Supervisor Chair Nora Vargas to step down from San Diego County Board of Supervisors NBC 7 San Diego
On Friday, San Diego County District 1 County Supervisor Nora Vargas, who also serves as board chair, made a shocking announcement: The supervisor, who represents constituents in the South Bay, including National City, Chula Vista and Imperial Beach, will be stepping down next month.
Vargas said she would not occupy her seat, which she recently won, because of security and safety concerns, for a second term and would, instead, be leaving office in January.
NBC 7 spent Friday looking into more details behind her decision. For its part, the San Diego County Sheriff s Office released a statement to NBC 7 stating that it was not aware of any active threats toward Vargas or any other county supervisor, but that deputies have noticed an increase in contentious meetings and less civility in general.
Local data backs that up: Rachel Locke, who is with the University of San Diego s Violence, Inequality and Power Lab, surveyed local elected officials for a recent study about the hostile political environment.
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“Between 66% to 75% of our elected officials have received some form of threats or harassment during the last five years of their tenure,” Locke said, “most of them on a regular basis.”
I did not know Ms. Vargas but I don’t think we’ll miss her.