National City leaders have parted ways with their Port of San Diego representative, Commissioner Sandy Naranjo, whose relationship with her peers at the agency is said to have been fractured beyond repair.
Late Tuesday, National City Council voted 3-2 to remove Naranjo from the Board of Port Commissioners while being heckled by audience who objected to the decision. The action, effective immediately, comes seven months after Naranjo was censured by the port’s board for misconduct and means the city will need to fill the now-vacant board seat.
The seven-member board oversees and makes policy decisions for the San Diego Unified Port District. The port’s bayfront territory spans 34 miles of tidelands, and includes land and water in five member cities: San Diego, National City, Chula Vista, Imperial Beach and Coronado.
“It is very, very unfortunate that our commissioner has received a no-confidence (vote) from a huge agency that we work with,” said City Councilmember Ditas Yamane. “It’s not personal … it’s business. When we are not at the table because they have no confidence in the representative that we put there, we are on the menu.”
Yamane, who made the motion to remove Naranjo, was ed by Councilmember Jose Rodriguez and Mayor Ron Morrison. Council Marcus Bush and Luz Molina voted against the motion.
“In my view, we are taking the wrong approach. We are giving into the bully, and to the narrative that our voices and the well-being of our residents on the west side of National City doesn’t matter when it’s up against the status quo and the special interests,” Molina said.
An environmental justice advocate and former union organizer, Naranjo was appointed by National City in December 2020 to the port board. Commissioners are appointed by their member cities for four-year and do not earn a salary.
During her time at the agency, Naranjo sought to improve the agency’s air quality policies and advocated for changes to bayfront industrial operations. The South Bay native also works part-time at a law firm and at the nonprofit High Ambition Climate Collective.
In October, port commissioners censured Naranjo for misconduct, setting in motion a chain of events that ultimately led to her ouster. The censure was linked to Naranjo’s antagonistic relationship with the port’s top lawyer, Tom Russell, with problems surfacing during her first year at the agency.
According to a confidential personnel investigation, later released to the public, Naranjo accused Russell of corruption during a closed-session board meeting, retaliating against him after he pressed her for information on a consulting business not initially disclosed in required forms. Naranjo continues to maintain that she is a whistleblower.
The censure did not remove Naranjo from the board. But the action sidelined her from leadership positions, as she was barred from serving as board chair, vice chair or secretary. She was also prohibited from holding any internal or external committee assignments.
National City leaders initially stood by Naranjo. However, from some council waned in the ensuing months as the censure appeared to impede Naranjo’s ability to successfully advance the city’s priorities.
The splintered dynamic of the port’s board has been on display at recent public meetings.
In March, commissioners selected a developer to construct a zero-emission truck stop in National City. The unanimous vote to enter into an exclusive negotiating agreement with the developer, on a motion from Commissioner Danielle Moore, came after a similar motion by Naranjo died for lack of a second. Naranjo said her peers voted for Moore’s motion to embarrass her.
Then, at a special boarding last month, Naranjo was the only commissioner who voiced for state Assemblymember David Alvarez’s proposed port reform bill, AB 2783. The other six commissioners characterized the bill, which is likely to be amended as it works its way through the Assembly and Senate, as a short-sighted overreaction to Naranjo’s censure that would hamper the agency’s effectiveness.
“We have many needs. We deserve clean air. Our residents deserve it. We don’t receive revenues from port businesses in National City jurisdiction on a regular basis. That’s critical. We don’t have access to the bayfront. These are issues that are historically impacting National City and the residents in our community,” Rodriguez said. “I think everything that’s been happening the last six months, we’re playing defense … . Our voice in National City is not being heard as strong as it should be.”
Naranjo said she is the victim of a political hit job and is being punished for asking legitimate questions about Russell’s business dealings. Naranjo has raised red flags about Russell’s relationship with former Los Angeles Port Commission President Nick Tonsich, whose company does business with the Port of San Diego and was sued for fraud by a port tenant. Russell was the general counsel for the Port of Los Angeles before ing the Port of San Diego in 2012.
“My efforts to ensure transparency and ability at the port have been met with resistance and retaliation by insiders. After being totally and legally exonerated from a targeted and retaliatory investigation by the port’s general counsel and outside counsel, I was censured and marginalized,” Naranjo said during a press conference before Tuesday’s City Council meeting. “The port tries to make this about me, but it’s not. This is about the port’s secrecy and backdoor dealings in violation of state laws. I just drew attention to it.”
Commissioners have repeatedly rejected Naranjo’s allegations that Russell helped Tonsich secure a lucrative contract with the port, often characterizing the lawyer as a stellar public servant. In April, the other board commended Russell’s performance and ability to tackle complex litigation before extending his employment contract, raising his annual salary to $366,849.60 and giving him a one-time, $17,000 bonus. Naranjo voted against the pay increase.
Fourteen public speakers, including several environmental justice advocates, all spoke approvingly of Naranjo’s work and characterized the port as the bad actor.
“It was made abundantly clear to me that National City is an afterthought, with dire needs continually overlooked in favor of development opportunities,” said Meli Morales, an organizer with Mothers Out Front. “Chicken strips and beer on the waterfront in San Diego have taken precedent over the maternal and infant health outcomes, community mental health and lung health in National City. … Retaining Commissioner Naranjo, who fights for environmental justice communities across multiple member cities, builds the collective power necessary to effect needed reform.”
Morales and other public speakers frequently interrupted council while they were speaking with several collectively booing during Yamane’s remarks.
No one from the Port of San Diego attended Tuesday night’s National City City Council meeting. The agency, through a spokesperson, declined to comment on Naranjo’s ouster.
“The port respects the discretion of our member cities to appoint, remove or take other actions regarding their representative. It wouldn’t be appropriate to comment on National City’s action,” the spokesperson said.
Naranjo told the Union-Tribune that she will continue to ask questions about Russell’s business dealings and the port’s with Tonisch’s company, Clean Air Engineering. She said she is elevating the matter with state legislators and has already spoken with California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis.
“As a commissioner, I serve as a regulator. I have a fiduciary responsibility to the state of California,” Naranjo said. “And the questions I’ve asked are in the interest of the state of California. And those questions, to this day, have not been answered.”
Naranjo is the second port commissioner to be removed from the appointed local government post. In January 2011, State Sen. Steve Padilla was booted from his then-port commissioner position by the city of Chula Vista.
