National City Councilmember Jose Rodriguez plans to ask fellow Councilmembers this evening to investigate a lawsuit filed in January that accuses Mayor Ron Morrison and his executive assistant, Josie Flores-Clark, of improperly influencing a controversial development project spearheaded by a local developer.
Rodriguez placed an agenda item on this evening’s City Council meeting asking the Council to form an “oversight committee to investigate the facts and circumstances” surrounding the lawsuit, which was filed by the owners of a cemetery near the development project.
The project – a combined gas station, car wash, convenience store, drive-through restaurant and several apartment units on a .68-acre vacant lot a block away from La Vista Memorial Park and Cemetery in Lincoln Acres – was recommended for approval by city planning staff but ultimately rejected by planning commissioners after community members voiced strong opposition at a Dec. 2 Planning Commission meeting.
The lawsuit claims that developer Adeeb “Eddy” Brikho provided “personal financial favors to a staff member of the Mayor of National City” in exchange for help brokering meetings with city officials and helping his project advance through the city’s development approval process.
Both Morrison and Flores-Clark have disputed the suit’s allegations, saying they did nothing to influence the outcome of the gas station project and attributing the suit to a misunderstanding of the role city officials play in development decisions.
Morrison said the cemetery owners “haven’t been able to find anything” to substantiate their allegations, and the only reason Rodriguez is requesting further investigation “is he wants an article out there saying the mayor is being investigated.”
“This is nothing more than a political con job,” Morrison said. “It’s illegal for the Council to investigate [city] staff,” who report to City Manager Benjamin Martinez and are not subject to direct supervision by Councilmembers. “Jose knows that entirely well,” Morrison said.
Flores-Clark also refuted the lawsuit’s allegations, saying she neither accepted favors from the developer nor acted beyond her usual responsibilities as mayor’s assistant, which include scheduling meetings between city officials and members of the community.
“That’s my job, scheduling meetings,” she said. “For them to accuse me of crossing the line with no evidence is unjust.”
Rodriguez, who lost to Morrison in the 2022 race for city mayor, said in a text message to Voice of San Diego that he requested the Council investigation because “these corruption allegations from respected community leaders should not be taken lightly. It’s our job as Council to investigate and do our due diligence to protect the public from ongoing litigation.”
The lawsuit’s allegations rest on the fact that city planning staff moved Brikho’s project through the development approval process despite numerous problems later identified by planning commissioners at the Dec. 2 Planning Commission meeting. The suit states that Morrison and Flores-Clark helped the project advance in exchange for financial favors.
Emails provided by the cemetery owners’ attorney do show that Flores-Clark helped to arrange a meeting between Brikho, Morrison and City Manager Benjamin Martinez. And text messages provided by Luisa McCarthy, one of the cemetery owners, show that Flores-Clark also helped to arrange a meeting between the owners and Brikho.
But neither the emails nor text messages show Brikho offering anything to city officials at any point in the development approval process.
Instead, the text messages show Brikho and cemetery co-owner Micaela Polanco discussing their own proposed arrangement, in which Brikho would give the cemetery “discounted diesel” for cemetery vehicles, discounted alcohol for cemetery functions, a new sign directing drivers to the cemetery and a crosswalk and streetlight at an intersection leading to the cemetery in exchange for Polanco’s and McCarthy’s “full support” of the development project.
The text messages refer repeatedly to the arrangement as “our agreement.” But Polanco said in an interview with Voice of San Diego that she never formally agreed to the arrangement and ultimately opposed the project because, after learning more about it, she decided it was out of scale with the neighborhood.
“They’re trying to put an Empire State Building on a tiny piece of land,” Polanco said. “I said to Luisa [McCarthy], we have to oppose this because it’s not good for us.”
In text messages sent a day after the Planning Commission rejected Brikho’s project, Flores-Clark apologized to both Brikho and Polanco that the meeting she had set up between them did not produce an agreement.
“As a City Employee and as a project that is going through the process, I cannot side with one or the other,” Flores-Clark wrote. “This is a situation that you both need to either compromise or not. I wish you both nothing but the best.”
Chula Vista Mayor Says: Play Ball!
Chula Vista is South San Diego County’s largest city. But small-town vibes are not hard to find.
Even as he’s running for a vacant seat on the powerful San Diego County Board of Supervisors, Mayor John McCann took time over the weekend to send city residents an email celebrating the start of Chula Vista’s baseball and softball Little League seasons.
The email was topped by a photo of a smiling McCann in his trademark suit and tie – with a photoshopped San Diego Padres cap perched slightly askew atop his head.
Subsequent photos showed McCann posing with seemingly every Little League team in the city – often in his suit and tie on the field. “I am thrilled to start off another exciting Little League season!” McCann wrote.
Emojis liberally festooning the email include baseballs, biceps, sparkling stars, confetti, hands applauding, a fire truck and a folklorico dancer.
“Let the games begin!” McCann wrote.
Sweetwater Residents Say No to Storage Facility
The Sweetwater Planning Group, which advises San Diego County officials about development proposals in unincorporated communities northeast of Chula Vista, is rallying community members to oppose a planned 1,332-unit storage facility with adjacent storage for 119 RVs at next month’s meeting of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.
The 35-foot-tall project, proposed for construction at 5780 Quarry Road, would worsen traffic and do nothing to address a critical need for more housing in the area, the Planning Group said in a statement.
“… he wants an article out there saying the mayor is being investigated.” Yes, exactly, and y’all obliged. You forgot to.mention this guy’s been censured.
Meanwhile, where Is Nora? Can we get a deep dive into that? Please? Scott Lewis, the self-described “most connected man in town,” ought to have some answers…
People focus on this guy’s naked political ambitions and Mickey Mouse maneuvers. But he’s just a tool. Certain interests continue their attempt to ramrod him upon National City – e.g. the glowing Election Day labor rally (covered uncritically here on VOSD) where this dude’s sure-thing, ridiculously funded race against an unknown opponent was dramatically called a “must-win” by the “brown face” labor lady whose husband works on Rodriguez’s campaigns. The “brown face” lady and her allies prop up and fund candidates, her partner reaps the rewards. That’s some synergy! It would be interesting to see what the few tens of thousands here and there every election cycle add up to. Speaking of Nora, I would venture to bet that the same thing is happening in Paloma Aguirre’s campaign. Those hit pieces seem very reminiscent of the negative campaigning we started to see in National City when this clown rolled into town.