Los Padrinos today. The Probation Department did not respond to questions about what it will do in the event that Los Padrinos can’t be fixed in time.

Los Angeles County, through a spokesperson, said the BSCC’s decision “places the county in the position of continuing to triage rather than to press forward with the reforms underway to achieve lasting change.”

“We intend to use the 60-day regulatory window to take all necessary steps to meet the state’s requirements,” the statement read. “We had hoped to have the BSCC’s agreement on a joint strike force that could provide clarity around goals and how outcomes are measured. Though that request was rejected, we will continue to push the Probation Department to use every tool at its disposal to avoid closure, which we believe will only make the current situation more challenging for our youth in detention.”

Sean Garcia-Leys, co-executive director of the Peace and Justice Law Center and a member of Los Angeles County’s Probation Oversight Commission, said the county must find ways to reduce the population at Los Padrinos to a more manageable level if it wants to avoid a shutdown.

That could include a combination of sending some youth to juvenile halls in neighboring counties — preferably to Orange County, which is still close enough for families to visit — and placing others under electronic monitoring, he said. Garcia-Leys, who recently inspected Los Padrinos in the last week, estimates the juvenile hall would need to drop to about 100 to 150 youth — about half of where it is now — to stabilize at its current staffing levels.

Los Angeles County continues to struggle with an abundance of staff call-outs and medical leaves at its juvenile facilities, with county officials estimating about 1,400 employees — about a third of the department’s total — are currently on leave. The department has taken more than 500 disciplinary actions since October 2022 against staff who excessively called off, or did not show up for shifts, but the problem persists.

In August, state inspections found that the county simply did not have enough staff showing up for work to provide the safety and services required by state law.

Inspectors determined that Los Padrinos, home to nearly 300 youth awaiting court appearances, did not properly train staff on uses of force, consistently failed to get youth to school on time and did not offer sufficient recreation, with some youth instead sitting in front of a TV, watching movies or playing video games, from when they woke up until they went to bed.

Youth have complained of having nothing to do during the day and having to urinate in their rooms overnight, because of the lack of staff.

Los Padrinos has experienced two violent escape attempts since it opened in the summer of 203. Last month, eight officers were placed on leave for allegedly running what critics have dubbed a “fight club” inside the juvenile hall.

Similar conditions, though not as severe, were found at Barry J. Nidorf, a secure facility that houses about 50 youth already sentenced and returned to the county’s custody following the dissolution of the state’s Department of Juvenile Justice in 2021. In May, an 18-year-old died from a suspected overdose in the SYTF and was not found until hours later, despite state law requiring safety checks every 15 minutes.

Los Angeles County submitted a “corrective action plan” in October outlining how it would address the deficiencies. It subsequently declared the work complete in January. But when the state’s inspectors went into the facilities later that month, they found the department had not made enough progress.

Stakeholders and decision-makers pointed fingers at each other before and after the BSCC’s decision.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis called for the unions representing the department’s employees to “steer away” from supporting problematic employees and to work with the supervisors and the Probation Department’s new leadership to “implement a plan toward progress and compliance.”

“The cycle of Probation juvenile facilities continuing to be in and out of compliance and being found unsuitable needs to end,” she said in a statement. “I recognize that this is a long and deep-seated issue directly connected to staff, who have long-held leadership positions, who have abused their authority, turned a blind eye, and who created a culture that has enabled rank-and-file staff to operate with impunity, no accountability, and a complete disregard for regulations, policies, and standards.”

Meanwhile, both youth advocates and probation officers speaking at the meeting criticized the Board of Supervisors for inaction. Advocates say the supervisors have not followed through with a proposal called “Youth Justice Reimagined” that would have placed youths in more home-like, healing centers, instead of in juvenile halls. Probation employees pointed to hiring freezes as the reason for the staffing woes.

At the meeting, Chief Deputy Kimberly Epps blamed conflicting mandates from the BSCC and the California Department of Justice, which secured a separate court order against Los Angeles County last year, for the juvenile facilities’ failed inspections. Documentation required by the Justice Department did not meet the standards required by the BSCC and created confusion, she said.

While she acknowledged the department’s struggles, Epps suggested both Los Padrinos and the SYTF are actually in compliance, contrary to the inspectors’ findings, and assured the BSCC that the county can now provide the proper documentation to back up that claim.

BSCC members chastised L.A. County for submitting a litany of documents just hours before the suitability hearing began.

Board Chair Linda Penner, a former Fresno County probation chief, said she couldn’t accept the department’s assurances in light of the department’s history.

“It seems to me at the 12th hour, you come in with what you believe is documentation of compliance in many of the areas that we found you out of compliance with,” she said in response. “And I struggle with that, because we’ve been here before.”

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, in a statement, said the department “made excuses at today’s BSCC meeting instead of owning up to the unacceptable conditions at two of our probation facilities.”

“Multiple probation chiefs have been unable to fix the problems facing the department,” she said. “I am concerned about the future of the probation department and whether they are capable of the reform that we all know needs to happen.”

If Los Angeles County can prove it is in compliance with state standards, the BSCC can reconvene before the 60-day cutoff and reverse its decision.

Garcia-Leys, the oversight commissioner, said that seems likely for the SYTF, which is smaller and has fewer problems, but it’s less clear for Los Padrinos, the facility where most of the county’s juveniles are housed.

“It seems like it is actually possible and perhaps it could be brought into compliance in a matter of weeks,” he said. “Los Padrinos is much further from being compliant, but not so far that I don’t think it could be done in 60 days, if the population were small enough.”

The necessary solutions will require an “all hands on deck, multi-sector approach” involving the Probation Department, the juvenile courts, the Board of Supervisors and other counties, he said.

