Longtime San Diego County employee Ebony Shelton was the unanimous choice of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors to be the new chief administrative officer, board chair Nora Vargas announced Wednesday evening.

The decision likely ended once and for all a nearly 18-month quest by Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, who had been the top choice for the post a year ago.

Earlier this month, a lawyer for Chavez threatened to sue her San Diego counterparts for the way she claimed she was treated as an applicant for the $400,000 post. She had been vigorously and publicly supported this spring in a renewed bid for the CAO post by San Diego Democrats and public employee unions.

The San Diego supervisors voted in closed session May 23 to select Shelton, the deputy chief administrative officer/chief financial officer, but held off identifying the appointee until it completed contract negotiations, according to City News Service, a southern California regional wire service.

A vote to approve Shelton’s contract is set for June 4.

Vargas, who had been the target of attacks by union leaders for allegedly dropping Chavez as a finalist for the position, pointedly praised Shelton as “a highly regarded and eminently qualified candidate from our own community…with a deep understanding of our community,” in a statement reported by City News Service.

Shelton, the county’s deputy chief administrative officer/chief financial officer, has been a San Diego County employee for nearly 30 years.

According to a statement from Vargas’ office, Shelton is a native San Diegan “and proud Afro-Latina of Black and Salvadoran ancestry, (who) understands the impacts of history on Black and Latino communities.” Vargas’ rejection of Chavez had been criticized by some union leaders for allegedly ignoring a “woman of color.”

Crystal Irving, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 221, this week appeared to walk back his earlier criticism of the county’s CAO search, saying Shelton’s appointment “concludes a challenging process.”

In a statement to City News Service, Irving said Shelton “will be the first Black woman selected as CAO by the county, and for that, we recognize real progress.”

“Unfortunately, the opaque selection process did not create an opportunity for Ms. Shelton to share her vision as an applicant, including what changes need to be made in the culture and operations and how to execute them,” Irving said.

One of San Diego’s highest-profile shopping malls is slated to become part of a mixed-use development with luxury apartments.

Simon Property Group is planning to redo the west end of Fashion Valley, replacing the JCPenney store that anchors the mall with an upscale multifamily campus featuring 850 luxury residential units.

The REIT’s plans also call for 100K SF of new shops and eateries, as well as an open-air plaza. The redevelopment will encompass adjacent surface parking areas, according to a report in San Diego Union-Tribune.

The JCPenney store will remain open through the 2025 holiday season, with construction on the retail and residential redo expected to begin in early 2026, the report said.

Fashion Valley, which opened in 1969 and expanded in 1981, is located at 7007 Friars Road. The 1.7M SF mall sits on more than 80 acres.

Simon co-owns 65 acres, including the western end of the mall, with Prime Property Fund, a real estate investment fund managed by Morgan Stanley Real Estate. A section of the mall including Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus is separately owned.

“Real estate trends ebb and flow with demands, and right now that’s what the market is demanding. Residential has been really underserved in a lot of markets, and our properties tend to have potential for additional density,” Mark Silvestri, Simon’s president of development, told the Union-Tribune. “Fashion Valley is just so well situated to provide that. We think it’s a really good fit.”

In 2020, Simon and Brookfield Property Group bought J.C. Penney Co.’s retail business in a bankruptcy court said that rescued the retailer.

The western end of mall, from the JCPenney store to Fashion Valley Road, is zoned for mixed-use that allows for high-density residential development, according to the Mission Valley Community Plan adopted in 2019.

Simon is working on the redevelopment with partner AMLI Residential, a Prime Property Fund subsidiary that owns and manages 26,000 apartments in 77 communities. AMLI currently is building a 434-unit apartment campus in the Kearny Mesa neighborhood in San Diego.

The luxury units at Fashion Valley will be in five-story buildings that will be built in phases, the report said.

The Fashion Valley mall is across the street from the Riverwalk Golf Club. Earlier this month, Hines halted construction on a massive mixed-use redevelopment of Riverwalk Golf Club two years after breaking ground on the project, which when fully built plans for a total of 4,300 apartment units as well as office and retail space.

After completing about $90M of infrastructure and foundation work on the northern part of the 195-acre site, Hines has shut down the mega-project and will not resume building until economic conditions improve. The Houston-based developer cited the high cost of debt as well as high construction and supply costs as the reason for the pause, the Union-Tribune reported.