County Won’t Interview Labor’s Preferred Staff Leader

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Labor leaders have taken a major interest in the drawn-out choice of the county of San Diego’s new chief administration officer and many of them were furious Friday when news leaked that supervisors had decided not to advance the candidacy of Cindy Chavez, a supervisor on the board of Santa Clara County and the former leader of the South Bay Labor Council.

Background: The County offered Chavez the job more than a year ago, on March 29, 2023 – the same day then-County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher announced he would resign from the Board of Supervisors. An MTS employee accused Fletcher, who was chair of MTS, of sexual assault and harassment and the board decided to restart the search for its most important employee. (Fletcher has said his interactions with the employee were consensual and has sued her for defamation.)

Chavez’s hiring would have been the climax of a methodical decade-long effort led by the largest union of county employees SEIU 221 and the United Domestic Workers, Local 3930. Along the way, they had pushed the county and persuaded voters to implement term limits on supervisors. They had helped Fletcher get elected and then the majority of the Board that he led. That Board implemented progressive policies and now they wanted a leader of the county who would see them through.

Fletcher had helped bring it all to fruition only to almost let it completely unravel right as they were close to entrenching the whole project.

The county has a history of management leadership from a more technocratic and financially conservative tradition and internal candidates are expected to have a chance at the job.

The news: For Chavez to have gotten the offer last year but not even get an interview this year means at least one of the five members of the Board of Supervisors changed their minds. I could not figure out who.

“We are unable to comment on the CAO candidate pool nor are we able to disclose which candidates have been considered,” Nora Vargas, the chair of the Board of Supervisors, told me in a written message.

Brigette Browning, the leader of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council told me she was shocked and sent over this written statement.

“We all thought we had a new County Government, but the only thing new is now apparently a so-called Democrat is teaming up with big corporate interests and the right-wing to reinforce the status quo. We don’t need the same old County Government that punished workers, rigged decisions for corporations and turned a blind eye to poverty. We need a CAO like Cindy Chavez who is pro-worker, pro-choice and pro-change. Cindy Chavez deserves an interview and anything less just shows San Diego that when it comes to their County Board, the new boss is the same as the old boss,” Browning wrote.

It ain’t over: The county won’t begin interviews until next month and there will be more decision points along the process.