La Prensa, a bilingual newspaper in San Diego, reported today that the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted to rehire retiring Chief Administrative Officer Helen Robbins-Meyer to stay on until her replacement is hired May 2.

Cindy Chavez is the preferred hire, La Prensa reports.   Supervisor Nathan Fletcher is holding out his resignation to vote for Chavez even after calls for his immediate resignation. The final decision for who gets the $300,000-plus-per-year job running day-to-day operations of San Diego County could come in the next few weeks.

Robbins-Meyer was set to retire this month after 10 years as CAO.

Final hiring would require a public vote in May by the San DIego County Board of Supervisors. La Prensa reported that Fletcher postponed a resignation announcement so he can cast the deciding vote for Chavez.

Fletcher’s wife, Lorena Gonzales Fletcher, heads the California Labor Federation, and a longtime political ally of Chavez, former director of the AFL-CIO South Bay Labor Council.

Fletcher was put on notice of a female employee’s allegations of “unlawful employment practices” on Feb 17, nearly 6 weeks before Fletcher announced he was entering rehab. He announced he would resign as supervisor

Without Fletcher, the vote may be tied, according to reporting by La Prensa.

Chavez term as 2nd District supervisor ends 2024, when she is termed out. She lost in her second bid for San Jose mayor last November to Matt Mahan, a moderate, despite a record level of contributions and spending by organized labor, led by city police and fire unions.