National City removes Sandy Naranjo as its port commissioner

The City Council of National City voted 3-2 Tuesday night to remove Sandy Naranjo, an environmental justice advocate who was censured by her fellow commissioners in October, as its representative to the Port District of San Diego.

The vote came after more than a dozen people spoke in favor of Naranjo and urged the council to support her. But it was not enough to persuade Mayor Ron Morrison and councilmembers Ditas Yamane and Jose Rodriguez to keep her.

All three in their remarks before the ouster vote said they had no personal animus against Naranjo. They said she had lost the confidence of other commissioners after her censure, and that hobbled her ability to advocate for the city’s interests at the powerful agency.

The vote came a week after Naranjo said Morrison asked her to resign at a meeting in City Hall, where City Manager Ben Martinez and Councilmember Luz Molina also were present. 

“What (Morrison) claimed at that meeting was — he was asking for my resignation because National City has a representative but doesn’t have representation,” Naranjo said in an interview with inewsource on Friday, “meaning that National City is not able to get what it wants from the Port District because the port does not want to work with me. And does not want me there.”

Morrison had a different recollection. He said Monday that he told Naranjo other members of the City Council have had concerns of “representation on the commission” for some time. 

He said he told her resignation was one option for her and if she did not take it, the council could act.

“I didn’t ask her, I told her it was an option,” Morrison said about resignation. “The other option is, once it is on the agenda I don’t have control of it — and neither does she.”

Naranjo responded at the meeting that she would step down if the Port of San Diego met a number of conditions, which she later outlined in an email to the mayor and councilmembers provided to inewsource. 

Those included rescinding the censure, funding National City emergency services for the costs of providing services on port lands in the city on a par with other cities, and a public apology from the port over questions she raised in a Dec. 13, 2022, closed session.

The questions centered on Thomas Russell, the port’s top lawyer, and an alleged conflict of interest he had with a contract given out previously by the port. 

In her email, Naranjo said she wanted an apology from the Port District for not responding to what she described as legitimate questions she raised about Russell in the closed session — and that the agency provide answers now to those questions, in writing. 

Naranjo said Morrison called her after he spoke with Frank Urtasun, the chairman of the port commissioners. She said Morrison told her Urtasun said rescinding the censure and the apology were non-starters. 

Urtasun did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The item is listed on the City Council meeting agenda under staff reports and described as a “Discussion and Consideration” of her status. 

Naranjo, like all commissioners at the port, is an appointed and not elected official. She serves at the pleasure of the council. 

Her term, which started in January 2021, ends in December, so any move by the council would mean she was removed before her appointment expired. 

The effort is also the latest turn in a months-long controversy centering on Naranjo, with its roots in that December 2022 closed session meeting. After the meeting the district launched an investigation on the grounds that Naranjo violated open meeting laws.

The inquiry cost $155,000 and led to the censure levied in October. The move stripped her of her position as vice chairman, blocked her from assuming the commission chairman post, and barred her from serving on any committees.

Less than two weeks after the censure, councilmembers in a news release said they were “deeply disappointed” in the censure and said “Commissioner Naranjo’s work is valued in National City.”

In the interview Naranjo said that Morrison told her he had been getting pressured from the port as well as “outside interest groups” to get her to step down. The news outlet La Prensa reported last week that among them was Brigette Browning, head of the San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council.

“He just said, you know, the port’s pressuring because they just don’t like me,” Naranjo said. “I mean, that’s what it comes down to.” 

Browning did not respond to a request for comment.

9 p.m., May 7: This story was updated to include City Council’s vote to remove Naranjo.