In an about face from four months ago, the National City City Council came together to unanimously declare its city a Compassionate Community for all residents and visitors, including refugees and immigrants.
As part of settling a legal matter in the Chris Shilling and San Diegans for Open Government case, in which the mayor and two other council members were accused of violating the Ralph M. Brown Act, city officials agreed to revisit a previously proposed welcoming city resolution in a more transparent manner Monday night in a special meeting.
This time the council had two different resolutions on the table. One presented by Councilwoman Alejandra Sotelo Solis that was a modified version of the original welcoming city proposal; the other, which the council selected, was brought forward by Councilman Albert Mendivil, making National City a Compassionate City that would “… continue to be a city that serves and protects its residents and visitors with constitutional rights and due process.”
The resolution also gives all residents access to all city services, regardless of immigration status. The city will also encourage local businesses and charitable organizations to work with refugee and immigrant organizations to help provide services to families relocating to National City and integrating into the community.
In February, Mayor Ron Morrison passed a substitute resolution that made National City “a community in support of continuing to be a community that supports all residents and visitors.” That resolution passed on a 3-2 vote, but sparked a lawsuit alleging that Morrison, Mendivil and Councilman Jerry Cano did not appropriately follow the state’s open meetings laws in getting the resolution passed.
The lawsuit contended that the substitute resolution was not agendized and did not allow an opportunity for public comment by members of the public.
Attorney Cory Briggs, who represents the open government organization, said he was pleased to see the city appropriately following the law on Monday.
“The public has responded very positively to the city’s actions on the resolution,” he said. That’s why transparency is so important and why our clients have been willing to fight for it. Bad things happen when government acts in secret. Good things happen when government acts openly.”
Mendivil called his resolution a “compromise” and said he switched his stance because he wanted to respond to the needs of the community.
“We are not going to control ICE, the federal government or INS in whatever we write (in the resolution),” he said. “All our residents want is to feel supported. That we are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with them.”
A point of contention at that February meeting among the council was Morrison’s removal of the phrase welcoming city in his resolution.
The new compassionate community resolution does not mention welcoming city in it but Councilwoman Mona Rios said language in the resolution was strong enough to do away with welcoming city in it.
“The title, I believe, was the least contentious of this resolution,” Rios said. “We are now going to be a city that other cities need to emulate in terms of the strong language that would give our community a sense of safety and support.”
Morrison said with this resolution National City would still be following federal laws.
“The idea was to come across with as strong language as we could and still be honest,” Morrison said from the dais.
“There’s other things we could have put there but it really wouldn’t be honest. We could’ve said that we were going to prevent any families from being taken apart, we prevent ICE from coming into our neighborhoods or prevent border patrol, we can’t do that. No city in California, no matter what they put for status, can do that.”
National City police say it is their policy to not inquire about immigration status in criminal investigations. However, Police Chief Manuel Rodriguez expressed some concerns that the resolution may interfere with partnerships with the federal government to combat crime.
“It may limit our ability to attack some of the drug, criminal rings that are involved because some of these people that are involved into some of these things, some of them may be undocumented,” Rodriguez said. “It may limit our ability to do that. It may limit our ability to create task forces.”
In addition to granting National City compassionate city status, the city council also agreed to support Senate Bill 54, also known as the California Values Act or Sanctuary State bill.
