Nathan Fletcher receives backlash for $2 million security detail

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher remains under fire from community members and elected leaders in San Diego after admitting to cheating on his wife, but denying the allegations made in a lawsuit filed by a former MTS employee.

Nathan Fletcher had a private, armed, personal security detail since September 2021. Fletcher was the only San Diego County Supervisor to have a taxpayer funded security detail, and now that allegations of sexual assault and harassment have been made against him, San Diego residents are beginning to question why we are footing the bill.

As you can see on the document above, which KUSI obtained through a Public Records Act with San Diego County, Fletcher’s security detail cost taxpayers over $1.9 million. If you look closely, the monthly price increased dramatically in January 2022, after a suspicious fire was lit in a trash can in the middle of the night outside of Fletcher’s City Heights home.

The fire was deemed an arson, but authorities have no suspects.

Fletcher then used the fire to justify increasing his security, as we can see the monthly cost jump to well over $100,000 per month.

As KUSI’s Rafer Weigel reports, it only gets worse.

Direct messages from Fletcher to Grecia Figueroa, the former MTS employee who filed the lawsuit, show Fletcher saying, “I could ditch security guys to go for late night walk but couldn’t be gone long.”

Weigel explained, “adding more fuel to that fire, Fletcher tried to ditch that expensive security detail to meet up with his mistress.”

Supervisor Jim Desmond is the only County Supervisor to call on Fletcher to resign immediately, explaining, “we’re still paying him. He’s getting, I saw numbers between $25,000 and $35,000 while he’s in rehab. He’s not coming to the meetings. So I’d rather see us get the band aid ripped off, forget this 30-day process.”

Rafer Weigel then pointed out that our elected Democrat Supervisors like Chair Nora Vargas, have showed “little or no outrage.”

At Tuesday’s board meeting, Weigel says Vargas gave a “perfunctory and pedestrian statement.” At the meeting Vargas said, “over the next few weeks, we will follow a process established by our board policy and charter, which gives us options of filling the future vacant seat for District 4.”

Weigel explained Vargas’ statement “said nothing, while the board does nothing, because it can’t.”

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors has no power to remove Nathan Fletcher, he must resign on his own.

A special election to fill Fletcher’s future vacant seat will cost taxpayers about $4 million.

MTS is having a closed-door meeting Thursday, and is expected to answer media questions afterwards.