Chula Vista's city council voted 4-1 to strip a proposed 69% council salary increase and extended term limits from a sweeping charter overhaul, sending the remaining pieces to the Charter Review Commission instead of the November ballot. The decision on July 21 came after two consecutive council meetings packed with residents furious over a plan that would have raised part-time council pay from roughly $64,600 to $110,127 a year while also letting sitting members serve up to four consecutive terms.
The 13-point package originated with LIUNA Local 89, the laborers' union, which submitted the proposal to the city after researching charter amendments and best practices from other California charter cities for months, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Deputy Mayor Cesar Fernandez moved to formally agendize the proposal on June 16, and told the paper that LIUNA first contacted him back in March. City spokesperson John Cihomsky said elected officials themselves did not receive the proposal until that same June 16 date.
Beyond compensation, the charter package proposed letting council members keep their full-time outside jobs, creating a new Salary Setting Commission to govern future elected-official pay, and giving a City Ethics Commission subpoena power alongside new lobbying disclosure rules, per the Union-Tribune's reporting. It also sought binding arbitration for police and fire unions, which would hand a neutral third-party arbitrator the final say over labor contracts once negotiations hit an impasse.
Labor Leaders Wanted Arbitration Rules Widened
At the July 14 council meeting, regional labor leaders Brigette Browning of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council and Crystal Irving of SEIU Local 221 pushed the council to expand binding arbitration to cover all municipal workers, not just public safety unions, according to Voice of San Diego. Chula Vista Police Officers Association President David Martinez said LIUNA had approached police and fire unions for support of the binding arbitration language, which was drafted by the unions' shared attorney.
The term-limit piece drew its own scrutiny. Chula Vista voters first imposed local term limits in a 1990 ballot initiative, capping mayors and council members at two consecutive four-year terms and requiring a one-year break after eight consecutive years before running again. The union-drafted language would have expanded that to three terms and included a reset clause exempting any term begun before July 1 — effectively allowing current incumbents to serve up to four consecutive terms, or 16 years total, by revising Article III Section 300 of the city charter.
Former Mayor Calls Raise Proposal 'Tone Deaf'
Former Chula Vista Mayor Mary Salas, who led the city from 2014 to 2022, wrote a letter to the council blasting the salary increases as an “outrageous proposal” that was “at best tone deaf or at worst arrogance” while residents struggled financially, according to KPBS. City Attorney Marco Verdugo said he could not offer legal counsel on the measure because the salary increases would have directly affected him, and arranged outside counsel to handle proposal-related salary issues instead.
The pay fight became entangled with the ongoing mayoral race. In the June 2 primary, incumbent Mayor John McCann led with 56.1% of the vote while union-backed challenger Francisco Tamayo took 39.5%, advancing both to a November runoff, per San Diego County Registrar of Voters results. A LIUNA-sponsored San Diego labor coalition began spending on Tamayo's behalf around April 30 and ultimately put $158,811 toward supporting him, along with $48,131 for Carolina Chavez and $28,142 for Jose Preciado.
McCann Alleges Quid Pro Quo, Barrios Denies It
McCann alleged that LIUNA offered not to support Tamayo if McCann in turn backed the charter package, and said he notified appropriate law enforcement agencies about his concerns and threats, per written responses cited by the Union-Tribune. McCann also said he met privately with LIUNA policy director Kelvin Barrios on June 12. Barrios rejected the quid-pro-quo allegation as false and politically motivated, and separately said the broader charter proposal was intended to modernize Chula Vista's governance and improve transparency, accountability and local oversight.
Councilmember Jose Preciado said he was legally barred from coordinating with LIUNA while the union's independent spending campaign was underway. Councilmember Michael Inzunza maintained that the city council itself never supported placing the ballot measure before voters in the first place.
Council Votes to Gut the Measure
McCann first tried to strip the pay raise from the measure at the July 14 meeting, but his motion failed to receive a second. Speaking after the July 21 vote, McCann said the council reversed course only after public pressure grew. That day, the council voted 4-1 to remove the charter package from the November ballot and send its remaining, non-salary elements to the Charter Review Commission, and separately voted 4-1 to bar that commission from ever considering the proposed council pay raises or full-time council status again.
Deputy Mayor Fernandez cast the lone dissenting vote against forwarding the remaining items to the Charter Review Commission, while Councilmember Inzunza cast the only vote against permanently excluding pay raises from future commission review, according to KPBS. The commission now has no guaranteed timeline for returning recommendations, and City Spokesperson Cihomsky noted that binding arbitration for public safety unions could still be negotiated through labor contracts without any charter change at all.
What Comes Next
LIUNA Local 89 Director of Government Affairs Kelvin Barrios acknowledged the measure would miss the August 7 deadline for the November 2026 ballot, but said the union still intends to work through the Charter Review Commission to pursue charter updates in future election cycles, according to Voice of San Diego's reporting. Per that same account, the measure could resurface before Chula Vista voters in 2028 or later.
The episode echoes a similar fight playing out to the north, where Oceanside voters face a charter wage fight of their own this fall. With roughly 275,000 residents, Chula Vista is San Diego County's second-largest city, and its council-manager government means the outcome of these charter fights will shape how the South Bay city is run for years to come.
