A lefty member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors who abruptly went on leave at the end of March melted into tears as she explained to her constituents Tuesday why she needed the mental health break.
Supervisor Jacqueline Fielder is set to return to work next Monday, after her absence earlier in the year fueled theories on what motivated the first-term lawmaker to go missing from City Hall meetings for weeks before checking herself in for treatment.
There were even some reports she intended to resign amid a probe into figuring out who was behind an unlawful leak of a confidential memo .
In a Tuesday post on Instagram, Fielder said “I left the work I love so much not because I wanted to but because my mental health demanded it.”
She thanked her friends, family, and staff, and then began to cry when thanking some of her constituents for their messages of support.
“It meant the world to me when I was feeling very alone,” she said. “This leave and my whole adult life has been an entire journey on mental health and I know I’m not the only one who struggles with it.”
She seemed to attribute her crisis to the pressures of being a politician.
“At the end of the day I’m a human being and a renter, a working class candidate that is now a supervisor,” Fielder said, “but I was going 100 miles a hour since early 2023 when I started the campaign for supervisor, and being a grassroots candidate is a lot of elbow grease.”
Her medical leave made her realize that she has colleagues and others who share the weight of representing the city with her, she said.
“I’m coming clear-eyed and grounded and eager to serve in this role again,” said Fielder, who ended her note on encouraging others dealing with mental health issues to also seek help or take a leave.
The scrutiny over her absence comes as a new website is calling to recall her for her absence. Mission Local reported the petition organizer is also involved with other efforts to stop other politicians such as Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee.
The website claims Fielder “abandoned her district while under investigation.” It refers to the probe around the leaked memo as well as an incident last year where she promoted crypto coin “$KITKAT,” which supposedly prompted an ethics complaint.
Fielder declined to comment on the recall petition to Mission Local.
