‘Anything we can do to help,’ Mayor Ron Morrison says to business people. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

Sitting in a well-worn booth at La Hacienda, about as authentic a neighborhood restaurant as you will find, National City Mayor Ron Morrison pauses before taking a bite of barbecue beef to ponder a question: How is his city of 54,000 doing economically? “We are doing very well,” he says, and then adds a caveat: It is thanks to a 1 cent sales tax increase. Before the boost to 8.75 percent was passed, the city was laying off employees and preparing for more cuts. The reprieve is temporary.

“While we are doing well, we have to recognize that tax has only a 10-year life,” says Morrison, 57. “That puts a lot of responsibility on us to bring up the economy of the city, so when the tax goes away we are at least as economically viable as we are today.”

To prepare, National City is plunging ahead with an aggressive program of infrastructure improvements. Redevelopment is remaking its downtown and encouraging dense mid-rise housing. Major streets are getting impressive medians ($4 million), the city pool was overhauled and now includes a 140-foot twisting water slide for children, a new library ($19 million) opened and the South County Regional Educational Center ($24 million) is bringing students into an area few would have ventured a decade ago. Public safety is benefiting too through a sophisticated remote camera system for the police station and a new headquarters station ($9 million) for firefighters.

Elsewhere, the baseball field has a new snack bar and bathrooms while the city’s first marina is nearly finished and plans are in the works for an aquatic park. On the west side, a waterfront hotel breaks ground in October, prime restaurant sites are being marketed and the city is angling for a sports arena on tidelands property it does not own or control.

The business community has taken notice of the activity.

“We have only been here five years, but in that time we have seen a significant improvement of the public’s perception of National City,” says Bob McGill, the chairman of Neighborhood National Bank. “This has been fed by infrastructure improvements, a general clean-up of previously neglected areas and new development projects with a size and visibility that have had a positive impact. And, of course, the relocation of the bank’s administrative headquarters to Sweetwater Road.”

McGill also sees a city leadership that is in tune with the community.

NNB Chairman Bob McGill lends locally. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

“I sense a very hands-on and progressive approach that will continue to bring about positive changes without forgetting about the current residents and the community’s roots,” he says.

John Pasha, general manager of the Pasha vehicle terminal, also is encouraged by the cooperative mood in National City.

“In my capacity as executive board member for the National City Chamber of Commerce, I have the opportunity to work with the city to promote economic development, business attraction and revenue generation,” says Pasha. “Programs like the Enterprise Zone expansion, creation of business districts and subsidized façade improvements need to be marketed to grow existing and attract more new business. We are making great headway there in improving collaboration and sharing ideas and resources between the city and chamber. The pace is never fast enough, but this is a city on the move. Hopefully the real estate market will regain momentum quickly so that development will not stagnate.”

Stagnation is what Morrison says the city has been experiencing. “The last 20 years we have not brought in a net gain of new business,” he says. “Either you bring in more business or raise taxes. We would much rather bring in business.”

On the retail front, the mayor is eager for Plaza Bonita to finish its $130 million expansion. He is working with Costco to occupy a site adjacent to the mall and is confident a deal can be struck for a new Home Depot on the west side of town. “(Those businesses) bring a lot of people into the area,” the mayor says. “You get a lot of spill over. We want to capitalize on that. The problem is by the time we start planning to the time the city starts receiving the (tax) money, it is a good five to seven years. So that is why we need to start working on it now.”

City Manager Chris Zapata, whose duties include preparing the city’s $36 million general fund budget, agrees the city must be creative in seeking new revenue.

“While sales tax is a great horse to ride, it is not the only horse to ride,” says Zapata. “No hotel revenue from our bayfront, no utility tax and a property tax base that is not growing much. Frankly, we need to work on diversifying. We are too dependent on automobiles and lumber.”

Morrison also sees transportation as a key to National City’s future. He is working on a free rubber-wheeled trolley that would, in a loop, take visitors among key destinations and businesses in the city’s downtown area, connecting with the city’s existing San Diego Trolley stops.

The Mayoral Transition

Morrison replaces as mayor the charismatic Nick Inzunza, whose brash and rapidly advancing political career was cut short by charges he failed to properly maintain rental housing he owned. The transition has gone well, says Morrison, who served on the council while Inzunza was mayor.

“People have recognized that we have done as many things as we can to make government transparent and open, to make sure all processes are in the open,” he says. “It is not only ‘if it is legal or not,’ it is ‘how transparent is it’ and is there an assurance of fairness in everything that we do.”

As to his own real estate investments, Morrison says, “The only thing I own in National City is my home.”

City Manager Zapata, who was hired by an Inzunza-led council, compared the mayors’ styles.

“Nick came in with a lot of big ideas that came into fruition,” Zapata says. “(Mayor Morrison) has involved the council, and has involved the community. It is more of a consensus approach rather than 10 goals. I think the idea that the council needs to be engaged is a good one. Nick was a locomotive pulling people, Ron is more of a conductor.”

From Contractor To Mayor

Morrison joined the City Council in 1992, eventually closing down his general contracting business to concentrate on politics. While handsome in a suit, he still looks like he would be comfortable on a construction site. Indeed his first job out of high school, in 1968, was at American Mill, a lumber mill on the site where the San Diego Convention Center now stands. He later attended Southwestern College, followed by “college of the Army.” He and his wife have three children, a grown son who lives with his family in North County and two daughters, one in college and the other starting at UCSD next month.

As mayor, Morrison says his goal is to recapture the city forefathers’ vision that brought National City the first automobile park in the United States and one of the first, if not the first, enclosed shopping malls. “We were very innovative and then we stopped,” he says. “We not only have to do 10 years of work, but we have to make up for the last 20.”