The five candidates for 3rd District supervisor of Santa Barbara County met Wednesday night in a small room with about 25 local residents at the United Church of Christ in Vandenberg Village to discuss concerns specific to the unincorporated community.
All five candidates agreed that Vandenberg Village needs a community plan to reinforce its general plan to avoid constant threats, from county Board of Supervisors’ decisions, to its identity and way of life.
And on the whole, the candidates disagreed on very little.
Although the questions ranged from parking and code enforcement to public involvement in local government, the answers invariably went back to creating a community plan.
The five candidates are vying in the June 3 election for the seat now held by Supervisor Brooks Firestone. They include attorney David Smyser, a former county planning commissioner and Solvang mayor; businessman Steve Pappas of Los Olivos; Buellton City Councilwoman and three-time Buellton mayor Victoria Pointer; former county Planning Commissioner Doreen Farr of Solvang; and political activist Dr. David Bearman of Goleta.
In the candidates’ opening comments, Bearman remarked to the small crowd that if they wanted to vote for another Brooks Firestone, they should cast their ballots for Smyser, but if they wanted something different, a change, then they should acquaint themselves with the other candidates.
Smyser agreed, saying he would like to continue the “bridge-building” that Firestone began.
The 3rd District stretches west from the Santa Ynez Valley to Vandenberg Air Force Base and south to include western Goleta, UCSB and Isla Vista. It traditionally has provided a swing vote on the five-member Board of Supervisors on issues that pit North County and South Coast interests against each other.
Most candidates came with their talking points and remained true to them.
Pointer was adamant about the need to find creative ways to solve the county’s problems including the budget deficit, law enforcement, workforce housing, public participation and library funding. She raised the idea of motorcycle traffic officers to enforce parking regulations as opposed to relying on a complaint-based system.
Bearman’s main points included decreasing recidivism rates to ease jail overcrowding, finding the funds to support the county’s mental and public health departments and decrease costs, but increase productivity. Bearman said he decided to run because of his unhappiness with the 3rd District’s current representation.
Farr and Smyser both pulled from their history in local government to show how they would use that experience to make changes.
Farr said she would attend community meetings, hold localized public hearings and town hall meetings and explore the idea of a community newsletter to increase public awareness of county government plans and agendas. Her priorities would be adequately supporting mandated services such as social services, public defenders and public works in order to increase public safety.
Smyser drew many of his ideas from his time as mayor of Solvang in 2004. He spoke of increasing tourism and public-private partnerships as a way to increase county revenue in creative ways. He also said the way to create workforce housing is to create housing for active seniors and “free up the houses they were living in.”
Pappas, a self-described “pragmatic problem solver,” said he would clean house in county government, by going through its $1 billion budget and cutting out expensive inefficiencies and putting the resources where they are most needed. He said he would start with the county CEO and his office, which he said was “fat and thick with expenditures,” then work his way to supervisors’ salaries.
Pappas said after the forum that because he is supported by people in the Santa Ynez Valley, including some influential people, and not political officials, he is the candidate who will not be swayed to abandon his constituents.
The two-hour forum, sponsored by the Vandenberg Village Association and the Lompoc Vandenberg branch of the American Association of University Women, was held at the Valley of the Flowers United Church of Christ.
The groups said they wanted to host a candidate forum before absentee ballots were sent out May 5.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
The five candidates for 3rd District supervisor in Santa Barbara County each have a Web site for people interested in finding out more about them:
n
www.davidbearman4supervisor.comn
doreenfarrforsupervisor.comn
www.stevepappas.orgn
www.victoriapointer.comn
www.smyserforsupervisor.comSam Womack can be reached at 739-2218 or
womack@santamariatimes.com.
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