National City council accepts mutual separation with city manager Ben Martinez; engineering director named acting manager

The National City City Council and City Manager Ben Martinez agreed to a mutual separation effective immediately after a closed-session meeting, the city attorney reported Friday.

City Attorney (reporting out of closed session) said, “the city council and the city manager, Ben Martinez, have agreed to a mutual separation, which will be effective immediately.” The attorney reported the vote on that item as 3–1. The council then appointed Steve Maganello, the city’s director of city engineering and public works, as acting city manager by a unanimous 4–0 vote and directed staff to begin a search for an interim city manager; the attorney reported that the search direction passed on a 3–1 vote.

The actions followed nearly three hours of public comment, during…