Recall Ortiz effort in El Cajon fails to qualify for ballot

An effort to recall El Cajon City Council Phil Ortiz (seated, left) is not moving forward. 

By Karen Pearlman

Oct. 6, 2025 (El Cajon) – A grass-roots effort begun in 2024 to recall El Cajon City Councilmember Phil Ortiz has fizzled after organizers failed to turn in signatures as required by last Friday to qualify a recall for the ballot.

 El Cajon City Clerk Angela Cortez said leadership of the group seeking to remove Ortiz from office told her on Friday, Oct. 3, that it was not moving forward on the recall, although as of 2 p.m. Monday, Oct. 6, the Recall Phil Ortiz website was still online.

The group behind the recall attempt, Latinos en Accion, did not turn in the required paperwork, Cortez told East County Magazine.

Cortez said she had no further information regarding the reasons behind the end of the recall attempt, but it is likely that those seeking to get the nearly 2,500 signatures needed from Ortiz’s District 4 constituents were unsuccessful in their effort. The deadline to collect and turn in signatures to the city of El Cajon was Friday, Oct. 3

In May of this year, an initial round of 90 signatures for the intent to circulate a recall petition was validated by the city. The organizing body, Latinos en Accion, was also required to publish their intent in a local newspaper and then had 120 days to gather signatures from 20 percent of the 11,320 registered voters in District 4 in order to put the recall measure on the ballot.

One organizer previously told East County Magazine that some people indicated they were afraid to sign the recall petition for fear of retaliation.

“The result is not surprising at all,” Ortiz told ECM on Monday. “I was elected to serve my community and the residents have seen me doing this for the past seven years. I’ve delivered results for my district for years and that’s why it failed. The residents of El Cajon, including our wonderful immigrant community, didn’t accept these small groups that hold extremist views and they firmly rejected the idea of a recall. The residents of El Cajon understand that people need to be held accountable for committing crimes against El Cajon residents and families, no matter what their immigration status is.”

Emails and messages to Latinos en Accion were not immediately answered. One of the recall’s original organizers, Sergio Conti, said in a phone call that he wished to refer comment to Latinos en Accion.

The recall effort was sparked by Ortiz’s vote in February in favor of a resolution that authorized the city’s police to cooperate with federal immigration officials in handing over undocumented immigrants who have been convicted or accused of a serious  crime. The resolution passed by a 3-2 vote, sparking multiple protests and Council meetings packed with public speakers on both sides of the contentious issue.

Upon launching the recall effort, the recall Ortiz site stated, “It’s clear that Phil Ortiz does not care about the immigrant community that resides in his district—and it’s time that we show up and protect our community from those who seek to push an anti-immigrant agenda.”  

Ortiz represents District 4, a district with a majority of Latino voters as well as myriad other immigrant populations.

The immigration-centered measure, introduced by Mayor Bill Wells, was backed by Councilmember Phil Ortiz and amendments by Councilmember Steve Goble.

Earlier this year, the El Cajon City Council had rejected a similar proposal 3-2, but reversed the action with Goble’s vote.  Mayor Bill Wells also backed the measure, which was opposed by Councilmembers Gary Kendrick and Michelle Metschel.

At that Feb. 11 meeting, when Goble looked into the resolution further, explained that El Cajon is not a “sanctuary city,” that he believed that the city should not hinder federal immigration authorities, and voiced support for deporting violent criminals.

Goble shared that he and Wells had a meeting last December with Tom Homan, President Donald Trump’s “White Hose Border Czar,” about the issue.

California’s SB 54 law prohibits local law enforcement officers from participating in immigration sweeps and allows officers to only turn over undocumented immigrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if they have been convicted of certain serious felony crimes and if there is a judicial warrant.  

But the Trump administration has been targeting immigrants, some of whom have not been convicted of crimes, and some have been detained merely for immigration violations.

Both the federal and state government have threatened legal actions against cities that comply or defy SB 54. Ultimately, Goble said he wants to see SB 54 amended to allow more cooperation between police and ICE.

El Cajon’s revised resolution included several amendments, including one proposed by Goble asking the U.S. Attorney General to indemnify  El Cajon and defend its police officers against state challenges over immigration actions.  The Attorney General has not agreed to indemnification.

At the meeting in February, Ortiz said, “I want violent criminals removed and I have big problems with SB 54.”

He also noted that many crimes are not included on the list of those for which immigrants can be handed over to ICE, ranging from shoplifting and theft to disorderly conduct, forgery, fraud, drug offenses and arson.

Ortiz called out generalizations on both sides as being “crazy,” denouncing any notion that “every immigrant is a criminal.”

He said accusations that “I hate Mexicans… is not true.”

Ortiz’s dad's father, who was born in the United States but moved with his family to Mexico during the Great Depression when he was 6, was in the U.S. Army's Air Corps.

Ortiz was appointed to the City Council in May 2019, taking the seat of Ben Kalasho, who resigned earlier that year. Ortiz had been a member of the city’s Planning Commission before beating out 17 others vying for the vacant City Council seat.

He ran in 2020 and won the 45.6 percent of the District 4 vote with 3,081 ballots cast for him, besting Estela de los Rios (1,611) and two others. He was re-elected, unopposed, in 2024, garnering 3,220 votes.

Ortiz, a small business owner, graduated from Santana High and has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice administration from San Diego State University.