We stood with community advocates, caregivers and other labor organizations to demand a public process to select the next Chief Administrative Officer at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday.
Our message was clear: The Board of Supervisors should be transparent and create a public, open process where the public can meet the finalists for the Chief Administrative Officer, as well as including all finalists from the previous process in the final interviews. We need a CAO that will lead a change in County culture and that will value and support employees and the services we provide.
We rallied before the meeting and shut down the meeting for more than 20 minutes to demand the Board change course. The County has not been transparent about the CAO-hiring process. Choosing the most powerful unelected position in San Diego should be open to public scrutiny.
"Respect is earned and comes with accountability,” SEIU Local 221 President Crystal Irving testified to the Supervisors. “It's not too late to do the right thing.”
We hope to see a proposal reflecting County worker demands at the next Board of Supervisors meeting.
“I want to thank Vice Chair Lawson Remer and Supervisor Montgomery Steppe for your supportive comments about the importance of a transparent CAO process,” Irving said. We “call upon Chairwoman Nora Vargas to stand with the people … and show us what democracy looks like.”
Sign the petition to demand that the CAO-hiring process include public transparency.
