Pictured: Monica Montgomery Steppe, Terra Lawson-Remer & Paloma Aguirre.
Credit: Terra Lawson-Remer (Facebook)

 

By Arturo Castañares
Editor-at-Large

The County Board of Supervisors unceremoniously fired their top lawyer during a closed-door meeting this week, but critics argue the firing came as they work to quietly settle a wrongful termination lawsuit that claims at least two Supervisors acted improperly, if not illegally.

Claudia Silva, who has served as Chief County Counsel since 2022, was given the choice to retire or be fired on Wednesday just one day after Paloma Aguirre was sworn in as the new Supervisor following her win in the special election on July 1st to replace Supervisor Nora Vargas who resigned unexpectedly in January.

Claudia Silva

 

With a new three-member Democratic majority, new Chairwoman Terra Lawson-Remer moved to terminate Silva in hopes of getting more amenable legal advice to settle a pending wrongful termination lawsuit that could disclose unethical behavior by Lawson-Remer.

Lawson-Remer held an urgent closed session meeting on Wednesday to discuss Silva. All Supervisors except Jim Desmond attended the private meeting where Silva was given a choice to retire or be fired.

Silva had passed at least three performance reviews and received two raises during her three years as the County’s top lawyer without any disciplinary or work issues having been raised.

A short press release sent out by the County’s Communications Office after 5:00 pm on Wednesday stated that Silva “announced her retirement” but did not mention she was forced out. 

“After more than 31 years of distinguished service to public entities—including nearly nine years with the County of San Diego and the past three years as County Counsel—Claudia Silva has announced her retirement,” the press release stated.

Silva was terminated immediately on Wednesday and cut off from computer and email access.

But inside sources allege Lawson-Remer moved to oust Silva after months of trying to settle a lawsuit filed by former Assistant County Administrative Office Michael Vu who claims he was passed over for the CAO position due to racial discrimination by Nora Vargas, as well as after her refused to agree to a backroom political deal proposed by Lawson-Remer to force him to hire a highly connected political operative as his second-in-command.

Michael Vu

 

Vu became aware that Remer approached outgoing County CAO Helen Robbins-Meyer in December 2023 with a proposal to vote for Vu as the new CAO only if Vu agreed to hire Paul Worlie as his Assistant CAO, the number two position in the County’s leadership structure.

Robbins-Meyers was retiring after having served more than 12 years as CAO. At the time, Vu was considered one of the top candidates to replace Robbins-Meyer as the day-to-day administrator of the County’s $8.2 billion budget and over 20,000 employees.

In an email sent on December 6, 2023, Robbins-Meyer alerted Silva that Lawson-Remer “made it abundantly clear that she would vote for [Vu] and ensure he got the interim position if [Robbin-Meyers] used [her] influence and mentorship to ensure [Vu] picks [Worlie].”

Worlie had served as Chief of Staff to County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher before the popular politician resigned in May 2023 amid allegations of sexual harassment filed by a female transit agency employee.

Paul Worlie

 

Robbins-Meyers had already given Worlie a high-ranking position within the County at the end of 2023 but he was released four months later when an interim CAO replaced Robbins-Meyers.

Worlie is a close ally of Fletcher and his wife, former Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, who now serves as the head of the California Labor Federation, a powerful statewide grouping of over 1,300 labor unions representing 2.3 million union members.

La Prensa San Diego obtained a copy of the email Robbins-Meyer sent to Silva that details how Lawson-Remer called Robbins-Meyer offering a deal to vote for Vu to be the new CAO but only if Vu elevated Worlie to be the second-in-command.

In the email, Robbins-Meyer referred to the call from Lawson-Remer as an “egregious quid pro quo back room deal” that was “a blatant attempt to involve [Robbins-Meyer] in an unethical scheme outside of the closed session selection process where all [Supervisors] are present.”

Supervisors hold conversations and make decisions on employee hirings in closed session meetings which have specific requirements and limitations spelled out by the state’s open meetings law, the Brown Act.

