Union leaders urge council to approve contract after near-unanimous ratification; residents raise fund-balance concerns

Carla Panategui, chapter president for SEIU Municipal Employees of National City, told the City Council that 98% of her union’s members voted to ratify a proposed contract and urged the council to approve it. "Yes. When we were explaining to them what they were gonna benefit on that contract, a lot of our members got very emotional," Panategui said during public comment.

Roslyn Cassidy, senior organizing representative and lead negotiator for the municipal workers, also asked the council to approve the agreement and summarized benefits included in the deal. "COLA increases of more than 16% over 13 years," Cassidy said, and she cited higher bilingual pay, residential pay, student loan forgiveness benefits and added benefits for part-time employees.

Union-affiliated speaker James Kim said the contract had broad support among members. "Like Karla said earlier today, 95% of our members were satisfied," Kim said.

Not all public commenters supported immediate council approval. Ed Nieto and Alexander Guthrie raised fiscal concerns, pointing to what they said were limited unassigned fund balances that would cover the pay increases. Referencing the city's June financial presentation, Nieto said the unassigned fund balance was about $4.8 million but added that roughly $2 million of that came from an ARPA adjustment at year-end, leaving about $2.8 million "to pay for these increases in pays." "I'm very concerned," Nieto said. "I think this is newsworthy. The reporter's back here, and we're on the brink of having no money at all."

During the meeting, City Attorney and staff announced the council would move into closed session to discuss labor negotiations with employee organizations, including MEA, the National City Firefighters Association, the Police Officers Association and unrepresented groups (agenda item 5.1). The meeting minutes and public record made available at the time of reconvening did not include any formal, public vote on the contract in open session.

Speakers balanced praise for the contract's effects on workers' lives with calls for the council to provide clearer public accounting of how the increases will be funded in coming years. Several commenters urged the council to disclose the city's unassigned fund balance and the multi‑year fiscal impacts of the agreement before final action.

No formal council action approving or rejecting the labor contract was reported in open session at the end of the meeting. The council entered closed session on agenda item 5.1 and reconvened without announcing a public decision.

Council members present at the meeting were noted during roll call; one member was absent. The council scheduled continued internal discussion in closed session and signaled it would provide any required report following that closed session process.