San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
NATHAN FLETCHER: WE’RE MAKING PROGRESS
How did you personally shape the county’s COVID-19 pandemic response? Is there anything you wish you or the board would have done differently?
Together with the county’s top medical experts, I worked every day, seven days a week, from the moment COVID-19 hit to slow the spread and save lives. I gave it everything I had because I knew we had to take the threat seriously.
We mounted one of the most effective COVID-19 responses in the nation. More than 93 percent of San Diego County residents are now vaccinated. San Diego County has half the COVID-19 death rate of Florida. We delivered over $85 million for small business recovery. We fought hard to protect the most vulnerable communities at greatest risk. As a result, we saved thousands of lives.
One of the biggest challenges was the deep division and dangerous disinformation constantly undermining our attempts to stay united and follow basic science. Despite that, most San Diegans showed incredible resilience and united in inspiring ways during the toughest of times. I hope we never forget that and summon that same spirit of purpose and community as we tackle the serious challenges we’re facing right now.
Going forward, how will you balance public health concerns amid other county issues?
We are going to continue to be vigilant about new variants and help San Diegans, especially our seniors, stay safe as we did recently in encouraging those eligible to get a second booster shot. And we will always remain vigilant about public health. But now, we’re fighting forward to focus on the big challenges San Diego families are facing in their lives — homelessness, housing and the cost of living.
We have pushed for immediate relief from higher gas costs while doubling down on affordable housing, affordable childcare and affordable health care. We are aggressively pushing to create more good local jobs on our local infrastructure projects. And we are not backing down from our clean energy push and commitment to lead on the climate crisis.
I know we can get things done to make life better if we come together as a community and focus on the problems we all face, not the politics that divide us. In fact, 93 percent of the proposals I have brought forward have passed with bipartisan support. Working together, we can tackle San Diegans’ biggest challenges and build a better future for all our families.
What do you think of the supervisors’ attempts to limit disruptive speech at public meetings? I brought it forward, so I support it. It was an attempt to protect the free speech rights of all. For months on end, anti-vaccine extremists exploited the county’s public meetings to spew COVID-19 disinformation, conspiracy theories and disgusting, racist attacks. It got so crazy, Stephen Colbert even featured our meetings on his late night show. In addition to racist attacks against our employees, it was having a chilling effect on those who were not comfortable coming to our meetings to speak with such toxicity.
Every American has a right to free speech, no matter how vile it is, but that speech cannot be allowed to violently threaten others or stop everyday people from making their voices heard or impede the functioning of county government. That is why we took very modest steps to try and ensure public comment at county board meetings did not result in disrupting the important people’s business we are there to do. No one’s right to speak was removed or censored and public comment remains an open and accessible component of all of our meetings. I welcome dissenting voices and sharp criticism at our board meetings. And that certainly remains a well-used component of all of our meetings. The revised rules of procedure ensure free speech remains, but helps modestly to create a better environment for the people’s business.
How, specifically, will you address the high cost of housing in San Diego County?
I am fighting in every way I can to build more homes San Diego working families can actually afford — and we are seeing initial signs of real progress. This year alone, we are on track to issue 1,600 building permits for new housing — a 50 percent increase from the prior year. There’s over 1,000 new affordable homes under construction right now on county-owned land, with many more on the way. The need is great, but we are making progress every day.
Our new initiative to make vacant county land available for new affordable housing construction is showing great promise. We are converting nine large lots already, and more will be made available soon. Recently, I announced a new push to encourage more local cities to join our effort so we can put affordable housing on publicly owned land on a large scale that can make a real difference. The cost of housing is such a squeeze and stress on working families — and we’re not going to give up on this fight.
How is the homelessness situation in your supervisorial district? What services are available now and how would you improve them? Homelessness is our top focus at the county, and we are doing so much to tackle the crisis all across the region, but the innovation I am most excited about is our new Mobile Crisis Response Teams, which are showing great promise. These are teams of mental health clinicians and counselors, not just police, who can be deployed on mental health 911 calls to assist and treat people experiencing real mental health and drug abuse challenges. Already, these teams have helped nearly 1,000 San Diegans who are struggling on the streets, and we are working furiously and fast to expand the program all across the region so we can help even more.
We are also making significant investments in crisis stabilization centers, drug treatment centers and mental health care, and increasing our behavioral health workforce. That helps get to the root of the problem. But we must also address the immediacy of the need. We have partnered with cities to bring on more shelters and recently announced $10 million in funding for grants to cities to open