Final push underway in race for Fifth District Santa Barbara County Supervisor
The action’s in the North County as the future makeup of The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors swings on Tuesday’s Fifth District primary.
The contest entered its final weekend with its three candidates making a door-to-door campaign push across the northern half of Santa Maria, through Guadalupe and into nearby precincts.
Independent Cory Bantilan, a top aide to outgoing Supervisor Steve Lavagnino, said he’d be watching Election Night results with supporters at a Santa Maria restaurant.
Ricardo Valencia, high school teacher and Santa Maria-Bonita School Board member, planned to attend at a gathering in the city attended by supporters including Democratic Party backers.
And independent Maribel Aguilera, Santa Maria City Council Member, said she’d be somewhere familiar—the regular Tuesday council meeting.
The wide-open race is down to the wire.
“We’ve been working hard for six months,” Aguilera said.
If none wins a majority of votes, the top two finishers will advance to a November Election Night runoff.
On the South Coast, incumbent Laura Capps faces graduating college student Elijah Mack in the race for Second District supervisor.
Ballot buzz: GOP ahead as Dems sound countywide turnout alarms
Voters of all stripes by midweek had returned a lackluster 12 percent of the more than 250,000 ballots mailed to them across Santa Barbara County.
Republicans led with 20 percent of their ballots in, followed by Democrats with 11 percent and independents with 8 percent of their share returned, according to the latest county-provided data captured Wednesday by Political Data Intelligence, or PDI, which operates statewide trackers used by campaigns to strategize voter outreach.
To Christian Alonso, president of the Santa Barbara Young Democrats, those numbers were cause for alarm. On Thursday, he emailed a data-focused “Nerd Alert” imploring area Dems to out-vote the GOP: “They are showing up. We need to do the same.”
On Friday, Alonso watched for a numbers update and wondered whether a lack of focused enthusiasm in the race for California governor could trickle down to affect local contests, especially the race for Fifth District supervisor: “Make a decision. Hold your nose. But also vote down ballot.”
Roy Reed leaves Planning Commission, successor expected in June
Colleagues and government staff members bid farewell to Santa Barbara County Planning Commission Chair Roy Reed, who left the influential land use panel this week after two-and-a-half years representing the Fourth District.
Reed, a multigenerational resident of Santa Maria Valley, is relocating from the area to help raise his grandchildren.
Reed on his last day expressed a full-throated endorsement of the Planning & Development Department as county officials presented him with a resolution honoring his service.
“I really appreciate every member of county staff I encounter, but in particular the people in planning and development, who I think as a group are often the most unjustly criticized,” Reed said.
“One of my main objectives was to establish more transparency, so that the general public in the county could understand how these things work,” he said. “Hopefully we’ve done a bit of that… They should be very thankful they have such a professional and competent staff in planning and development.”
Board of Supervisors Chair Bob Nelson, who represents the Fourth District, told the News-Press he was close to naming a successor expected to go to the Board of Supervisors for approval next month.
Reed’s departure came the same day Steven Amerikaner joined the commission. A retired attorney, Amerikaner recently was appointed by First District Supervisor Roy Lee to replace attorney Michael Cooney.
Amended and approved: Gregg Hart jail bill passes State Assembly
A bill that originally would have given counties the option to strip sheriffs of their jail oversight authority passed the California State Assembly on Thursday—with a big change.
Instead of enabling each county to create an independent, civilian-run corrections department, the amended AB 2257 allows sheriffs to nominate a jail administrator who must subsequently be confirmed by elected officials.
Asked about the change, Ethan Bertrand, Hart’s district director, said it was a good faith effort to address a concern Hart heard—that in some counties creating a new department could prove too difficult. The amendment also took into consideration opposition from the California State Sheriff’s Association, Bertrand said.
In the new version, which passed 41-25 with 14 members abstaining, the appointed jail administrator would serve a three-year term under a sheriff’s direction.
This new approach, Bertrand said, still affords county supervisors the ability to consider a nominee’s public budgeting experience as well as their approaches to inmate health, mental health, rehabilitation and civil rights.
