Top 4 takeaways from National City’s mayor, council candidate forum

National City candidates running for mayor and two City Council seats fielded questions from South Bay residents during a forum on Friday afternoon. 

At Kimball Coastal Eatery in National City, about 50 people heard how candidates could improve the city and its finances as it faces a structural budget deficit of $13 million.

The forum was hosted by Albondigas South County, a nonpartisan group organized by Mendez Strategy Group and SVPR Communications that meets for monthly lunches and centers conversations around local politics.

Attendees wanted to know how the candidates would address a range of issues. Main takeaways dealt with housing issues, livable wages,  job opportunities and city finances.

The four candidates running for mayor are Councilmember Jose Rodriguez, who serves the city’s northern portion; Councilmember Marcus Bush, who serves the city’s southeast; City Treasurer Ruble Mitchel “Mitch” Beauchamp and STEM-enrichment instructor Jacobb Castrejon. 

The winner would replace outgoing Mayor Ron Morrison, who announced earlier this month he would not run for a sixth term on the five-member City Council that oversees an annual $90 million general fund budget and represents 58,000 residents.

Asked about home ownership in National City, where owners occupy about 1 in 3 homes and renters live in the rest, the mayoral candidates gave answers that set each of them apart. 

Beauchamp said creating more accessory dwelling units would be his approach and added that the city should approve more ADUs with easy access to roads because, “If you can’t get to it with a moving van to get your stuff in and out, it’s dangerous.”  

Castrejon said he would prioritize “tackling renting problems … to help people accrue more capital so that they may be able to buy a home.” 

“I would first want to approach renting because that is what the majority of our residents deal with,” he said.

Rodriguez said a 2023 council policy he introduced has opened paths to home ownership on city land. That policy identified six city-owned properties.

“I think we need to double down, actually fund a redevelopment agency in the city, actively purchase land, and work with developers to develop land and make sure that we develop the right kind of housing for the city, which is home ownership.”

Bush said traditional single-family detached homes aren’t feasible with National City’s limited land. Instead, he proposed creating more condominiums and townhomes as a “better path to homeownership.” He said the city used to have more buyer-assistance programs, and they were one of the “best ways” to help residents, too.

Candidates also stressed how they address issues of wages and job opportunities. 

Asked what they consider a living wage, Rodriguez and Bush didn’t specify a dollar amount, but Castrejon and Beauchamp said wages should be set at $27 per hour and $25 per hour, respectively. In California, some hotel, hospitality and healthcare workers currently earn $25 an hour but minimum wages vary widely.

Rodriguez said, “We need to work to create a good policy” and “That there should be a difference between small businesses and bigger businesses because bigger businesses and corporations can definitely pay their fair share.”

Bush said “poverty wages” are impacting many residents.

“When I look at what a living wage is, can you afford to live in your community?” he said. “Can you afford to be housed here without paying more than a third of your income here?”

Beauchamp said he knows a man who pursued higher education and now earns $38 per hour as an electrical mechanic for Metropolitan Transit System. The candidate shared the story to emphasize that educated workers should earn higher wages.

“If you’re going to get a wage, you gotta work for it,” he said. “You gotta study for it.”

Castrejon placed the strongest environmental conditions on jobs, saying the city should only attract only “clean” industries that do not worsen climate change.

Candidates’ suggested they could close the structural budget deficit by boosting revenue — a path the existing City Council and staff are already on. Beauchamp and Rodriguez agree future hotels would help, especially hotel taxes the city could collect.

The city already collects an average of $2 million per year in those taxes and proposed a tax increase that would yield $400,000 more annually.

Two contested City Council races

The forum also featured candidates for City Council in District 1, which dominates the city’s bayfront on the west side, and District 3, which borders San Diego to the east.

Overall, council candidates got less air time than the mayoral ones. Each set received questions related to the city’s budget and spending.

Candidates Cindy Lopez, a National School District board member, and incumbent Councilmember Luz Molina are facing off for the city’s District 1 seat.

Lopez said she would apply hiring freezes for director-level and administrative positions to address the city’s budget deficit.

“That is something that we do at the district level when we see that we might be projected in a deficit or we don’t have those things for that personnel,” she said.

On an economic development side, Lopez said she’d call for the city to assess  vacant buildings and parcels, support existing small businesses and recruit businesses likely to employ National City residents. 

Molina said she’d consider cutting excessive city personnel overtime and find ways to cut any duplicative work at City Hall. She also proposed reducing $100,000 City Council budgets for the part-time council positions, which she voted against creating three years ago.

The full-time mayor position already had such a fund, when the City Council approved giving council districts $100,000 annual budgets in a 3-2 vote. Morrison also voted against the fund. 

“That money has been highly misused,” Molina said.

The District 3 race features Jerry Cano, an environmental protection specialist; Edward Nieto, a former governmental accountant, and incumbent Councilmember Ditas Yamane. Cano did not appear at Friday’s forum.

Yamane, who voted in favor of the $100,000 council fund, was asked about it, too. She defended the spending and said the fund has been able to help her constituents.

“We have been overlooking services in our district,” she said, “so this is very important for us to be able to provide service to our constituents who have long awaited for service in these districts.”

Nieto suggested the city should cut or eliminate that fund amid the budget deficit.

“That was a waste of money,” he said. “There’s nothing that came out of that.”

Coming into the forum on Friday, 32-year-old voter Sofía García didn’t know about the city’s structural budget.She said her everyday concerns include safe bicycle lanes and “extremely high” rent prices at her apartment in Lincoln Acres.

“Keeping the status quo is not effective, and we do need change,” she said.

Fellow National City resident Lawrence Emerson, 73, said he would have liked to see the candidates discuss how they would work with housing companies to find way to reduce costs in housing and electricity. 

Emerson, a retired civil engineer for Caltrans who is active in the Electric Vehicle Association of San Diego, is currently undecided on who to vote for in both the District 3 and the mayoral races.

“I think they all have good points, good characters in some areas,” he said. “I’m going to be probably asking them more questions later, but today was a good overall view of what they’re thinking.”

Early voting begins the week of Oct. 5. The final day to vote will be on Election Day, Nov. 3

Editor’s note: Susana Villegas, president of SVPR Communications, is a member of inewsource’s Board of Directors.