Unelected CAO’s Powerful Role in the County’s Future Demands a Hiring Process Consistent with Our Shared Values as a Democracy
By Norma Chávez-Peterson, Executive Director, ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties
The nonprofit, nonpartisan American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has a 103-year legacy of protecting and expanding civil rights and ensuring full and equal access to education, jobs, housing, voting and more. The ACLU fights to guarantee that “We the People” means all of us.
In this region, the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties (ACLU-SDIC) is a proud member of the Invest in San Diego Families (ISDF) coalition. Together, we advocate for a county government that centers the rights, values, needs and aspirations of all people. We advocate for a government that is responsive and accountable to the needs of historically marginalized communities and ensures equitable policies and allocation of public resources.
On December 5, I joined with several of our ISDF coalition partners to testify before the San Diego County Board of Supervisors regarding the process of hiring the county’s next chief administrative officer (CAO). I testified as the executive director of the ACLU-SDIC, and as a mother, a grandmother, an immigrant and a voter. I testified as a San Diegan who grew up in a single-parent, low-income household and someone who has been in the struggle for greater fairness, equity and inclusion in this region for more than 30 years.
I testified to raise public awareness about the significance of the CAO position and to urge our elected supervisors to embrace a transparent, community-involved process for filling it. This is best practice and the expected process for governing bodies committed to democracy, transparency and accountability.
The hiring processes of San Diego Unified School District’s superintendent, San Diego Police Department’s chief of police, Southwestern College’s president and SANDAG’s next CEO all intentionally included community stakeholders. I served on community hiring panels for the directors now leading the county’s Office of Equity and Social Justice and the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs. This is doable. The county has done it before and there are other models to follow. We must follow a similar approach for selecting the county’s next CAO if we are serious about achieving equity and justice for all San Diegans.
The CAO is, without question, the most powerful unelected person in our county government, overseeing more than 40 departments, as well as the allocation of all county personnel, capital and budgetary resources. The CAO creates the annual Recommended Operational Plan, based on budgets submitted by the heads of each department, including Health and Human Services, Public Health, the Sheriff’s Department and the Registrar of Voters, and presents the plan to the board of supervisors for adoption.
The board of supervisors directs the CAO; but it is the CAO, not the board, who oversees county staff in the implementation of board policies. This unelected individual wields significant power and authority to achieve much-needed changes in our county. Further, given that the current CAO has served for more than 25 years, this hire has the potential to affect the future of the San Diego region, and everyone who lives and works here, for generations.
With this hire, the board of supervisors can take a significant step toward realizing their public promise of a more equitable, inclusive and thriving San Diego County. In keeping with this commendable goal, they must adopt a hiring process that incorporates a transparent timeline and robust, meaningful community input and insight. The board must establish an application review committee and a hiring selection committee with community representatives, including ISDF coalition members.
The ACLU-SDIC believes San Diegans need and deserve a hiring process that effectively identifies a new CAO with the experience, acumen and demonstrated commitment to our shared values as a transparent and accountable democracy and our belief in social, racial and economic justice.
Our ISDF coalition partners share these sentiments. We will continue to fight for a county government that strives for true equity, opportunity and access for all San Diegans. I urge you, the public, to voice your opinion on the CAO hiring process as well. You can do this by submitting a public comment or by emailing your supervisor by 9am on Tuesday, December 12.
Together, we can ensure that We the People truly means all of us.
So you think it’s better for the selection to be determined by people who are neither elected officials nor their charges? Huh? This is still a democracy isn’t it? A direct line of answerability from the hiring decision maker to government elected officials gives voters at least indirect influence. Putting power of selection in the hands of people not answerable to the general voting population disenfranchises the citizenry.