Nationwide Metropolis Condemns Port Censure of Naranjo as ‘Drastic and Draconian’ Motion

Sandy Naranjo, the censured Port Commissioner from Nationwide Metropolis, has gained assist from her hometown Metropolis Council regardless of allegations she put the Port District at monetary and authorized danger for grilling the port’s high legal professional in a closed session.

Calling itself “deeply disillusioned” by the reprimand eradicating Naranjo from the vice chairmanship and committees, the Nationwide Metropolis Metropolis Council on Thursday mentioned the Port Fee perpetuated “longstanding patterns of disenfranchising Nationwide Metropolis and its folks.”

A information launch from interim Metropolis Supervisor Ben Martinez added:

The timing of this motion, simply as Nationwide Metropolis was poised to take an energetic management position with the ascent of its Commissioner to the chairmanship of the Board of Commissioners, is of nice concern. We discover the board’s rationalization for his or her timing to be severely missing, and its determination to take such drastic and draconian motion very disappointing.

The 240-word launch blasted the board for denying Naranjo a management position “to which Nationwide Metropolis is entitled within the rotation of chair between the Port’s 5 member cities.”

The port rejects strategies that its common counsel and ethics officer, Thomas Russell, has severe conflicts of pursuits, as Naranjo argued in a December assembly to evaluate his efficiency.

The port says Naranjo retaliated in opposition to Russell for his trying into allegations that her now former husband, Andrew McKercher, proposed a “Pay to Play” scheme “whereby he tried to leverage Naranjo’s position as a commissioner to assist sure unions safe work on contracts with the district.”

On Friday, Naranjo legal professional Cory Briggs instructed Instances of San Diego that Naranjo appreciates the council’s assist.

“They clearly acknowledge that the actual motivation behind the Port’s unlawful actions in opposition to her had been pushed by politics and a concern that she was on the cusp of creating large positive factors for Nationwide Metropolis, whose folks the Port has abused for years and continues to take advantage of,” Briggs mentioned by way of electronic mail.

“With the assist of Nationwide Metropolis, Commissioner Naranjo will stay undeterred in her efforts to eradicate corruption on the Port and make sure that Nationwide Metropolis shares equally within the rewards that the Port has heretofore reserved just for the politically linked.”

Rafael Castellanos of San Diego, the Port Fee’s present chairman, mentioned in a press release:

Nationwide Metropolis continues to have a voice and illustration on the Port. Commissioner Naranjo stays a member of the Board with the flexibility to vote, seek the advice of with workers and meet with the general public. As at all times, the Board is dedicated to all of the tasks which are necessary to Nationwide Metropolis together with electrification of the Nationwide Metropolis Marine Terminal, emissions reductions know-how and the Balanced Plan.

Additionally defending the port was Lawyer Sonia Carvalho, an outdoor legal professional representing the Port  who detailed accusations in opposition to Naranjo on the Oct. 10 assembly the place she was censured 6-0.

Carvalho mentioned in a press release:

The Port of San Diego understands that the Metropolis of Nationwide Metropolis has the best to nominate one member of the Board of Port Commissioners. Like a Metropolis Council member, Board members have a fiduciary responsibility to the integrity of the Port and its commitments, and the well-being of Port staff and this motion upholds that duty.

That’s why all six commissioners took a unanimous vote to censure Commissioner Naranjo for her retaliatory conduct in opposition to the Port’s Ethics Officer. Whereas her personal actions resulted in her dropping the boldness of her colleagues for serving as a Board officer or on committees, she continues to be the town’s consultant.

Nationwide Metropolis’s launch famous it “stays dedicated to the work at hand and can search to treatment its collaborative relationship with the Port to advance our shared pursuits and efforts, most significantly of that are the implementation of the Nationwide Metropolis Balanced Plan, addressing overdue corrective actions that negatively affect the well being of our residents,
and dealing towards the day after we can have extra equitable entry to our maritime areas.”