Connell, Easton Claim Seats on Goleta City Council
Slow-growth majority returns to power as Blois is ousted.
Two years after a business-friendly majority was elected to the Goleta City Council, Margaret Connell and Ed Easton were voted into office Tuesday, signaling a return of the slow-growth majority that had led the city since its inception in 2002.
The race was close, with four candidates for the two seats each taking about a quarter of the 17,480 votes cast. Ultimately, Connell, a former councilwoman and mayor ousted in 2006, was the top vote-getter with 28.27 percent of the total, or 4,942 votes. Easton, a city planning commissioner, was second with 26.72 percent, or 4,671 votes. Businessman Don Gilman received 23.42 percent, or 4,093 votes. Finishing last was Councilwoman Jean Blois, who won 21.45 percent, or 3,750 votes. The reason for the discrepancy in the overall vote totals was not immediately clear.
“It’s been a long race and a tough race,” Connell said at a Tuesday night victory party at Chili’s in the Camino Real Marketplace. “It’s probably the toughest race I’ve ever had.”
It would be tempting for the newly elected council members to take a break, especially after the months of precinct-walking and speech-giving, but Connell and Easton will have to hit the ground running. The 6-year-old city faces a budget downturn expected to last for about three years, a revenue-neutrality agreement with the county that many believe needs renegotiation, a relationship with a growing university that needs to be strengthened, a General Plan that still hasn’t been completely amended, a slant-drilling project Venoco Inc. is proposing just two miles offshore and, more immediately, the heightened risk to life and property caused by potential floods and mudflows from the Gap Fire burn area in the foothills above the city limits.
The plan is not necessarily to take the council in a new direction, Connell said.
“But what we really promoted in our campaign was that what we needed was slow, very carefully managed growth,” she said.
Growth has been a main issue in Goleta from the beginning, when the slow-growth group GoletaNow!, of which Connell was a member, led the city to its successful incorporation in 2002. In 2006, a business- and development-minded majority made up of Bennett, Blois and Onnen led the city, starting with a laundry list of amendments to the city’s General Plan and a streamlining of the planning and permitting process. They also raised the issue of Goleta’s revenue-neutrality agreement with the county, at one point considering an alternative local sales tax measure that could have sunk Measure A, the countywide half-cent sales tax measure that was approved Tuesday to pay for transportation infrastructure.
Easton said he will work toward an open communication with Goleta residents.
“One thing I hope will happen is that we can have a dialogue that the public will see on the council, so that they know how decisions are made,” he said.
The arrival of Connell and Easton will mean the departure of Blois and Councilwoman Jonny Wallis, who did not seek re-election. Connell and Easton thanked both charter councilwomen for their service to the city.
The new City Council will have its first meeting Dec. 2.
Noozhawk staff writer Sonia Fernandez can be reached at .
» wrote on 11/04/08 @ 11:33 PM
The Goodland has taken a hit today. We can say good bye to the positive changes that the Council has made in the last two years. Want to remodel your home? Ed Easton will say no (and not very nicely, I might add!) Think the City should spend money on public safety and recretion? Thank again, all the money will be tied up on lawsuits.
It’s a great day for our nation, but a horrible day for our little city. Obama was the candidate for hope. Margaret and Ed are the candidates of nope.
» wrote on 11/04/08 @ 11:58 PM
I guess two years of the Chamber’s idea of “the good land” was enough to convince voters that was the way to go. Too bad, Bacara, eh? Fun while it lasted.
» wrote on 11/05/08 @ 12:15 AM
This race was over and over early - funny that Noozhawk would only concede that Connell and Easton are ahead....
Connell and Easton will join Roger Aceves to form a fair and balanced majority.
» wrote on 11/05/08 @ 05:50 AM
Unbelievable. Goletans really are this stupid.
» wrote on 11/05/08 @ 06:10 AM
Margaret Connell & Ed Easton’s victory party was at Chili’s not the Hollister Brewing Co.
[Editor’s note: Thanks for the correction.]
» wrote on 11/05/08 @ 06:28 AM
Connell and Easton will join Roger Aceves who has been asleep at the wheel for the last two years. He only wakes up when Jonny nudges him to vote. Is this the best we can do?
» wrote on 11/05/08 @ 09:54 AM
Of course Easton and Connell were at Chili’s, a national chain, as opposed to locally owned Hollister Brewing Company.
» wrote on 11/05/08 @ 10:28 AM
Folks,
If you did not like the results of Tuesday’s election, perhaps you should try working together with the new council for the city’s future. Give the new majority a chance to show how they would implement their ideas. And also give them your suggestions and opinions on issues and direction. I believe they intend to listen for the better ideas and solutions.
» wrote on 11/05/08 @ 11:02 AM
one word about these comments: SORE LOSERS!!!
The Doreen Farr party was too big at Brewing Company, so Easton and Connell had their own big party at the adjacent restaurant.
In this election, Goletans finally woke up about the unfettered urbanization that was going to happen with Gilman elected.
NEXT: and investigation and fines about the illegal electioneering by the mystery hit PAC fronted by Zah-bin-din. Noozhawk, work your sources on this one as a deep story is there.
» wrote on 11/05/08 @ 07:04 PM
Are you saying we should follow your example after the old majority was ousted two years ago? You all were so gracious at those early council meetings when Jean was mayor. Hissing, shouting, incredibly disrespectful, thuggish and threatening. You gave that majority, what, all of two seconds? Cut the condescending crap. I’m sure Margaret will be as willing to listen this time as she was before. And the only one Ed likes to listen to is his own voice.
» wrote on 11/05/08 @ 10:31 PM
Vic-"If you did not like the results of Tuesday’s election, perhaps you should try working together with the new council for the city’s future.” The new council is really the old council where Margaret got her seat back and Ed took over Hawkshurt’s seat. We’re now back to the fear of bankrupting our city with endless lawsuits because their governing documents are illegal. I’m all for working with the new council for the city’s future. Unfortunately we’re just back where we were four years ago.