South County Report: Rightward Shift on Imperial Beach Council

Imperial Beach City Councilmembers on Wednesday chose a 30-year-old county of San Diego employee and member of the San Diego Young Republicans to fill a vacancy on the Council created following the July election of former Mayor Paloma Aguirre to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. 

Calling her “the future of the community,” councilmembers chose Mariko Nakawatase, a district director for Republican County Supervisor Joel Anderson, to become the new councilmember representing District 3, which runs along most of the city’s coastline and includes City Hall. 

Current Mayor Mitch McKay formerly represented District 3. Councilmembers appointed McKay to the city’s top job in August following Aguirre’s election. 

To fill the resulting District 3 vacancy, councilmembers whittled an initial field of eight applicants from the community to two finalists, Nakawatase and former City Councilmember Patrick Bilbray, who is the son of Brian Bilbray, a former Republican mayor, county supervisor and U.S. Rep. 

The selection of Nakawatase, a Republican, to replace McKay marked the second time in two months councilmembers chose to fill a vacancy by appointment rather than special election. Both times, councilmembers cited the high cost of staging an election as the reason for their decision. 

Democrats in the city decried the appointment of McKay, a registered independent who leans conservative, as a Republican power grab in a city that, until recently, seemed to be moving leftward. Both Aguirre and her mayoral predecessor, Serge Dedina, are progressive Democrats and environmentalists. 

Councilmembers pushed back on the claim they were cherry picking their colleagues, saying there was little point in staging expensive elections to fill vacancies that would come up for re-election next year. 

Whatever the intention, the result of the two appointments is a City Council comprised of two Republicans, two independents and one Democrat. 

The Democrat, union construction worker Matthew Leyba-Gonzalez, was the lone no vote opposing Nakawatase’s appointment. McKay, Deputy Mayor Carol Seabury and Councilmember Jack Fisher voted in favor. 

The swing on the council is a further sign that South County politics, once seen as reliably Democratic, are in a period of flux. 

Nakawatase pledged to be a bridge-builder. “I want to work with everyone to make I.B. work and be what it can be,” she said following her selection on Wednesday. “We don’t learn anything if we put up shields and don’t talk to people who disagree with us.” 

Nakawatase, who was born and raised in Imperial Beach and graduated from the city’s Mar Vista High School, said she wants to use her time on the Council to help the city recruit new businesses and move beyond its reputation as the epicenter of the ongoing Tijuana River sewage crisis. 

“I get defensive when people say [of Imperial Beach], ‘That’s the stinky city,’” Nakawatase said Wednesday. “There’s so much more to our city.” 

Nakawatase attended Southwestern College and earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Arizona State University before starting work in Anderson’s office in 2021. She earned a master’s in public administration from ASU’s online campus while working for Anderson. 

Nakawatase rose quickly in Anderson’s office, starting out managing the supervisor’s schedule and soon running his district operations. She said she admired Anderson’s willingness to reach across the aisle to Democrats and hoped to emulate his style on the Imperial Beach Council. 

“Compromise and work together. That’s my plan,” she said. 

Anderson repaid the compliment Thursday, saying in a statement, “Mariko is a talented young woman who loves serving her community both in volunteer hours and now in office. Our office is very proud of her.” 

One formative experience is not on Nakawatase’s lengthy resume. “I worked at a bar in San Diego: Tin Roof San Diego on Fourth and G,” she said of her time before working for Anderson. 

The benefits of barkeeping? “It taught me customer service skills and gave me a tough skin,” she said. “How do you get people in the door? Push customer service.” 

Nakawatase said she plans to pursue the same strategy in Imperial Beach. She said she wants to educate constituents about how City Hall actually works and empower people to become active participants in their government. 

As for the sewage crisis, which has tarnished Imperial Beach’s reputation and decimated local businesses with lengthy beach closures and repeated negative news stories, Nakawatase said she wants to help the city move past all of that. 

“How do we make Imperial Beach attractive?” she said. “I always love to brag about I.B., knowing your neighbors and your mailman and your grocery store clerk. A village raised me and I want to give back to my community.” 

Biofuels Battle, Round Two 

The developer of a controversial biofuels transfer station proposed for a vacant railway lot in National City has asked the City Council to weigh in on the proposal after the city’s Planning Commission rejected it two weeks ago amid vocal opposition from community members and environmentalists. 

Texas-based USD Clean Fuels appealed the commission’s vote the day after commissioners shot down the project, which would bring up to 72 big rig tanker trucks per day to an industrial and residential neighborhood west of City Hall. 

The trucks would transfer ethanol, biodiesel and other naturally derived fuels from rail cars to local service stations. 

Neighboring residents and environmentalists said they opposed the project because it would generate too much pollution in an area already burdened by high rates of asthma and other chronic conditions. 

Speaking at the Sept. 15 planning commission meeting, USD Clean Fuels Chief Administrative Officer Bill Frerking rejected that characterization. Frerking said his company’s proposal actually would benefit the environment because it would reduce overall truck traffic and boost the supply of sustainable fuels. 

“Cleaner air is associated with cleaner fuels,” he said. 

Councilmembers, who are scheduled to debate the project on Oct. 7, appear divided. Some have pledged solidarity with local residents. Others sound skeptical of environmentalists’ claims. 

Amy Castañeda, policy co-director of the Environmental Health Coalition, said her National City-based organization has been marshalling opposition from neighbors and regional environmental advocates. 

Castañeda said she expects a big turnout at the Oct. 7 Council meeting. 

“It’s clear that this is a company that thinks they can come and impose what they think will be best for National City,” she said. “Clearly, they don’t have any idea of the community they would be coming into.” 

In Other News 

• I wrote earlier this week about an effort by Sweetwater Authority, the drinking water agency serving National City and communities in and around Chula Vista, to wean itself off expensive imported water by pumping more local groundwater. You can read about it here. 
• Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed a bill authored by state Assemblymember David Alvarez that expands ethanol options in California gasoline, an effort to lower prices. 
• Chula Vista officials appointed Roy Sapa’u, former deputy city manager of Encinitas, to be the city’s new Director of Development in charge of city planning operations. 
• In other Chula Vista news, the city will hold a series of workshops beginning Oct. 6 to solicit community input on a strategic plan for city homeless services (more information here). The city also secured $8.6 million in state funds to convert the former Palomar Motel into permanent supportive housing for homeless residents. 
• Southwestern College officials on Thursday celebrated the opening of a new $106 million Instructional and Discovery Complex. The 114,000-square-foot complex features new classrooms, a planetarium for astronomy instruction and a center where students can earn select bachelor’s degrees in partnership with local four-year universities. 

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