They talked about the city budget. They shared their views on electric bikes downtown. They expressed their opinions on surveillance cameras in the city.
But it was the topic of federal immigration raids by ICE that drew out the most emotion in the three mayoral candidates Wednesday night.
“It should be ingrained in our DNA how we are going to protect our community,” said candidate Wendy Sims-Moten. “It’s immigration today. It was Black lives in 2020. We seem to come together in the middle of a crisis. We must always be working on relationships.”
Sims-Moten joined Eric Friedman and Kristen Sneddon for a mayoral candidates forum Wednesday night at the Alhecama Theatre, hosted by the Santa Barbara Independent. About 70 people attended the event, moderated by reporter Ryan P. Cruz.
All of the candidates said ICE doesn’t belong in Santa Barbara.
“We do not cooperate with ICE and if there is any hint of cooperation we need to be held accountable,” said councilmember Kristen Sneddon.
“We don’t want masked agents anonymously coming in, tearing our families apart, kidnapping families for no reason,” said councilman Eric Friedman. “It’s morally wrong and unacceptable.”
The candidates mostly agreed on the issues, with some variance on finance and budget. Sneddon touted her ability to read a budget and suggested that Friedman was responsible for the city’s budget problems. The city last fiscal year burned through all of its budget reserves in its $257 million budget and was spending out of its emergency funds.
“I have over 30 years combined experience,” she said, noting that she was president of the board of Peabody Charter School, Starr King Parent-Child Workshop and Cachuma Operations and Maintenance Board and had “no budget issues.”
“I know how to read a budget,” Sneddon said. “I want to set that to rest right now. I don’t happen to be finance chair.”
Friedman is the chair of the finance committee.
She said three council members representing three separate districts attend finance committee meetings and “come up with the budget for the entire city.”
“That’s not participatory,” Sneddon said.
Friedman said the budget is the city’s most important responsibility.
“Let’s grow our economy,” Friedman said. “Let’s work with our Chamber of Commerce. Let’s work with UCSB.”
He said he wants to get a small group of economic experts together for a couple of meetings and discover the economic opportunities. Friedman said he has taken a course in college on how to read a municipal budget. He also said he wants to go out into the community and learn what the community’s priorities are.
“Let’s grow our economy so we are not just a city that relies on tourism, tech and taxes,” Friedman said.
Sims-Moten, a former member of the Santa Barbara Unified School District Board of Trustees, said the board used to hold budget study sessions to better understand the issues.
“The basic needs must be met,” Sims-Moten said.
Sims-Moten throughout the forum frequently talked about the importance of inclusion and reaching out to all voices. On the issue of E-bikes downtown, Sims-Moten said it was important to include the youth and the Santa Barbara Youth Council.
“We have to start including folks who it impacts the most,” Sims-Moten said. “The moment we start to tell people they can’t do it you can guarantee there is going to be an uproar. We have a Youth Council for a reason.”
She said the school board had a youth school board member who changed the perspective on how the board discussed things.
Sneddon said the E-bike issue can fixed by the State Street design, including widening sidewalks changing the texture on the streets.
“We can have meandering pathways,” she said.
Sneddon also advocated for increased enforcement.
“I believe these bikes that are recklessly ridden should be impounded, no matter the age of the rider,” Sneddon said. “No matter the age of the rider that person should have to go to safety courses on Saturday.”
Friedman said Sneddon offered no ideas on how to pay for any of the changes.
“If you listen to what my colleague just said, she put forward a lot of proposals, especially engineering, that are going to cost a lot of money,” Friedman said. “But you haven’t heard how she is going to pay for it. We are in emergency reserves right now. We need to get out of emergency reserves before we start saying we are going to engineer our way out of the E-bike crisis.”
The panelists also talked about their views on surveillance cameras in the city. They all opposed Flock cameras, which the city removed last month.
“Let’s make sure nothing goes forward without community input, particularly for those who are being burdened by this, who are being frightened by this,” Sims-Moten said. “This is a community safety issue.”
Friedman said “we’re all in agreement,” that Flock cameras don’t belong in Santa Barbara. He said, however, that law enforcement does need some assistance to help stop human trafficking.
“We are one of the hotspots, according to the FBI, in human trafficking, in coastal California because of our proximity and highway coming in from Los Angeles and San Francisco. We are one of the hotspots. We need to make sure that our law enforcement has the tools, but not at the expense of our civil liberties.”
Sneddon said the “smallest bit of AI” in a system poses a “very great risk to our whole community.”
She said the federal government is also targeting people “very specifically” based on their appearances, including gender and “how their gender identity expresses itself.”
She said the collection of data and surveillance poses a very “grave danger,” and that the world is changing quickly.
“We do not have a handle on AI,” Sneddon said. “AI has a handle on us.”
Sneddon and Friedman have served nine years on the City Council. Friedman is a former staff member for Salud Carbajal, when he was First District Santa Barbara County Supervisor. He also now works at Trader Joe’s. Sneddon is a geology teacher at Santa Barbara City College. Sims-Moten is the executive director at First Five Santa Barbara County, and previously served on the school board.
Matt Kilrain is also on the ballot.
Vote-by-mail ballots are sent out Oct. 5 and the election is Nov. 3.
