San Diego County supervisors are meeting Tuesday to decide how to fill the vacancy Nora Vargas has unexpectedly created.
After Vargas announced last month that she would not serve the second term she’d just been elected to, the remaining four supervisors must decide how to name somebody to serve out her term.
The special meeting’s agenda lays out potential options: Supervisors can appoint a replacement, call a special election or both.
An expedited schedule for appointment applications could let the board seat a new supervisor in less than a month, potentially swearing somebody in Feb. 5.
A special election would be held April 8, and if no candidate won a majority outright, a runoff would be held on July 1. The nomination process would begin almost immediately, and candidates would be finalized by next month.
Should the board choose to appoint somebody to serve until a successor could be elected, the interim supervisor would be sworn in early next month as the special election timeline began.
A special election could cost the county between $4 million and $6.6 million if a runoff is needed. But the board could reduce that cost by deciding to hold either or both elections by mail.
The county registrar of voters is expected to detail the estimated costs and proposed timelines Tuesday.
Supervisors had to make a similar decision when Nathan Fletcher resigned from the board less than two years ago, after he was accused in a lawsuit of sexual misconduct.
At that time, voting rights advocates, potential candidates and residents alike urged a special election, warning that an appointment could compromise public representation and undermine a new supervisor’s credibility. But some others pushed for an appointment to restore representation sooner.
A number of potential candidates have already expressed interest in the District 1 seat.
Three Democrats — San Diego City Councilmember Vivian Moreno, Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre and Chula Vista Councilmember Carolina Chavez — have confirmed they are running, as has aone Republican, Chula Vista Mayor John McCann.
Because all four were elected in 2022, if any of them became supervisor they would leave a vacancy in their city office, and leave their colleagues to decide how to replace them.
Until a new supervisor is chosen, supervisors must conduct county business with a partial board of two Democrats and two Republicans — and the residents of District 1 will be left without a representative.
With a population of more than 630,000, District 1 includes Chula Vista, Imperial Beach, National City, several south San Diego neighborhoods and five unincorporated communities, such as Bonita and Lincoln Acres.