For example, no more than two members can discuss and agree on an action outside of the confines of the closed-session meeting.

But Lawson-Remer stated during the conversation with Robbins-Meyer that she would be the third vote for Vu, implying she already knew that two other members were in favor of Vu, which could be a violation of the Brown Act.

Robbin-Meyer’s last paragraph in her email to Silva details how Robbins-Meyer had warned Lawson-Remer that “La Prensa had made two inquiries into [Worlie’s] appointment” and that “if something like this got out, it had the makings of a salacious article impugning our ethical standards.”

The email was included in Vu’s lawsuit but was redacted from public disclosure because it has not been distributed publicly. No other media outlet has published to contents of the email.

Email from Helen Robbins-Meyer to Claudia Silva, 12/6/23.

 

Last week, Aguirre announced that she had hired Worlie as her new Chief of Staff, returning him to the same position he held in Fletcher’s office.

Although Lawson-Remer and Vargas have described Vu’s claims as ”false” and filed by a “disgruntled former employee”, inside sources claim Lawson-Remer has been trying to craft a settlement to keep the case from progressing to formal discovery and depositions but Silva gave differing advice.

“This is not the first disgruntled employee who has filed a lawsuit when they did not get hired for a job,” Lawson-Remer wrote in a statement, but did not mention her previous attempt to broker a backroom deal to hire Vu.

Legal experts suggest that Lawson-Remer could have a legal conflict in voting to settle with Vu because he implicates her in the discrimination he claims, and, now that Aguirre has hired Worlie, she too may have legal conflicts on voting to end the litigation involving her new top staffer.

Without Lawson-Remer and Aguirre, all three of the remaining Supervisors —Monica Montgomery Steppe, Jim Desmond, and Joel Anderson— would have to vote to approve any legal settlement.

On Thursday, Lawson-Remer held another closed session meeting to appoint David Smith as the County’s Acting County Counsel until a permanent replacement for Silva is chosen.

Lawson-Remer and Supervisors Monica Montgomery Steppe and Paloma Aguirre —all Democrats— attended the meeting, but Republican Supervisors Joel Anderson and Jim Desmond did not.

Smith, an experienced lawyer, has been serving as the County’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) but previously served as Deputy County Counsel and Acting County Counsel.

In June 2024, Supervisors chose Ebony Shelton as the new CAO after first trying to hire Cindy Chavez. Chavez was a County Supervisor in Santa Clara County in the Bay Area who is a friend and ally of Fletcher and Gonzalez Fletcher.

Chavez was the choice of the top labor leaders in San Diego and the battle for her appointment led to a conflict between the region’s top labor leader, Brigette Browning, and then-Supervisor Nora Vargas. Browning attacked Vargas for not supporting Chavez, which came to a head during a rally outside the County Administration Building where Browning started an offensive chant in Spanish; “No mames, Nora!”

Latino community leaders objected to Browning’s use of the vulgar slur against the first Latina to serve on the County Board of Supervisors, especially because Browning is not a Latina or a native Spanish speaker.

Some County insiders suspect that the removal of Silva and the election of Aguirre —another close ally of Gonzalez Fletcher— could eventually lead to the hiring of Chavez.

Cindy Chavez

 

After not being selected as CAO in San Diego, Chavez took a similar position as Bernalillo County Manager in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a county with 676,000 residents, 2,800 employees, and a total budget of $1 billion.

Vargas was re-elected to a second term in November 2024, but the following month, announced she would not take the oath of office in January.

She resigned on the day her second term would have started, resulting in a Special Election being called.

Aguirre ran among seven candidates, including Chula Vista Mayor John McCann and San Diego City Councilwoman Vivian Moreno.

McCann and Aguirre ended up in first and second, respectively, in the April 8th Special Election and then Aguirre won a July 1st runoff to claim the remainder of Vargas’ term through January 2029.