Olga Diaz at May 19 Council meeting

The Escondido City Council voted three to two at its May 19 meeting not to discuss two items placed on the Council agenda by member Olga Diaz. One was a proposed resolution against the Arizona “show your papers” law (S.B. 1070). The second would rescind a 2007 City resolution about discouraging illegal immigration. When the items came up for discussion, Council member Dick Daniels said that the resolution about the Arizona law conflicted with a policy that prohibits discussion or action on items not related to City of Escondido business. Daniels asked City Attorney Jeff Epp for his opinion. Epp said he interpreted the existing policy, passed in 2007, as preventing any action. Daniels moved that the item not be discussed and be removed from the agenda. Because both the new resolution and the 2007 resolution were bundled into one agenda item, both were affected.

Read an editorial on this topic in The San Diego Union-Tribune (May 29, 2010).

Council member Sam Abed, who made clear he would not support the Arizona resolution, objected to Daniels’ motion, saying it was “unprecedented” that a Council member should be denied the right to bring items up for public discussion. “This is unheard of,” he said.

Daniels replied that the policy “is not a guideline. It is a rule of procedure.” Council member Marie Waldron concurred, saying “I feel we have a policy in place.”

The motion was passed, three to two, with Daniels, Pfeiler and Waldron voting for, and Diaz and Abed voting against. The item regarding the two resolutions was removed from the agenda. Pfeiler declared a 10-minute recess. Following the recess, the Council continued with the remainder of the agenda.

In emotional comments at the end of the meeting, Diaz said she thought “it was important to receive input from our community” on the issues raised by the Arizona law and that she “was hoping to hear constructive input.” She criticized S.B. 1070 for “carelessly eroding the rights of U.S. citizens” and reminded her colleagues that the 2007 Escondido ordinance that attempted to prohibit landlords from renting to illegal immigrants “taught this community an expensive lesson” that only the federal government can implement immigration law. She concluded, “I can understand the frustration with our country’s broken immigration system, but my objections to S.B. 1070 far transcend the immigration enforcement objectives it purports to address. It was my sincere hope that some of my colleagues would have stood with me against this misguided law… If I stand alone, so be it.”

See City of Escondido video of Diaz’s comments HERE. (Scroll down to select “Council Comments.”) Read the full text of Diaz’s comments HERE.

See City of Escondido video of the Council discussion HERE. (Scroll down to select agenda item #18.)

Read coverage from North County Times HERE. Read coverage from The San Diego Union-Tribune HERE.