On Tuesday four of the five the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously for a resolution of no confidence for District 4 Supervisor Nathan Fletcher and called for his immediate resignation.
This follows Fletcher’s announcement of his resignation on March 26 stating he was entering an out-of-state treatment facility for post traumatic stress, childhood trauma, and alcohol abuse. He also suspended his planned run for state Senate. Fletcher announced his resignation would be effective May 15, after he admitted to “personal mistakes” with a Metropolitan Transit employee, who was then fired and filed a lawsuit against Fletcher alleging sexual assault and harassment. To date, Fletcher denies the charges.
District 1 BOS Chair Nora Vargas asked counsel if there was anything in the county’s charter that would allow the board to remove him for office, but the only condition in removing him from office is if his absences from his seat for a series of consecutive months, which does not happen before his resignation date.
“We have too much work to do for more than 3.3 million residents in San Diego County to be diverted by the actions of a board member who is not here to answer for them,” she said.
Both District 2 Supervisor Joel Anderson and District 5 Jim Desmond agreed with the vote of no confidence, but also asked that the board start the process, begun by Fletcher, in hiring a new chief administration officer.
Desmond called for Fletcher’s resignation immediately upon his announcement, saying that it is unacceptable for Fletcher to stay on the board and collect approximately $25,000 from taxpayers as he extended his resignation until after his treatment period through May 15.
“Congressman Scott Peters (50th Congressional District) issued a statement, and, in that statement, he said that Fletcher should resign immediately, but he also said the CAO search process should start over without input from Fletcher. We do control that process. We cannot talk under the Brown Act behind closed doors, we have to do it in public. So, I would like to present to the board to consider starting that process over. Starting a process that is not tainted with all this controversy,” Anderson said.
Anderson asked if Fletcher could resend his current resignation for May 15 and counsel said he could, but it is totally up to Fletcher to do so.
The supervisors meet again May 2.
