National City leaders are not only standing by their Port of San Diego representative, Commissioner Sandy Naranjo, but are also questioning the motives behind board colleagues’ decision last week to censure her for misconduct.
Thursday, National City Interim City Manager Ben Martinez expressed in a press release the city’s unwavering support for Naranjo alongside dissatisfaction with the board’s action, which he said further erodes the city’s trust in the agency.
The censure, a public chastisement, was meant to distance the agency from the commissioner’s alleged wrongdoing, which was said to include falsely accusing the port’s top lawyer of being corrupt after he pressed her for additional information on a labor union consulting business that was not initially disclosed in required forms.
The action stripped Naranjo of her vice chair role on the board. Naranjo, who was next in line to serve as chair of the board, is also now barred from serving in future leadership positions — board chair, vice chair or secretary — and receiving internal or external committee assignments.
“We are deeply disappointed with the action of the Board of Commissioners of the Port of San Diego, which perpetuate longstanding patterns of disenfranchising National City and its people,” Martinez wrote in the press release. “The timing of this action, just as National City was poised to take an active leadership role with the ascent of its commissioner to the chairmanship of the Board of Commissioners, is of great concern.”
Naranjo was sworn into office in January 2021 and represents National City on the seven-member board of port commissioners. The board makes policy decisions for the San Diego Unified Port District, which spans 34 miles of tidelands. The bayfront territory includes land and water in five member cities: San Diego, National City, Chula Vista, Imperial Beach and Coronado. Commissioners are appointed for four-year terms and do not earn a salary.
The South Bay native, who is a self-described environmental justice activist, has played a vocal role in helping define the agency’s air quality policies, eyeing changes to bayfront industrial operations that impact neighboring communities. Her work continues to be applauded by National City residents and leaders.
“I think the direction of the port has taken a drastic turn for the better and it’s listening to communities like ours, and implementing plans for full electrification, cleaning of the environment,” National City City Councilmember Jose Rodriguez said to Naranjo on Tuesday at the City Council’s regularly scheduled meeting. “A big part of that is you and the work that you’ve done at the port. So thank you so much for continuing that fight.”
The commissioner was formally reprimanded last week by her peers — in a unanimous 6-0 vote at a specially convened board meeting — for allegedly breaching her duties to the agency, retaliating against Port General Counsel Tom Russell, withholding financial information and violating the Brown Act, among other things. The behavior was described by the port’s outside counsel as, “self-interested, reckless and potentially malicious.”
Her actions were detailed with greater specificity in a confidential personnel investigation conducted by HR Law Consultants that was only made public after the censure.
Naranjo is accused of purposefully trying to destroy Russell’s reputation because the executive, who is also the port’s ethics officer, was looking into whether a consulting firm formed by the commissioner and her then-husband Andrew McKercher posed a potential conflict of interest. During a closed-session review of Russell’s performance on Dec. 13, 2022, Naranjo raised concerns about the lawyer’s alleged dealings with a company doing business with the port and a patent he secured for a marine propeller. The exchange rattled the other port commissioners, the report states.
Naranjo has said she is a whistleblower who was targeted by Russell because of her race, sexuality and advocacy for environmental justice causes.
She publicly addressed the censure Tuesday at National City’s City Council meeting.
“It was disheartening that my colleagues voted 6-0 to censure based on a secret report,” she said. “I do believe the report actually exonerates me fully and supports my concerns.”
Documents linked to the personnel investigation show that Naranjo and McKercher formed their labor consulting business, Common Wealth Action Consulting, on Jan. 11, 2021. The business, dissolved on Dec. 17, 2021, was not disclosed by Naranjo in her initial statement of economic interest, known as California Form 700. It was disclosed as her husband’s business in a subsequent filing.
Common Wealth Action Consulting was in “substantive” talks with the United Association of Plumbers, Steamfitters, Refrigeration & HVAC Technicians Local 230, a San Diego-based union, but no contracts were entered into, according to the documents. The union has not responded to requests to comment on the matter.
The port ethics code prohibits a commissioner from being a paid consultant for anyone seeking financial benefits, direct or indirect, from the agency. In addition, California Government Code Section 1090 bans an officer, employee or agency from entering into government contracts that the official or employee has a financial interest in, with willful violations subject to criminal penalties.
As a result, a conflict-of-interest analysis prepared by The Sutton Law Firm in August 2021 determined that Naranjo could only provide consulting services to unions outside of San Diego County. A second letter from the law firm concluded that Naranjo’s vote in June 2021 in favor of the financing package for the $1.2 billion Chula Vista Bayfront RIDA hotel project did not create a section 1090 issue in part because her labor consulting business had no clients.
National City and the port view the avoided conflict and Naranjo’s subsequent charges against Russell in different lights.
“We find the board’s explanation for their timing to be severely lacking, and its decision to take such drastic and draconian action very disappointing,” Martinez, the interim city manager, wrote in the press release. “It is unfortunate that Commissioner Naranjo is now denied the ability to lead (key) efforts in the leadership role to which National City is entitled in the rotation of chair between the port’s five member cities.”
The statements echo comments from Naranjo supporters who said at last week’s censure hearing that the board’s action appeared to be a politically motivated maneuver meant to silence the National City representative ahead of her step into the board chair position.
The port maintains that the censure was justified.
“Board members have a fiduciary duty to the integrity of the port and its commitments, and the well-being of port employees, and this action upholds that responsibility,” said Sonia Carvalho, an attorney with Best Best & Krieger who recommended the censure. “That’s why all six commissioners took a unanimous vote to censure Commissioner Naranjo for her retaliatory conduct against the port’s ethics officer. While her own actions resulted in her losing the confidence of her colleagues for serving as a board officer or on committees, she is still the city’s representative.”
Naranjo continues to work alongside National City leaders and port staffers to advance the National City Balanced Plan. The forward-looking blueprint envisions a remade bayfront in National City with a bikeway, an expansion of Pepper Park, waterfront hotels and a thriving commercial zone.
The plan was approved by the port board last year and is awaiting certification from the California Coastal Commission. Naranjo and National City Mayor Ron Morrison briefed the commission on the plan last week.
