Editor's note: Read interviews with other District 4 County Supervisor candidates Janessa Goldbeck and Monica Montgomery Steppe.
The race is on for the San Diego County Board of Supervisors District 4 seat. The district includes parts of central and Southeastern San Diego, La Mesa, Lemon Grove and Spring Valley. Voters can cast their ballots through Aug. 15. Also, in-person vote centers will open their doors on Aug. 5. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the top two candidates will move on to a runoff election in November.
Amy Reichert is one of the two Republican candidates for the District 4 seat. She is endorsed by the San Diego County Republican party and is a leader of ReOpen San Diego, which opposed San Diego County's COVID-19 response. Reichert previously ran for the District 4 Supervisor seat in 2022.
The following conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
So why are you running for the District 4 seat?
Reichert: Well, last year I ran. I challenged Nathan Fletcher and I felt it was my duty to challenge him. He really was very divisive. There was a lot of name-calling of his own constituents and he really didn't seem like he was paying attention to constituents and that's when I challenged him last year.
But this year we have a completely different opportunity and I discovered my "why." It was during the May 2 San Diego County Board of Supervisors meeting. And the room was packed and there were a 100 people there mostly to speak to the Board of Supervisors and and demand that a special election take place rather than an appointment.
And I remember during all that commotion and in the chamber I noticed in the very back row, there was a mom sitting there with four kids and I felt drawn to her. So I went over to her and I introduced myself and it turned out she's a single mom and she was about to lose her homeless motel voucher in 19 days. I was a single mom myself in this county raising my kids. And I said, "You know what? I'm so glad I met you. I want to help you."
And over the next several days, I discovered how difficult it is to navigate our system the way it is. It is broken. That there are not services readily available to a single mom with four kids who's about to be on the street. So that's what I'm here for. I'm here to serve people and I'm here to help. That's why I want to run.
So what will your highest priorities as County Supervisor be if elected?
Reichert: Homelessness. Whether I am speaking with someone who is a Democrat, a Republican, no party preference — everyone is very concerned about the humanitarian crisis that has become something that is alarming to everyone.
It's never been this bad, and people are dying on our streets. Just last year, 588 people who are unhoused died. That's a six-fold increase in 2012.
So I have solutions for the homeless issue and it's really resonating with people. So my background is (that) I was a Celebrate Recovery leader. So I've helped thousands of people who were struggling with severe addictions, homelessness and mental health issues.
I myself went through a crisis when I lost my dad, who was only 56 years old, and my newborn daughter just five weeks later. And having gone through a crisis, I know what it's like to battle for your mental health, and I'm so glad I was able to get the recovery and treatment that I did. Now that really is the solid platform that I'm on. I am a big believer in treatment and recovery, and apparently the state of California is not.
Let me explain: The state supports an initiative called "housing first." And with housing first, we've spent about $20 billion, and it has helped some people, no doubt.
We know that a root cause of homelessness is affordable housing. And we have to do better for domestic violence victims, veterans, elderly, disabled, our foster care youth who age out of the system and they are unhoused. But we also have another root cause of homelessness and that is where homelessness, severe mental illness, severe addiction and crime intersect. And that's why I support shelter first with treatment.
I'm curious to know you've mentioned, you know, mental health issues and though we know that the county has a crisis hotline to call and teams to go out and respond to to those issues. I mean what policies, though, would you put in place to address the issue of homelessness?
Reichert: Well, you just touched on a huge part of one of the root causes of homelessness which is mental health, and then move on to some of the other policies I would do.
So what we're finding is San Diego County only has 742 psychiatric beds for a population of 3.3 million people. We need to double that, according to a local hospital leader.
The other thing we don't have is a real-time tracking system to know when a psychiatric bed is available. These beds are always teetering at capacity and even when there are beds available, we just don't have the health care staff.
So we do need to address one of the root causes of homelessness, which is having substantial evidence-based, science-based recovery and treatment for mental illness to address these homeless issues.
What we're also seeing, sadly, is how much the encampments in particular are affecting our neighborhoods. And I'm hearing from residents all over the district that they do not feel safe in their own parks and on their own sidewalks, that kids are walking to school and they have to go around feces or urine or even needles.
And what we have to say is to our homeless and unhoused brothers and sisters is, "We love you too much to let you sleep and die on our streets." And so I support the San Diego City Council's recent vote to make certain areas of our county not available for public camping. We need to protect our schools and our parks and we need to protect our small business people.
And of course, we know that you know, there are many things that cause people to experience homelessness. It goes beyond just mental health issues. It's housing, it's a number of issues and wrap around services are needed. So my question to you is how would you go about getting cities within San Diego County to collaborate together?
Reichert: Oh, I love this question. Yes. To really take on this issue and see results, it must be a regional effort. And although it was controversial, housing our unhoused brothers and sisters in the San Diego Convention Center during the pandemic, we learned a lot of lessons from that and the lessons that we learned were: We do need a centralized regional response.
