Fielder made her intentions known in a Tuesday memo to the Board of Supervisors clerk and Board President Rafael Mandelman. She requested permission to miss supervisors’ meetings through June 30.
Fielder had already missed two weeks of board and committee meetings before news broke on March 27 that she was in the hospital amid an “acute personal health crisis.” Fielder had reportedly said that day that she intended to resign. Her staff has said she was contending with a mental health condition and that she would take time to recover before deciding whether or not to remain in office.
In the weeks leading up to Fielder’s initial leave, her office had become the focus of a city investigation into who leaked a confidential memo from the city attorney’s office to Mission Local, the Chronicle previously reported. Her aides denied anyone in the office was behind the leak.
Mandelman told the Chronicle on Tuesday that Fielder may return sooner than June 30, based on conversations with her aides. He was supportive of Fielder’s request.
“It’s good and appropriate for her to take the time she needs to get better,” Mandelman said. “Her team has suggested that she may not need all three months, but she wants to at least give herself that maximum time. We’re all wishing her well.”
In light of Fielder’s extended leave, Mandelman said he would likely soon make changes “at least for the next few months” to the makeup of the board’s government oversight committee, which she chairs. Fielder said in her Tuesday memo that she wants to remain chair of that committee and the Local Agency Formation Commission when she returns to City Hall.
It is unusual, though not unprecedented, for a sitting supervisor to take such an extended leave. Michela Alioto-Pier, a former supervisor, missed a little more than three months’ of meetings in 2010 while she was hospitalized following an injury. More recently, Supervisor Danny Sauter took a brief parental leave that lasted a few weeks.
The duration of Fielder’s planned absence means she would miss the bulk of the board’s budget negotiations, a critical opportunity for supervisors to secure funding for their policy priorities. Lurie is required to submit his budget proposal by June 1, and supervisors then spend much of the month vetting his plan before the full board votes on the budget in July.
Last year, Fielder was a strident opponent to Lurie’s budget proposal, which included cuts to social service programs. She was the sole dissenting vote when the final budget passed the board in July.
Budget cuts are on track to be even more severe this year as Lurie tries to bring city spending under control after years of recurring deficits. On Monday, the city notified 127 employees that they would be laid off in the coming months.
A spokesperson for Mayor Daniel Lurie on Tuesday referred back to a March 27 statement from Lurie in which he issued Fielder “best wishes for a speedy recovery.”
“I am encouraging everyone to give her the time and space to get better … and I’m wishing her strength and all the best for her health,” Lurie said at the time.