Candidates for open District 6 Santa Barbara City Council seat talk rent, finances in battle for downtown votes

The campaign to replace Meagan Harmon on the Santa Barbara City Council is a downtown race with citywide implications.

Four candidates—Gabe Escobedo, Alexander Stoeber, Anabella Lehne and Jason Carlton—all hope to represent District 6, which spans several neighborhoods between Highway 101, State Street and Oak Park.

The candidates went head to head Wednesday during a debate hosted by the Santa Barbara Talks podcast and News-Press editor Josh Molina and Santa Barbara Newsmakers Editor Jerry Roberts. They faced off on rent stabilization, funding for the $100 million plan to transform State Street, and depleted city reserves.

“We all know that we make sacrifices to live here,’ said Escobedo, a Santa Barbara Unified School Board member.

“It is difficult,” said the heavily endorsed frontrunner. “It’s more and more difficult and people are living more and more precarious lives because of the cost of living.”

Lehne, a loan signing agent who sipped from a green glass Madonna Inn goblet, used her one question allowed to press Escobedo about his political future.

In the pointed exchange, she asked whether he’d commit to serving a four-year term on the council before running for another office.

And she explained why.

“When an elected official is thinking about the next office, voters have every right to ask whether decisions are being made for the community or with the next political opportunity in mind,” Lehne said.

Escobedo said he plans to serve the full four years. “And I’m going to do it damn well.”  

Given the opportunity to follow-up, Lehne chose not to.

On rent stabilization, Lehne said the city doesn’t need to limit rent increases. Carlton, an electrician, said the same.

The ordinance would cap annual increases at 60% of the Consumer Price Index or a maximum of 3%, or whichever is lower.

Santa Barbara already has strong tenant protections in place, Lehne said, including a mediation board and free legal assistance.

Stoeber, a real estate agent who says he grew up homeless, said targeted emergency assistance is needed more than rent stabilization. For example, providing people with cash for one month’s rent would go further.

“Right now, there are many people who don’t need rent stabilization as much as they just need a breath of fresh air,” Stoeber said.

Escobedo is the only candidate who supports the city’s ordinance.  

“I hear a lot about ‘yes, we are all for tenant protections,’ but the tenant protections you’re asking for that I hear a lot from the folks sitting beside me are often based on the goodwill of somebody,” Escobedo said. “But protection shouldn’t be based on goodwill.”

On the $100 million State Street Master Plan to revitalize the city’s main thoroughfare, Stoeber said stormwater infrastructure should be prioritized. This would allow housing, he said, to be built downtown.

Carlton, who’s worked in construction, presented himself as an expert on the plan. He said it will end up costing more than projected.

“What about preliminary costs?” Carlton asked. “Being in construction as long as I have, that price usually jumps twenty five to thirty five percent.”

Carlton said he supports filling vacant storefronts with businesses to generate more sales tax to help pay for the master plan.

Escobedo had a different idea.

He said in addition to grants, increment finance districts, a tool used by local governments to help fund economic development in certain areas of the city, can be used to pay for infrastructure.

Lehne offered yet another suggestion.

She said Measure C, a one-cent sales tax approved by voters in 2017 to fund infrastructure, should pay for building in downtown.

When asked who is responsible for the city’s depleted reserves, neithercandidateplayed the blame game.

To fix city finances, Escobedo said the city should offer retirement incentives and assess if certain vacant positions are needed. He said he supports forgiving or suspending license fees for businesses downtown in their first year to support the economy.

Lehne and Stoeber said the city must stop spending reserves moving forward.

“We need to look at our reserves as an actual emergency and not as an ongoing operation,” Lehne said.

Escobedo has served on the city’s Planning Commission and city Community Formation Commission.

On the school board, Escobedo voted to send preliminary layoff notices to 85 teachers last year in a marathon eight-hour meeting.

Molina asked him why the Santa Barbara Teachers Association did not endorse him, and why he has defended district Superintendent Hilda Maldonado and her administration.

Escobedo defended his decisions. He said he gave the public ample time to speak about the teacher contract negotiations, supported students walking out in support of  teachers negotiating higher pay, and fought to increase health benefits.

In response to losing the teachers’ endorsement, Escobedo described himself as a  behind-the-scenes operator. 

“My advocacy looks different than what people want,” he said. “And I’m not going to be the person that lambasts people or targets them in public.”

The debate was recorded at TV Santa Barbara and will be broadcast later this week on its channel, along with Santa Barbara Talks with Josh Molina on YouTube and Santa Barbara Newsmakers on YouTube.

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