If you can take the heat in a restaurant kitchen, James Zurlinden believes you may be ready for City Hall.
After working 15 years as a chef, Zurlinden learned how to stretch a budget, bring together people from differing backgrounds and keep working when the pressure was on. Now, he finds himself drawing on those lessons in his campaign for Santa Barbara’s open District 5 City Council seat.
The first-time candidate is running on fiscal responsibility, government transparency and a platform that includes redeveloping La Cumbre Plaza, opposing automated license plate readers and streamlining the city’s permitting process.
“If I really believe in this, then I’ve got to put myself there,” Zurlinden said of his decision to run.
Zurlinden grew up in a working class family in Arizona. His father was a union carpenter, and his mother drove school buses. He went on to study culinary arts at Johnson & Wales University in Denver before earning a bachelor’s degree in hotel and restaurant management from Northern Arizona University.
His culinary career took him through restaurants and resorts in Colorado, Arizona and Santa Barbara, including the Four Seasons Resort The Biltmore, Sage and Onion and Convivo, which he helped open.
Kitchens also taught him how to work alongside people with vastly different backgrounds, he said.
“You take all these amazing people, and you end up working toward a specific goal,” Zurlinden said. “You become a big family, and you rely on everybody so much that you end up finding ways to work with everybody to make sure that those goals get met.”
Santa Barbara’s cost of living has shaped his life as much as his work in the service industry. Zurlinden first lived in the city in the early 2000s but moved back to Arizona after a little more than a year because he could no longer afford to stay. He returned in 2013 and lived with roommates until about six months ago.
“Culinary is not a high-paying career,” he said. “You do it because you love it.”
The long hours eventually pushed him to leave the industry. After taking six months off and speaking with financial planners in the area, Zurlinden began pursuing a new career in finance. He works as a media buyer and accountant for a local advertising firm, where he said he helps manage multi-million-dollar client budgets. He is also studying to become a Certified Financial Planner.
Zurlinden said his interest in public office developed gradually as he followed debates over State Street, rent stabilization and the redevelopment of La Cumbre Plaza. He began attending council meetings and speaking on some of those issues.
He considered joining a city board or commission, he said, but meetings held during work hours conflicted with his job.
That experience informs one of his central campaign themes: making city government more accessible to working residents. If elected, Zurlinden wants the city to create dedicated webpages for major projects, with plans, spending and progress updates posted at least quarterly. He also supports a single point of contact at City Hall for applicants dealing with building, fire and occupancy approvals.
Zurlinden has positioned himself as a fiscal watchdog, pointing to the city’s forecast that reserves could be depleted by fiscal year 2029 if structural deficits continue. He wants Santa Barbara to rebuild its emergency reserves, pursue cooperative purchasing agreements and increase sales tax revenue by revitalizing commercial areas.
Zurlinden said he has not yet identified any specific city expenditure he would cut.
“At this current time, no,” he said. “I don’t want to lose any of our current services. I want to see where there’s better efficiency.”
On State Street, Zurlinden supports retaining a three-block pedestrian promenade from De La Guerra to Haley streets. He wants the promenade to be free of bicycles and e-bikes but remain accessible to a downtown shuttle. On the blocks above the proposed promenade, he favors restoring one-way vehicle traffic alongside a separated bicycle lane.
Before the city council voted to discontinue its Flock safety contract and postpone a decision on a replacement system, Zurlinden said removing the cameras would be one of the first issues he’d place on the city council agenda.
“We’re not a country that’s supposed to be constantly monitoring our citizens,” he said. “We don’t need Big Brother always staring at us.”
He said he currently opposes police use of all license plate readers. However, he may support city-owned readers used at parking lot entrances because access to that data is more restricted. Zurlinden said he also requested to meet with Police Chief Kelly Gordon to participate in a ride-along to learn more about the department’s use of the technology.
His homelessness platform proposes a sort of merging of transitional housing with support services and part-time work in maintenance, cleaning or parking operations. Zurlinden said that a pilot could potentially cost several hundred thousand dollars, although he has not yet completed a detailed budget, nor has he secured partner commitments.
If elected, Zurlinden said he wants residents to judge him on whether city finances and major projects are easier to understand, reserves are being replenished and permitting is simpler to navigate.
“People see all the tax dollars that are being spent in the city, but sometimes they don’t see the results,” he said. “The city needs to show the people.”
