Residents urge public input and transparency in National City’s city manager selection; council holds closed session

Mayor Morrison opened the National City council meeting and took public comment Thursday, where several residents urged the council to solicit direct public input on the selection of a new city manager and raised concerns about public-records practices and alleged misconduct tied to a multimillion-dollar verdict.

Those concerns were the focus of most public comments before the council went into closed session to discuss the city manager appointment. Ted Gottschalk told the council: "We would like to see a meeting where you consider asking the public what they'd like to see in a city manager." He urged neighborhood councils be consulted on matters such as murals, cannabis policy and billboards before city action.

Several speakers urged clearer adherence to open-government rules. Maria Severson asked that the city attorney ensure the incoming city manager "will adhere to the Public Records Act [and] will understand the responsibilities under the Brown Act" and preserve records requested by the public. Alexander Guthrie said the city has not produced requested records and highlighted an apparent change to the city's claim form and submission procedures that coincided with a records request.

Commenters also tied the city manager discussion to recent turnover and to accountability concerns. "In the past 6 months, there has been 3 city managers. There's something rotten in Denmark," Marissa Cuevas said, urging oversight of appointments. Michael Garrity urged an independent city manager and referenced what he described as a "$10,000,000 verdict" arising from a harassment case he said was the responsibility of the police department; that claim was offered by a public commenter and was not presented as a finding from the council or staff during the meeting.

Other speakers criticized personnel decisions and promotions, saying staff accused of misconduct have been moved and promoted rather than disciplined. Michela Blanco said she hopes the new manager will be "unbiased, impartial" and able to work with city staff to restore confidence.

After public comment, the city attorney announced a closed session item "involving public employment" for the city manager position. The council entered closed session and later returned to open session, noting a silent roll call with members present at the dais. No public vote or appointment was recorded in the transcript; the meeting paused for a short break before resuming the regular agenda.

The council did not record any formal action or vote on the city manager in the public portion of the meeting. The matters raised in public comment — requests for a public forum on the manager search, alleged changes to records procedures, and references to a jury verdict mentioned by a commenter — were presented to the council during the public-comment period and were not resolved on the record during the meeting.