Inspectors found hazardous stacks of wood pallets, gas canisters, tires and other highly flammable materials at multiple properties beneath the 101, 10 and 5 freeways over the past three months, according to the newly released inspection reports.

In some cases, Caltrans tenants had constructed makeshift living quarters without permission, including a company that set up a gym, office and kitchen complete with a propane-powered grill amid rows of wooden movie set pieces.

Another appeared to have used a warehouse leased by the state as an illegal marijuana grow house. Inspectors found unpermitted additions to create grow rooms, spliced wiring, obstructed sprinklers and massive CO2 canisters tagged with “condemned” labels from the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The California Department of Cannabis Control did not list any active licenses within the vicinity of the property.

Lax oversight not isolated

The state fire marshal’s findings suggest the lax oversight that led to the 10 Freeway fire was not an isolated incident. In that case, Caltrans’ own inspectors had repeatedly flagged hazards at the East 14th Street site where the blaze began.

The tenant, Apex Development, had subleased to a dozen small businesses, including a pallet company, a mechanic and others, without Caltrans’ permission.

Though Apex allegedly hadn’t paid rent in three years, Caltrans did not initiate the eviction process until September 2023, just a few months before the wood pallets, hand sanitizer bottles and trailers improperly stored on site were ignited by a suspected arsonist.

Caltrans Director Tony Tavares, in a Feb. 6 memo to Gov. Gavin Newsom, acknowledged the eviction took longer than it should have and pledged to streamline the process in the future to create quicker turnarounds.

“Although Caltrans served the tenant notice to vacate the premises in November 2020, an unlawful detainer action to remove the tenant from the property was not filed until September 2023,” Tavares wrote. “The delay in this case was due, in part, to COVID-era limitations on eviction actions for nonpayment.”

The Nov. 11 fire quickly consumed the densely packed pallets, creating an inferno that damaged the freeway’s supports. The 10 was closed to traffic for roughly eight days while crews worked around the clock to repair the damage.

Top-to-bottom review

In response to the fire, Newsom ordered Caltrans to conduct a top-to-bottom review of the state’s “airspace” leasing program, which rents 601 state-owned properties beneath freeways and bridges as a revenue source for mass transportation projects.

Caltrans identified 47 potentially risky sites while conducting an inventory of the leases. All 15 in the city of Los Angeles failed their most recent fire inspections, according to the reports.

Inspectors did not identify any sites in Riverside or Orange counties. Two properties in San Bernardino County failed their inspections for minor violations — one near the 215 Freeway was inaccessible to inspectors, while the other, near the 10 Freeway in Ontario, had a single unpermitted trailer on a dirt lot.

Missing fire extinguishers, broken sprinklers

Many of the airspace properties examined by the state fire marshal had similar violations: missing fire extinguishers and alarms, broken or blocked sprinklers and dangerously daisy-chained or spliced wires.

Some had obvious unpermitted construction, while others openly stored wood pallets, damaged cars, gas canisters, car batteries and other hazardous materials prohibited by Caltrans’ leases.

During an inspection of a self-storage business tucked next to the 101, inspectors found units filled to the brim with car tires, boxes of documents, clothes and even trash.

Another business operated a retail hydroponics shop open to the public, though the site wasn’t permitted for such a use, according to the reports.

At least three properties appeared to have people living on site, either in makeshift bedrooms hidden within industrial warehouses or in trailers stored beneath the freeways.

Working to address problem sites

Tavares, in his Feb. 6 memo to Newsom, said the department is working to address these problematic sites, either by ordering the tenant to fix the safety issues or by initiating legal action.

Tavares acknowledged the airspace program’s failings in the memo and laid out a series of recommendations designed to prevent a repeat of the 10 Freeway fire.

“Since Caltrans first began leasing Airspace sites in the 1970s, the properties have benefited small businesses, nonprofit organizations, and local governments, including being used as a hub to connect transit users with buses, trains, and other clean energy transportation opportunities,” Tavares wrote in the memo. “Nonetheless, as demonstrated by the recent I-10 fire, the Airspace program also presents risks.”

Caltrans’ review of the program is ongoing and will “take into account the benefits and risks of the program, as well as explore potential program improvements to mitigate risks,” the memo states.

Tavares’ recommendations include requiring credit and background checks for prospective tenants; strictly barring subleasing; increasing the frequency of inspections and maintaining an up-to-date inventory of the current leases.

Caltrans previously did not have a combined inventory of all the airspace leases and had to create one through paper records stored at multiple district offices, the memo states.

Enforcement left to staff discretion

The review found that about 83% of the airspace leases were inspected annually, as required. However, the department’s policy left the initiation of enforcement actions to staff’s discretion, Tavares noted. One of his recommendations would require staff to take action whenever a violation is found.

The policy previously required approval by the Caltrans director to start the eviction process for any airspace lease. Tavares has recommended expanding that authority to right-of-way managers and division chiefs. If a staff member requests approval to evict a tenant, a response would be required within 30 days, the memo states.

Caltrans also did not have standardized lease terms and had used an outdated statutory definition when prohibiting “hazardous” materials. In the future, Tavares wants future leases for “open storage” to specifically spell out what materials are prohibited and to set requirements for how other materials should be stored.

“Caltrans should not approve ‘open storage’ as a permissible site use without greater specificity as to materials to be stored,” Tavares wrote.

The list of prohibited materials would include: oil, gasoline, lumber, pallets, wood chips, landscaping materials, nonoperable vehicles, plastic piping/tubing, tires, paper products, fabrics, batteries and cleaning supplies in industrial quantities.

Almost all of those were found during the fire marshal’s recent inspections in Los Angeles and are already prohibited by the Federal Highway Administration.