National City is one of San Diego County’s smallest, poorest, least powerful cities. It’s also proud, feisty and, this week, at the center of several interlocking battles.
The battles concern issues with regionwide implications. Stay with me while I explain.
Post-Election Censure Battle
Final votes haven’t even been counted in National City and already one newly re-elected City Council member faces a politically damaging censure vote at tonight’s 5 p.m. council meeting.
As I wrote last week, Jose Rodriguez defeated his opponent to represent the city’s second council district by nearly 50 percentage points. That didn’t stop Mayor Ron Morrison from requesting a censure vote against Rodriguez just seven days after the election for allegedly using city resources to boost his re-election campaign and improperly slandering his election opponent, a city planning commissioner.
Council members will decide tonight whether to formally initiate the censure process. If they do, they could vote as early as Dec. 3 to censure Rodriguez for his conduct. Such a vote would not alter Rodriguez’s status on the council but would communicate to voters that city leaders disapprove of his behavior.
Morrison said he requested the vote after witnessing what he called “a pattern” of alleged violations. He said other council members and city staff had complained repeatedly about Rodriguez’s conduct.
In a statement to Voice of San Diego, Rodriguez called the censure vote “all politics and sour grapes, Trump-style.” He said he would carry on with his work.
The deeper story: Rodriguez is one of several South County politicians who have come to power in the past decade with strong backing from organized labor groups and the county Democratic party.
Those leaders have championed progressive policies, such as renter protections, affordable housing and a more compassionate approach to homelessness. But some have faced ethics allegations, in particular Chula Vista City Councilmember Andrea Cardenas, who resigned earlier this year after pleading guilty to criminal fraud charges.
Political observers around the region tell me there is growing frustration with such ethics problems and a mounting effort to push back against South County’s reputation for tribal and sometimes shady politics.
The censure vote against Rodriguez could be viewed as the latest episode in one or more South County political storylines: old guard versus new guard; organized labor versus the establishment; or simply a perpetual struggle for power in a region with a long history of corruption and political infighting.
Taking on the Port
The censure vote against Councilmember Jose Rodriguez is not the only high-drama item on tonight’s National City Council agenda. Councilmembers will also decide whether to award a full four-year term to the city’s current acting representative on the San Diego Board of Port Commissioners.
Wait, you ask, what’s so high-drama about that? Well, the vote comes amid an escalating battle between National City and the Port of San Diego over money, political meddling and what city leaders say is the port’s habit of siting dirty and dangerous projects along the city’s shoreline.
The city is currently tangling with the port over how much it costs to provide police, fire and other services on port property. City leaders say the port does not reimburse them enough for such services, especially for firefighting costs related to homeless encampments. Port leaders say they’re open to renegotiating when the city’s current financial arrangement with the port runs out.
Some councilmembers also remain upset at how the port treated Sandy Naranjo, the city’s previous representative on the Port Commission. The commission censured Naranjo last year after she feuded with other commissioners and port staff. Councilmembers removed her from the commission in May, citing the censure. They’ll decide tonight whether to award a full four-year term to her replacement, retired medical entrepreneur GilAnthony Ungab.
David versus Goliath: In general, many in the city say they feel that the port dismisses and bullies National City because it is not as large or wealthy as other port-adjacent cities. As an example, Mayor Morrison pointed to a recent letter he received from a prominent environmental group asking the city to delay its vote on Ungab, who is generally regarded as a competent advocate. The letter said the city should consider other candidates.
The letter came from the National City-based Environmental Health Coalition, which at one time battled the port over environmental issues but now is in line to be paid $400,000 to promote the port’s ongoing clean-air efforts. Morrison said the letter suggests that the port is co-opting even erstwhile city allies.
“Talk about putting the coyote in charge of the chicken coop,” he said. Morrison said he’s glad to see the port attempting to clean up its emissions. But he noted that a major component of that effort—a large electric truck battery recharging station—is slated to be sited in National City, exposing the city to additional truck traffic and the risk of lithium battery fires.
“We have no voice in that at all,” he said.
The port and the Environmental Health Coalition, of course, see all of this differently, viewing their work as part of an ongoing effort to modernize and clean up port operations for the benefit of cities like National City.
A port spokesperson pointed to a recent Environmental Protection Agency grant application for the electrification project as just the latest example of the port’s efforts to improve the local environment.
Kyle Heiskala, a policy co-director for the Health Coalition, said his organization’s work with the port likewise is part of ongoing efforts to improve “the quality of life and public health for the residents of National City.” He said the request to delay the port commissioner vote was simply an effort to ensure that “the best candidate” is ultimately selected.
I will be writing about all of this, including the port’s wide-ranging environmental initiatives, in more detail later this week.
Was This Chula Vista’s Smallest Ever Protest?
Attendees at Monday’s meeting of the Southwestern Community College District’s board of trustees meeting in Chula Vista might have noticed a lone figure waiting patiently outside the board’s meeting room.
That was board member Robert Moreno, who delayed entering the meeting for half an hour to protest what he said was an arbitrary change in the meeting’s start time. Board chair Don Dumas recently moved up the start time from 7 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. without board approval. As chair, Dumas has the authority to change the start time. Moreno said Dumas should have sought board approval anyway and given members of the public advance notice.
Moreno said the time difference itself mattered less to him than the principle of democracy and transparency, which he said is lacking on a board that, in his view, is too deferential to college staff.
Dumas saw Moreno outside the meeting and, when Moreno told him he was staging a protest, “just threw up his arms and shrugged his shoulders,” Moreno said. In an email to Moreno, Dumas said he made the change because board meetings often run late and board members are already in the meeting room at 6:30 p.m. anyway because they usually meet beforehand to consider closed-session items.
All politics, they say, is personal.
In Other News
Sweetwater Authority workers are scheduled to begin a $6.8 million project that, when completed, will remove iron and manganese from water drawn from two wells in National City. The minerals are harmless but can cause discoloration and residents had complained.
In other Sweetwater Authority news, Elizabeth Cox, daughter of former San Diego County Supervisor Greg Cox, appears on track to win a seat on the water agency’s board of directors. Cox said that, if elected, she aims to improve agency communication with members of the public, listen to community concerns about a proposed floating solar project at Sweetwater Dam and ensure that the authority is taking care of its dams and other major infrastructure.
The Chula Vista City Council had a busy night last week. They voted to declare a local state of emergency in response to the ongoing sewage crisis in the Tijuana River (big applause in the council chamber); raised parking meter rates along the busy Third Avenue business corridor (no applause); and postponed also raising entrance fees for public pools and other park facilities after an impassioned plea from leaders of a local youth swim club.