Nora Vargas, chair of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, called Ellen Nash on Thursday to apologize. Nash is the president of the San Diego chapter of the California Black Political Association and was the subject of at least one of the text messages published in an open letter by leaders of labor unions and progressive groups calling on Vargas to step down as chair of the Board of Supervisors.
In July 2020, Vargas referred to Nash as “that f**king Ellen Nash” in a text message sent to an unidentified group, and in another undated screenshot of a text message, Vargas referred to someone as “negritas vendidas,” which roughly translates from Spanish to “bought black women.”
An open letter posted on Doug Porter’s Substack was signed by several leaders of labor unions and the progressive movement.
“These passages demonstrate contempt for labor unions, disrespect for low-wage workers, and racial hostility toward black people and black women in our community,” they wrote.
But as terrible as that may sound, they weren’t asking Vargas to resign from his seat, just his position as speaker.
Nash wants nothing to do with the matter. Vargas quickly apologized and Nash decided to stand by her, she said.
“I think all of this is a distraction from what’s important: the county’s $8 billion budget and the reforms that are needed to better address flood victims, the homelessness crisis and the need for affordable housing,” Nash told me.
I asked Vargas to see if he should resign from his position.
“She should not resign,” she said.
Vargas responds: The supervisor gave a two-part response.
The first part is a reckoning: “As a public servant, words I speak privately carry greater weight and meaning than words I speak in public. For that, I offer my apologies. I have spoken privately to those named and regret any unjust harm this has caused.”
The second rebuttal read, “I am heartbroken that anonymous sources have manipulated, and in some cases fabricated, private communications to create a narrative that contradicts my values and my life’s work. This smear campaign is particularly hurtful because it perpetuates division at a time when unity and coalition-building should be a priority. I recommit myself to continuing this work to continue building a stronger, healthier community together.”
What is actually happening: The release of screenshots of the raunchy text messages and WhatsApp messages came almost simultaneously with the Board of Supervisors’ decision on Wednesday to offer the CAO job to a top candidate believed to be Ebony Shelton, the county’s chief financial officer.
The job offer won’t become a formal appointment until a confirmation hearing next week, meaning there’s still time for this rough and tacky political battle to get even rougher and more brutal.
The release of the text messages was like a burst of negative information about a political candidate. It was clear that someone had started digging and was determined to collect anything they could to destroy Vargas’ career. And someone volunteered screenshots of private messages going back several years.
It was the latest escalation in a political battle that has erupted between Vargas and labor leaders, who have been clamoring for someone else to be the county’s next chief executive officer. Both sides have accused each other of racism.
Labor leaders had been hoping Cindy Chavez would get the job. Chavez, the Santa Clara Supervisor who once led the South Bay Labor Council, was seen as the final piece in a long effort by progressives and labor to reform county government. Chavez was on the verge of getting the job until Supervisor Nathan Fletcher abruptly resigned last year, causing the remaining supervisors to rescind her offer.
When the hiring process resumed, Vargas and a majority of the board decided not to allow Chavez’s application to proceed beyond the interview stage, infuriating union leaders. The opposition’s release of a trove of Vargas’ private messages, some dating back more than five years, shows the lengths they have gone to to hurt him.
Doug Moore, executive director of the National Domestic Workers Union, which signed the letter, tried to explain to me why this is such a high priority for them.
“Delivering progress to San Diego County means supporting the county’s more than 30,000 in-home supportive services and family child care providers. Providers waiting for implementation of policies passed by the Board of Supervisors are being held up by an unresponsive and obstructive bureaucracy. Policies range from ID badges that allow providers to respond to emergencies and natural disasters to promises to increase recruitment of in-home supportive services providers and streamline the process for new IHSS providers that the county has not delivered on,” he said in a statement.
And in response to the question of whether someone like Shelton would do that, Moore writes:
“The Commissioner has committed to providers to hiring 1,000% progressive CAOs. We will be watching closely to see if this is a step in the right direction,” he wrote.
About Shelton: Ebony Shelton is the first Black woman to lead a county operation as chief operating officer, and her finance background will be useful as the county prepares for the impact of California’s budget deficit.
The backdrop for all of this is the county’s history. In the 1990s, the county was on the brink of bankruptcy, but a series of executives successfully rebuilt it, but under the direction of a conservative Board of Supervisors that built reserves, restricted access to social benefits, and had an adversarial relationship with labor unions. As reserves swelled, the county built new facilities with cash instead of borrowing at low interest rates, and didn’t spend enough to meet public needs.
So the county developed a reputation for good management and administration, but even some moderate conservatives felt the county was unfairly stingy. The unions had implemented term limits for supervisors and helped elect Democrats. Chavez was in the final stages of implementing a new system. She was a progressive visionary who would clean up the managers and bureaucracy that prevented progressive policies from being implemented.
Shelton, meanwhile, has a long tradition of supervision and, since then, has been part of the team that managed the pandemic and has dramatically increased awareness of the county’s role as a local institution. She now serves on a board with a Democratic majority.
What’s next: Vargas made her own choice. She didn’t want to go down the path they did last year. She wanted someone different. She decided on a secret hiring process and said she couldn’t talk about it because it was too secret. All of this infuriated those who were on her side. It’s hard to imagine their relationship hasn’t deteriorated beyond repair.
I asked her about it.
“My commitment to county employees remains unwavering!” she wrote in a text message (she has been unable to use her voice for four weeks since surgery).
Middle school students urge friends and family to vote
When Ellen Nash said the unrest in the county was just a distraction, she was giving a pretty vivid example of the efforts that caused a distraction from Friday’s activities.
She visited with the county elections official on Friday and helped Millennial Tech Middle School student Henry Anderson III get his classmates excited about local politics and democracy.
Things started a little slow: one group of them got a tour of the facilities while Lillian Nahar, a professional mediator, gave another group a crash course in representative democracy.
What is redistricting? What is a member of parliament?
“Is everyone ready for the quiz?” she asked.
“What! You thought this was a quiz?” said one girl struggling to stay awake.
But when Anderson returned from the tour, the pizza arrived and the group began to buzz: The San Diego chapter of the Black Political Association of California (BAPAC) was helping Anderson organize the visit, and he wanted to better inform his peers and get their parents more involved.
“We want to increase voter turnout,” he told me. “Voter turnout is so low, and voting is the easiest way to make your opinion heard.”
Last year, several BAPAC members attended the annual Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, march to commemorate the civil rights movement. They were impressed by the turnout of young people there and hoped something similar could galvanize young people in San Diego. Anderson agreed.
“Young people are influential,” he said.
The effort is called Voter Outreach, Training, Education and Registration (VOTER). The idea is that if kids understand what’s important in local elections, they’ll pester their parents and family members to get more involved.
“I quit smoking because my daughter kept yelling at me,” said Sandra Dryden, one of the organizers.
Carolyn Johnson, another organizer inspired by the Selma demonstrations, said kids will soon be voters and now is the time to better inform them. Turnout in the last city council election in the 4th District, a historic center for black residents, was dismal, Johnson said.
“We want them to go home and encourage their family and friends, especially those who didn’t vote last time, to vote in November,” she said. “We want them to have the skills to see behind the noise and know how to make sound decisions, not just who’s the most popular or who’s the loudest.”
If you have feedback or ideas for political reporting, please send them to scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org.