Recently, I attended a meeting and there is a proposed project called Sunbreak Ranch. And Sunbreak Ranch is a proposed triage center for the homeless where people could go, and then they would also be able to go to different nonprofit organizations that fit them. We know that people need specific shelter if they have a pet, so we want to be able to help them find a place where they feel safe with their pet. Where people are disabled, we want to make sure that that shelter takes care of their needs. For domestic violence victims and their children, also veterans and our elderly as well.
So I believe that we do need a regional response. I'm very proud to say that I have the endorsement of two sitting San Diego County Board of Supervisors and five local mayors and I'm ready to jump in, roll up my sleeves and work regionally with local leaders from across the aisle. And together, unified, I really do believe that with treatment and recovery, we can make a huge difference.
And as supervisor, what would you do to repair the trust with constituents?
Reichert: Wow, what a great question. And really that's what it boils down to when people ask me "What is the most neglected area? The ... one that people aren't really realizing in power." And that's the people — I believe that people feel forgotten and they don't trust the people who are in power.
If you look at the org chart for the County of San Diego, it is the people that is at the top of the org chart then the County Board of Supervisors. What people have really felt in the past couple years is the Board of Supervisors really has not been listening to them.
When people go to the Board of Supervisors meetings, you have to take the entire day off from work because you have to wait for your agenda item to be called and you only get two minutes.
Then when you do address the Board of Supervisors, you find that they're not even making eye contact with their own constituents and they're using their phones to text people or to tweet.
And so one of the things that I would do is County Board of Supervisors is I would revise the rules and procedures to restore professional conduct among the Board of Supervisors, and I would prohibit cell phone use during ... what should be business for the people and to listen to the people.
You co-founded ReOpen San Diego which challenged the city's mask and vaccine mandates and opposed local COVID-19 restrictions. So how do you plan to manage the continued risk of COVID-19 in the county?
Reichert: Yes, and you know, I have to just say when it's framed like that that we "challenged local COVID restrictions," we actually took on something that I'm very proud of.
And in November of 2021 Mayor Todd Gloria, three weeks before Christmas, planned to fire all city workers and un-offer them a religious exemption process that's guaranteed under the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Title VII.
And what I am so proud about is we were just a small grassroots group, and I co-founded the nonprofit, and what we did was we filed a federal lawsuit that protected city workers. Because what the City Council wound up doing was later passing an ordinance saying that if you didn't get the COVID shot, you couldn't volunteer for the city, you couldn't work for the city, you couldn't sit on a border commission, you couldn't attend a City Council meeting and you couldn't hold elected office.
Now that last one — not being able to hold elected office — that one I said to my fellow co-founders, "That's wildly unconstitutional."
So I'm really proud of the fact that we prevailed in federal court and what I hear from people who have their opinions change over time, I think we all agree that people should not have been fired based upon their COVID shot status.
Moving forward with any future pandemics or COVID, I feel that the county did fail to protect the most vulnerable. People that didn't know for example that the county of San Diego was offering for free, a FDA approved treatment called monoclonal antibodies and it was available again for free through the County of San Diego through MARC centers. And this was a treatment that was even available during delta. And it had such a high success rate, in fact Supervisor Jim Desmond said that the monoclonal antibody treatment had a 90% chance of keeping people from dying or going to the hospital. A lot of people they didn't even know that this early treatment was available for free. This FDA approved treatment was available through the county of San Diego.
So as I have talked with my own chief medical advisor who is a physician at a major hospital group right here in San Diego, Dr. Mariah Baughn, what we both agree is that early treatments that were, again available for free from the County of San Diego and FDA approved, should have been more widely advertised. So people knew that they could get that and I think in the future we can prevent more loss of life from that.
It's been well documented within the medical community that vaccines slow the spread of COVID-19. Are you of a different opinion?
Reichert: Well, Dr. Rochelle Walensky on CNN with Wolf Blitzer just six months ago said what the vaccine can no longer do is stop transmission. And so the CDC updated its guidance in August saying that the unvaccinated should be treated the same as the vaccinated based upon that so I am in agreement with Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the former CDC director and I am in agreement with the CDC updated guidance.
And finally, can you make the case to voters as to what sets you apart from the other candidates in this race?
Reichert: What I would say to anyone listening right now, I hope during this interview, you have heard my heart.
You've heard how in the past few years, you're probably thinking to yourself too: "What has happened to San Diego?" Just the San Diego that you knew five years ago. You're tired of your loved ones leaving San Diego in search of a better life, better quality of life. And perhaps you yourself are even thinking of leaving our county because of these issues.
I am the only candidate that is going to take us in a different direction and I absolutely vow to you that I will lead in a nonpartisan way.
We've seen how the County Board of Supervisors over the past couple decades has become hyper-partisan and I would lead with common sense and compassion.
If you'd like more information about my campaign, you can find my platforms and my story at AmyForSanDiego.com. That's AmyForSanDiego.com.
