A National City ordinance adopted in September banning the retail sale of dogs, cats and rabbits not obtained from a rescue has been halted after National City Puppy owner David Salinas turned in a petition with enough signatures to take the issue to the ballot in March for National City residents to decide.
National City City Clerk Mike Dalla confirmed that this is the first time a referendum has been executed in at least the last 50 years in National City. The referendum came after a lawsuit Salinas filed in which a San Diego Superior Court judge issued an order that temporarily prevented the ordinance from going into effect. The National City Attorney’s Office did not comment on the status of the lawsuit.
The ordinance prohibits a pet store operator from selling dogs, cats or rabbits in a pet store unless they’re from a rescue and the stores do not profit — closing a loophole in state legislation that went into effect Jan. 1 under which pet stores could potentially sell these animals and source them from puppy mills and kitten factories operating under the guise of rescues.
In order for Salinas’ referendum to move forward, he needed to submit signatures from at least 10 percent of registered National City voters which equates to 2,507 signatures.
According to Dalla, Salinas submitted 3,450 signatures total, meeting the minimum threshold of signatures necessary with 922 of them determined to be invalid.
After the petition was turned into the City Clerk’s office Oct. 2, Dalla said the city did a cursory account of signatures and checked for any obvious irregularities. Then, they turned it over to the Registrar of Voters which verified the validity of signatures by checking if the person is a registered voter and National City resident, and comparing the signature on the petition to the affidavit on hand.
The submission of Salinas’ petition with an adequate number of valid signatures left National City City Council with two options: repeal the ordinance, or submit the ordinance without alteration to the voters at the next municipal election in March.
On Nov. 19, city council voted unanimously to direct the city attorney to come back with the resolutions required to put the ordinance on the ballot for voters. But Council member Mona Rios, Mayor Alejandra Sotelo-Solis and multiple speakers during public comment were critical of the strategy used to collect signatures, raising concerns about misinformation.
Liz Ramos, a National City resident and native, said she was there the day petitioners set up at the Walmart on Highland Avenue to collect signatures, and the sign they had displayed said “stop the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits.”
“I went up to them and I said what is this all about? The state already passed the law and the city already shored up the loophole,” Ramos said. “And he knew nothing about that and he just said just sign this and this is to stop puppies from being sold in pet stores… that is why I feel that a lot of these signatures are fraudulent.”
Rios said her father, who is in his eighties, had someone come to his door asking him sign a petition to ban puppy mills, lying about the real intent of the petition.
“The crime tonight here is that people were given information that was not true in order to give their signature, and that’s what saddens me,” Rios said.
Sotelo-Solis said the amount of invalid signatures turned in is concerning, especially ahead of 2020 primary and presidential elections.
“If people are already getting and casting doubt about what messages are being put out, that’s concerning. To me it’s the civic engagement component, it’s wrong messages that are confusing for the community,” Sotelo-Solis said.
Council member Ron Morrison was the only councilmember to voice support of National
City Puppy, and voted against passing the ordinance back in September.
“To me, this is something that’s totally unnecessary, to me if we’re going to correct a state problem it’s 500 miles away in Sacramento, that’s where it needs to be done,” Morrison said. He added that some invalid signatures should be expected when collecting signatures.
CEO of Civic Link Strategies and former San Diego City Council President Tony Young said he and petitioners went door to door in National City and to Walmart to collect signatures — and the issue was a “very simple sale to voters.” He denies that petitioners spread misinformation or distorted the true intent of the petition. His company, a public affairs and government relations firm, was contracted by Salinas.
“We believe that the people of National City will support freedom of choice by consumers, they will see this as a government overreach and they will recognize that the people that are advocating for this issue are from far outside city limits and don’t have the residents interests at heart,” Young said.
At the city council meeting, National City Puppy petitioners echoed Young, saying that they collected signatures truthfully and presented information accurately. They also argued that National City Puppy provides jobs for residents and healthy puppies for families.
“All we told National City residents is that we’re giving them the choice whether they want to put it on the ballot,” National City Puppy petitioner Brenda Camaro said.
City Attorney Angil Morris-Jones will come back with the resolutions required to submit the ordinance to the voters at the next city council meeting on Dec. 3.
