Candidate for
Councilmember; City of Santa Barbara

I believe that right now Fiscal Responsibility is our city's number one priority. Without budget reform our city is in trouble. We can no longer rely on one time fixes and we must set priorities. I would like to see the public involved in this process. My top priorities are public safety - police and fire protection and maintenance of our infrastructure - our roads, water supply system and sewage system. Without these we cannot have a safe and healthy city.

Our current budget process is not sustainable. We must be able to adjust to the ups and downs of the economy We must address salaries and benefits and get away from the philosophy that these always must go up.

Living Within Our Resources is key. Sound Land Use Planning Decisions follow from knowing what our resources are. Land use plans should only be made with the knowledge of what our resource constraints. Water supply is probably the most important of our limited resources. California is in a drought, state water is unreliable and the desalinization plant is too speculative to rely on. In addition it requires too much energy to run and the resulting water will be very costly for the rate payers.

I believe that we must change the direction of Plan Santa Barbara. This Plan which is our General Plan Update will be the blueprint for our future. The proposed policies will lead to over-development, high density and congestion. The proposed Plan will negatively effect our city and its neighborhoods without ever producing the type of housing our community needs. The policies will destroy our city as we know it today.

I support Measure B the Height Limit Initiative. This measure will lower building heights. The 40 foot limit in El Pueblo Viejo will protect our historic district. The 45 foot limit in the rest of the commercial area will our commercial district into conformity with Upeer state street and the Coastal Zone. Lower heights will protect our views and the character of our city. Buildings with lower heights are more sustainable because they require less materials to build and are less expensive to heat and cool. They will allow more incentives to add solar panels to neighboring structures. They will not prevent affordable housing. The Housing Authority projects are 2 and 3 story buildings because these are cheaper to build because they for not have to have the costly building requirements necessary for a 4 story building. All of the these projects fit well within the proposed height limits.