The city of National City Aug. 4 repealed a motion of censure against Council member Ron Morrison, ostensibly because it was not included on the agenda at a June 16 meeting.
That repeal was immediately followed by again bringing the motion of censure to the table, this time having included the item on the agenda so the public could submit comments ahead of time.
The original June 16 motion of censure was issued by National City Mayor Alejandra Sotelo-Solis, Vice Mayor Mona Rios and Council member Gonzalo Quintero in response to an image Morrison shared on a personal social media account that stated: “Due to COVID, we’re gonna need people to riot from home and destroy your own shit.”
At the time, Morrison was informed he must refrain from similar comments in the future and issue an apology via social media, and that he would be removed from his position as the city’s third alternate representative from San Diego’s Regional Association of Governments, commonly known as SANDAG among local government leaders.
Instead, Morrison held a meeting on July 17 to publicly call out what he claimed was a substantial violation of the Brown Act because the public was not made aware of the motion.
At that meeting Morrison also informed attendees he had presented a formal “Cure and Correct” letter to City Council demanding they take action in response.
“The city has 30 days in which they can cure it, they can deny it, or they can ignore it which is the same thing as if they deny it. At that point, you can look to judicial relief,” Morrison said.
At the time, he warned attendees and council members that his next step might be to pursue a lawsuit against the city.
In response, the council included two items on the Aug. 4 meeting to cure and correct the situation: a resolution to repeal the Adoption of Censure and a resolution to readopt the motion.
Speaking in general about both the original motion and the new one included on the August agenda, members of the community submitted comments ahead of time, generally in support of Morrison.
National City resident James Slade, who described himself as African-American in his letter and cautioned councilmembers against accusations of racism based on a social media meme.
“In a time when age-old issues are dividing our country, we should spend more time building meaningful race relationships between ourselves, our city government and our workplace. It is a stigma not easily erased and can be detrimental to a person’s character if it is not true. You will know a racist by their fruits of ignorance and not defined by an obscure comment,” Slade said.
A form letter submitted by 305 residents prior to the meeting referred to the motion as “a poor excuse for a political ambush and an action of personal vendetta” then said city council members owed Morrison an apology.
Another comment, issued by Jane Dillon said Morrison posted the meme on his private social media account and that it had no bearing on the city of National City. She also noted Morrison is the only non-Hispanic on city council and suggested he was unfairly targeted with accusations of possible racism because he is white.
“I want to restate that going into that vote I had no vendetta, no political agenda. What I saw was actions unbecoming of a councilmember,” Quintero said.
Ultimately, Sotelo-Solis said there was no wrongdoing in how the Motion was issued back on June 16.
“There’s no violation of the Brown act, however when there’s a threat of a lawsuit and we have people dying with COVID-19, when we have people being impacted with naval ship fires there are literally things that are killing our community members and to know that someone is willing, on this dais, to sue the city with such tight resources it’s in our due diligence to repost this,” Sotelo-Solis said.
Almost immediately, the Motion was put back on the table.
Sotelo-Solis, Rios, and Quintero all voted in favor of the Motion of censure. Councilmember Jerry Cano abstained.
