LA County’s eye-popping $2M payout to outgoing CEO is an illegal gift, lawsuit says

A bombshell new lawsuit alleges that the LA County Board of Supervisors handed over a massive seven-figure payout to county CEO Fesia Davenport in what critics are calling an illegal “gift of public funds.”

The payout, which was quietly approved in a backroom deal last year and kept under wraps until LAist sniffed it out, was supposedly intended to compensate Davenport for “alleged damage to reputation, embarrassment, and emotional distress” after voters passed a ballot measure that would change her appointed position into an elected one starting in 2028.

The suit was filed on behalf of county resident Ana Cristina Lee Escudero, and claims the $2 million payout is a flagrant violation of the California constitution. According to the filing, Davenport’s claims were “baseless” because it “was not a compromise of a bona fide legal dispute, but a gift of public funds
disguised as a liability release, approved in a secret meeting…”

In fact, the filing states that Davenport specifically informed the Board of Supervisors in writing in 2024 that she had “no intentions of litigating this matter.”

Davenport, who reportedly went on medical leave in October and hasn’t been seen in the office since, is said to have negotiated the windfall at the same time she was telling county workers that there was no money for raises.

“That’s substantial money at a time where the county is claiming economic and financial distress,” Anthony Meraz, a deputy sheriff and vice president of the sheriff’s deputies’ union, told LAist. “Leaders eat last,” he said. “The idea behind being in charge is that you are supposed to be taking care of people that are in your charge.”

“Our members are really furious about it,” David Green, president of SEIU 721, a union that represents tens of thousands of county government employees told LAist.