Candidates for National City City Council laid out competing visions for their scrappy, diverse hometown at a marathon two-hour forum Monday evening held outdoors at Olivewood Gardens and Learning Center.
Buffeted by a chilly wind that sent audience members reaching for sweaters, blankets and even a down jacket, the candidates kept things civil even as they disagreed sharply over some of the city’s most pressing issues, including affordable housing, a looming budget deficit and council members’ recently adopted annual expense accounts, dubbed “slush funds” by critics.
Two seats on the five-member council are up for grabs. Incumbent Jose Rodriguez faces a challenge in district two on the city’s north side from realtor Randi Castle-Salgado. District four Councilmember Marcus Bush in the city’s southeast faces two challengers, realtor Daniel Perez and nonprofit director Victor Arreola. All candidates but Arreola attended Monday’s forum.
The candidates mostly agreed on the need for greater disaster preparedness in the wake of January’s devastating floods, as well as the challenge of helping residents remain healthy in a city disproportionately impacted by heavy industry, port traffic and pollution from three major freeways.
They differed sharply on how the city should respond to rising rents and the San Diego region’s severe housing shortage. Rodriguez, long a supporter of rent control and publicly subsidized housing, touted two recent city-financed affordable housing projects and said he hoped the city could build more housing on land it owns. Bush said he, too, supports rent control, as well as building more multi-story housing projects. “We have nowhere to build but up,” he said.
Castle-Salgado and Perez both said that, as realtors, they oppose rent control because it risks scaring away developers and displacing tenants if landlords sell their buildings. Instead, both candidates said they favor eliminating what Castle-Salgado called bureaucratic “red tape” and encouraging more mixed-use development in vacant lots on the city’s west side.
Castle-Salgado drew applause when she criticized council members’ recently authorized $100,000 annual personal expense accounts, which she said is “just being wasted” and contributing to a projected $5 million budget shortfall. Rodriguez and Bush defended the accounts, saying council members are paid only a part-time salary of roughly $18,000 per year and have used the accounts to hire office assistants who help them respond to constituents’ needs and keep up with city business.
The evening had its lighter moments. Some fun facts audience members learned as candidates shared personal details about themselves: Rodriguez proudly proclaimed he eats tacos “four to five times a week.” Perez, gazing ruefully at his waistline, confessed that he eats tacos “every day.” “I’m in great shape,” he said. Pause. “That’s a joke.”
Also: Castle-Salgado rides a motorcycle and sometimes commutes by electric scooter. Bush learned he was going to be a father when his wife was injured in a bicycle accident and hospital tests inadvertently showed she was pregnant. Rodriguez sometimes gets in trouble with his wife for trying to plant too many trees in the backyard. “I always want to plant another tree,” he said.
Missed the forum but wish you hadn’t? Southwestern College will hold a similar forum at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the college’s National City campus, 880 National City Blvd.
Candidate Cries Foul Over Misleading Attack Mailer
Chula Vista City Council candidate Rudy Ramirez filed an ethics complaint with the San Diego County Democratic Party on Tuesday alleging that a recently mailed attack ad against him falsely claims he was rated “unacceptable” by county Democrats.
The ad supports its false claim by purporting to quote from a recent Voice of San Diego story about Ramirez’s race against local schoolteacher Cesar Fernandez. The candidates are competing to represent the city’s fourth council district. The ad features a photo of Ramirez alongside the claim that he was “rated unacceptable by SD Dems.” Beneath an image of the county party logo is a link to Voice’s story.
In fact, Ramirez was never rated unacceptable by the county Democratic party, nor did the Voice story say he was. A local Democratic caucus that endorsed Fernandez recommended that the county party give Ramirez the “unacceptable” rating, but the party never acted on the recommendation.
“It’s unfortunate someone would use our logo and try to misrepresent our position,” said Kyle Krahel-Frolander, acting chair of the county party. Ramirez “has not been rated unacceptable.”
The ad was paid for by the San Diego Labor Coalition, a group of local labor unions that so far has raised more than $1.3 million in this year’s election cycle. The group has spent nearly $13,000 supporting Fernandez, plus an additional $4,500 on the mailer, according to campaign filings. The flipside of the mailer features a smiling image of Fernandez and urges voters to join local police and firefighters unions in backing him.
Fernandez said he “had nothing to do with” the ad or the laborers’ group, which “still hasn’t endorsed me.”
“I’m focused on my campaign and moving ahead,” he said. “I wish politics didn’t get this dirty.”
Ramirez said it was too close to Election Day to respond to the ad by mail. “It’s a race to the bottom with this stuff,” he said. “They lied about me…Talk about negative campaigning.”
If You Build It They Will Come
What happens to a dream deferred? In Chula Vista, the long-held dream of bringing a four-year university to San Diego County’s second largest city took another step forward on Monday (on paper, anyway), as local leaders unveiled proposals to expand educational offerings at Southwestern College and forge partnerships with local universities that could help speed the eventual establishment of a four-year college.
Among the proposals: Expand in-demand degree programs, such as engineering, nursing and public policy; offer joint programs with local high schools (including a baccalaureate program in “music, with a concentration in Mariachi”); fast-track four-year college transfers for local community college students; and explore novel financing methods to pay for construction of a four-year campus.
“This represents a tremendous opportunity for higher education in South County,” said Mark Sanchez, president of Southwestern College.
In Other News
Officials at the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant on Tuesday celebrated the start of a long-awaited expansion and repair of the ailing plant, which treats cross-border sewage in the Tijuana River. The multi-year project aims to double the plant’s treatment capacity, reducing sewage flows into the river.
A South County businesswoman whose prison sentence for fraud was commuted by former President Donald Trump on the recommendation of Chula Vista Mayor John McCann was convicted this week on a new set of mail and wire fraud charges. The jury found that Adriana Isabel Camberos returned to committing fraud just 42 days after her original conviction was commuted. (Union-Tribune)
The San Diego Rescue Mission offered to help the city of San Diego make up for an anticipated loss of shelter beds by making 30 of its 162 beds available to the city at its recently opened shelter in National City, the Union-Tribune reports. The Rescue Mission shelter recently was touted by Mayor Ron Morrison as having enough room for every homeless person in National City. That goal might have to shift if some beds are occupied by residents from San Diego. Our Lisa Halverstat also reported recently on San Diego’s scramble to replace the upcoming loss of shelter space.
Our McKenzie Elmer reported on Tuesday that local leaders are worried that a change in presidential administrations could slow recent momentum on fixing the Tijuana River Valley’s sewage crisis. The director of the International Boundary and Water Commission is appointed by the president. The current director, Maria-Elena Giner, has drawn praise for speeding up efforts to address the crisis, which was seen as languishing under her predecessor.