In a letter to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said the COVID-19 vaccine mandate on county workers was causing a “mass exodus” within the Sheriff’s Dept. Villanueva said 20% to 30% of the 18,000 dept. employees are “no longer available,” with employees retiring, filing worker compensation claims and quitting. He also added the dept. is not seeing enough qualified applicants to replace the leaving employees.