The officials of the national city will meet on Friday in a special session to discuss the employment of the city director Ben Martinez and consider appointing an interim municipal director, according to a program that the municipality published Thursday.
The change of personnel would then intervene that the municipal council confronts a budgetary deficit of several million dollars, multiple proceedings and major negotiations with the port of San Diego on the public security services that the municipality provides in port facilities.
Several criticisms have raised fears that these questions, among others, have occurred under the supervision of Martinez, leaving the town hall in a state of disarray. Many of these points were raised on Tuesday during the public comments, just before the city leaders met in camera to review Martinez’s performance.
The city’s prosecutor, Barry Schultz, whose performance was also evaluated at this meeting, said open on Tuesday that city leaders took “no signalable measure”, but apparently a majority decided to replace Martinez, who was hired for the role in December 2023.
Mayor Ron Morrison refused to comment on the issue on Thursday. But some of his council colleagues expressed a clear fracture before Friday’s meeting.
Board member Jose Rodriguez described the planned discussions as “impulsive” and “bad decision”.
“Any decision we make for leadership requires a meticulous, diligent and well thought out plan that encompasses all members of the council,” he said. “It was the opposite.”
But the Council member Marcus Bush said that the city had dealt with “very serious operational problems” which require immediate attention. “We need responsibility,” he said. Almost two years ago, the municipal council unanimously approved Martinez’s contract. This decision has occurred after several months of unexpected turnover in the position of the municipal director.
In April 2023, the city and former director of the City Brad Raulston agreed to separate. Raulston had taken a leave to take care of his mother, he said at the time, but his performance had also been examined.
The officials selected Armando Vergara to replace Raulston, but Vergara died of natural causes at the end of June 2023. The deputy director of the city Scott Huth intervened as an interim municipal director. In August 2023, Martinez was appointed interim municipal director.
Martinez was permanently hired for the role with an annual salary of $ 255,719, plus benefits, including an annual allowance of $ 9,000. The city also provided him with a monthly accommodation allowance of $ 1,200. His contract, which included an increase of 6% in 2024, expires next year.
City leaders said there was a feeling of renewed stability at the Town Hall to fill the position of director of the city permanently.
But, in recent months, the municipal council has faced a series of political and legal disputes, some of which have aggravated under the direction of Martinez, according to many.
Among them is the city’s treatment of its cannabis license program. Two companies continue the national city for having pretended to be poorly managed their requests for a showcase license and to disqualify them wrongly. Instead, these licenses went to companies based in the region and without any local owners. At the end of last year, at a meeting of the municipal council, a resident of the national city testified that her signature had been wrongly used by one of the companies to qualify for a license. The city said the question should be resolved between the company and the resident.
Others have also expressed their concerns concerning the city’s inability to avoid budgetary deficits and if they will successfully and successfully guarantee the port’s full reimbursement funds to provide municipal services.
The closed -door meeting begins at noon.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
