National City Mayor Ron Morrison on Friday said he would not seek re-election in November, ending a 34-year career in city politics.
He held a press event Saturday morning. His departure from the mayor’s office marks the end of an era in National City, where Morrison has been a political fixture for more than three decades.
“My intention from day one when I ran back in 2022 was that this would be my last term,” Morrison said in an interview Friday. “No one is irreplaceable and I’m replaceable.”
Morrison, 76, first won election to the National City Council in 1992. He served as mayor from 2006 to 2018 and again from 2022 to the present.
During his time in office, Morrison won praise as a tireless champion of his hometown with a gift for one-on-one retail politics at community events large and small.
Critics, including City Councilmember Jose Rodriguez, who narrowly lost to Morrison in the 2022 mayoral race, said Morrison had allowed the city to stagnate and was out of step with changing demographic and political realities.
Also a precarious financial position: Just this week, the city’s top bureaucrat said the city is headed toward insolvency.
“It could have been a lot worse if I had not been here to keep some of this calmed down,” Morrison said of what he called his City Council colleagues’ free-spending ways.
“We’re on the right track and everyone is realizing there’s a problem,” he said. “Until you get to that point, nothing can be done.”
Morrison said he remains his city’s biggest booster. “I love this city,” he said. “It’s a little bit of an urban Mayberry…I never wanted to serve in any other office.”
Should Anyone Build on Del Mar’s Cliffs?
Del Mar needs to build places for people to live — and the state is forcing it to.
The problem is, one of the few vacant places left to build in the city is sitting on a crumbling coastal bluff.
Carol Lazier has been trying to build on that property for more than 20 years. She’s now proposing to add affordable housing and lean on the Builder’s Remedy, which forces cities to permit development despite local zoning.
But the city estimates suggest half of the cliff could be in the ocean by 2100.
Our Fiona Bork took a look at what different scientific assessments of the bluff said about the cliff’s fate.
Read the full story here.
Politics Report: Councilmember Calls Out Peer for Etiquette
San Diego City Councilmember Jen Campbell is not pleased her colleagues are parachuting into her district without giving her a call first.
Councilmember Raul Campillo has been making noise about the city closing several bathrooms at Mission Bay Park. Campbell also wants to see those bathrooms re-opened.
She says the mayor promised her they would not close beach bathrooms, which she assumed meant Mission Bay’s bathrooms, as they are near beaches.
She would have preferred Campillo call her, though, before jumping on the issue.
Also in the Politics Report: Why former Councilmember Donna Frye sent the mayor a picture of poop. She is also not pleased with the closing of the bathrooms and thinks it will end up costing the city more than it will save.
Members can read the Politics Report here.
Campillo responds: After the Politics Report went out Saturday, Campillo’s team sent over a prepared statement. He said his constituents go to the park and he’s the chair of the Economic Development Committee for the Council, which requires him to safeguard the tourism industry, which will be set back by the closures and cost the city revenue.
“Next year’s budget is going to take a bigger hit than the $500,000 we should spend to open the bathrooms right now because our reputation is being tainted and their closure remains completely indefensible. I don’t care if those toilets are not within my district boundaries. Every councilmember, together with the Mayor, has a duty to every resident and visitor of our city to make it safe, clean, and welcoming.”
How State Reps Avoid Scrutiny for Missed Votes
In the California legislature, the voting system doesn’t show whether a lawmaker was absent, chose not to vote, or abstained. Instead, all three are grouped together under one label, the No Vote Recorded (NVR).
Assemblymember David Alvarez has the most NVR’s among San Diego lawmakers. Out of more than 3,500 bills, he has voted “no” directly only five times, but he has missed over 400 votes.
Critics say this system lets politicians avoid voting on controversial bills to keep special interest groups and fellow lawmakers happy.
Read the Sacramento Report here.
VOSD Podcast: Drive-Thru Gas Station
Who needs seven different ways to enter one downtown city block? Apparently those visiting a gas station owned by Joseph Brikho.
The pod team unpacks the story by intern Naomi Granata about how Brikho hired Jim and Robin Madaffer to lobby San Diego City Council to approve his proposed gas station renovation.
The City Council OK’d the project despite warnings from city staff that it violated a bunch of policies designed to prevent pedestrian and cyclist deaths.
The hosts also talk to Tigist Layne about her story about Del Mar’s odd City Council meeting requesting a criminal investigation into a Fairgrounds leader.
In Other News
The San Diego County Taxpayers Association endorsed a proposed half-cent sales tax increase for Oceanside because the city built in a oversight to show voters where the $20 million a year will go (San Diego Union Tribune)
San Diego County opened applications for a program that will give nearly 200 low-income seniors $500 a month toward their rent for a year and a half, to prevent senior homelessness. (CBS8) Voice recently reported that seniors 60 and older are spending 20 percent more days homeless than other seniors.
If you want to go for a hike, stay alert! (San Diego Union Tribune)
It’s the first day of school for the largest school district in San Diego County, San Diego Unified. Maybe leave a bit earlier this morning.
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