A political aide, film producer and former chef all say they have what it takes to serve on the Santa Barbara City Council.
Ian Baucke, Cevin Cathell and James Zurlinden are battling for the open District 5 seat currently held by Eric Friedman, who is termed out and running for Santa Barbara mayor.
In a debate Wednesday night, the candidates laid out their positions on three of the biggest issues facing the city: drained financial reserves, a controversial rent stabilization ordinance and how to pay for a $100 million State Street makeover.
The debate was put on by Josh Molina, editor of the Santa Barbara News-Press and host of the Santa Barbara Talks podcast, and Jerry Roberts, editor of Santa Barbara Newsmakers. It was produced by TV Santa Barbara and air publicly next week.
“The Santa Barbara I grew up in is in many ways unrecognizable and continues to slip away mostly for working families,” said Baucke, a staffer for state senator Monique Limón. “We need to do everything we can to invest in affordable housing, environmental justice and climate resilience, safer streets and safer roads, and make it easier for folks to open and keep open small businesses.”
District 5 represents San Roque, Samarkand, Upper State and surrounding neighborhoods.
In addition to taking questions from the moderators, the candidates asked questions of each other.
Baucke, who’s won the endorsement of the Santa Barbara Tenants Union, was the only candidate in support of rent stabilization.
“I am supportive of a local rent stabilization program conceptually,” Baucke said. “We need a fair rent stabilization program that’s not going to overburden staff and petitions, but also is a fair, easy process for both tenants and property owners to show up with their petitions for a fair right of return or lease issues that they might have.”
Baucke said he supports looking at the implementation of the ordinance periodically.
The film producer Cathell said she does not support the ordinance, and that rent-controlled apartments do not encourage the building of more housing.
“As far as this ordinance goes, I think that it is shoved down a lot of people’s throats,” Cathell said.
The former chef Zurlinden, who also opposes the ordinance, said he wants to see a mandatory five-year review process of the ordinance, streamlined permitting, and easier processes for developers to create new housing.
Baucke asked candidates about their stances on vacation rentals and the city’s current vacation rental draft ordinance.
Cathell said vacation rentals are “very controversial,” but did not provide specifics.
Zurlinden said he supports a vacation rental ordinance that targets corporations, but not local property owners.
“If [the ordinance] is going to be going after the large corporations, let’s protect our community by enforcing that,” ” Zurlinden said. “But if it’s going after our local people, I would not support that.”
Baucke said the ordinance under consideration is generally heading in the right direction, and that he largely agrees with Zurlinden.
“We basically allow out-of-town corporate investors to open a hotel even though it’s not compliant with the zoning for hotels,” Baucke said.
When asked how they would pay for infrastructure improvements in the $100 million State Street Master Plan, the candidates said Measure C should be used to fund the half of the project earmarked for stormwater infrastructure, but only after it’s used to build fire stations.
“I think [the master plan] is so controversial and we still have so many unanswered questions, and number one is how we’re going to pay for it,” Cathell said.
Zurlinden said funding could come from grants, philanthropy and developer fees for large projects. He said he supports a municipal bond as a last resort.
Baucke outlined several possible funding sources as well.
“It is an open question of how we’re going to find every single one of those dollars,” Baucke said. “It is something that we can achieve.”
To fund the plan, he said there are several state, regional and federal grants, as well as Measure C, but said he “doesn’t want to see State Street compete” with fire stations.
On the issue of e-bikes on State, Cathell said she supports putting bike lanes on Chapala and Anacapa and allowing “non-motorized bicycles” on State.
“We can possibly start dinging people and letting those kids and making sure that if they get caught and make an effort to catch them, that they will not get their driver’s license as soon as they want it,” Cathell said.
Baucke said he supports physical structures that deter fast bike riding.
Zurlinden said he supports more police on State to deter reckless e-bike behavior.
Asked about restoring the city’s depleted financial reserves, Cathell said she supports using artificial intelligence to augment unfilled positions.
“People are retiring,” Zurlinden said. “They’re having talks about freezing some of those positions and looking at how we can reassess some of the services that we’re going to be doing.”.
If people are retiring, he said, the city should consider reassigning workloads and using technology such as AI for services.
Baucke blamed President Trump for cutting funding for programs in the city, including the dredging of the harbor.
He said to make expenses go up slower and revenues go up faster, the city needs to legalize housing necessary to make businesses within walking distance from customers. Additionally, he said the city needs to stop relying on out-of-town consultants.
Moderator Roberts asked Baucke whether he would maintain his job with Limón if elected to the City Council, noting that he would be earning nearly $200,000 in public funds if he were on the City Council and working for the state.
“First I’d have to win the election, and then I’m going to have to have a conversation about time,” Baucke said. “I’ve also, as a candidate, been thinking about, ‘Maybe it’d be nice to follow in councilmember (Eric) Friedman’s footsteps theoretically down the line, and work in something not political…maybe bartending,’ is something I’ve been interested in.”
Friedman works at Trader Joe’s.
When asked on a scale of one to ten on how likely he is he’d keep his job in Limón’s office, Baucke responded with “five.”
Moderator Molina asked Zurlinden about his lack of fundraising, who said going “door-to-door is more important than advertising.” He said he’s raised roughly $1,500 for his campaign, although he reported only a $500 loan to himself in campaign contributions as of end of day Thursday.
Cathell, whose website reads, “I am not running to build a political campaign,” was asked what her ambitions on the council were if she hasn’t had experience serving on city commissions.
“If I was building a political career, I would have gotten on those commissions,” she said. “I would have foreseen that I needed to do this.”
