NOOZHAWK: What experiences from your professional or personal life make you uniquely qualified to be a Santa Barbara City Council member?
DAVID PRITCHETT: I can bring to the City Council many years of public service, volunteering for city committees and participating in other collaborative projects. But I have an outsider’s desire to make improvements and changes where necessary. Indeed, my civic involvement has given me direct knowledge of how city operations could be made better.
My formal education and more than 20 years experience as an environmental scientist give me a unique ability to think analytically and solve problems. This is vital as the city responds to the budget crisis and other challenges that residents want resolved, such as street violence, environmental and neighborhood protection, and the creation of housing opportunities. Additionally, as a self-employed consultant and project manager, I understand the discipline needed in the realm of business and finance.
As all my modest campaign funding has come from individuals, I am not beholden to the usual interests that influence the City Council. I will be fiercely independent to represent only the residents of Santa Barbara, and make policy decisions that are best for the whole and long-term benefit of the city. I owe nothing to corporate interests or public-employee unions. I do support and respect the city’s fine workforce, and I would be able to make decisions impacting them without the burden of obligation to political campaign contributors.
Of the seven leading City Council candidates, I am the only one who is not receiving funding from any of the public employee labor unions, any political party, or from the Van Wolfswinkel PAC (Political Action Committee). To the voter: I will be nobody’s council member but yours.
I am just a middle-income home renter from the Westside neighborhood. In this economy, my family struggles to pay our rent and our bills, so I understand first-hand how many people are stressed right now.
Here are a few highlights of my civic engagement and local government experience:
» Education. BA in environmental studies from UCSB, and MS in land resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
» Professional Career. Worked as an environmental consultant, wetland scientist and a federal agency biologist, mostly working to help local groups and agencies secure funding for habitat conservation projects on the Central Coast.
» Personal. A California native and a resident of the middle Westside neighborhood of Santa Barbara, I am a home renter and regular bus rider. My other car is the crosstown shuttle. Pets include a dog adopted from a local shelter and two rescued cats.
» Local Government Positions. More than eight years of service on two important city advisory committees: Creeks Advisory Committee and Transportation and Circulation Committee (with stints as vice chairman and chairman of each). Also serve as a Santa Barbara County Fish and Game commissioner appointed by 2nd District Supervisor Janet Wolf and earlier by her predecessor, Susan Rose. Also serve as the Santa Barbara city representative and current board chairman of the Mosquito and Vector Management District, a special district local agency with trustee duties for all aspects of local agency governance, such as budgeting, executive staff recruitment, and policy formulation that has reduced pesticides applied in the environment.
» Environmental Protection. Collaborating with others on the Mission Possible Vision, an outline of actions for restoring Mission Creek as a multipurpose community asset for flood control, neighborhood beautification, and fish and wildlife habitat. Active also in housing policies integrated with land-use planning, such as advocating against the failed Veronica Meadows project encroaching upon lower Arroyo Burro.
» Sustainable Transportation. Advocating with partners for MTD to establish fair bus fares and bus service routes, and participating in the public coalition for a fair Measure A-2008 and on the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments stakeholder committee to develop the scope and funding allocations for regional transportation projects paid by the countywide sales tax.
» Nonprofit Organizations. Serve on the Board of Directors of the Santa Barbara County Action Network (SB CAN) and UCSB Environmental Studies Associates, where I have been chairmanof the Tom Rogers Scholarship Committee for undergraduate students. Also, formerly on the advisory board for Shape of Voice youth newspaper.
» Public Affairs. Organized public events to challenge the journalistically unethical and anti-labor practices of the Santa Barbara News-Press, including a rally of more than 1,000 participants held in July 2006. Write news and commentary for local Web sites and produce video about local news, events and politics of Santa Barbara via my show Off-Leash Public Affairs.
NOOZHAWK: With all of the city’s fiscal challenges, why are you running now?
DP: I am running for City Council because I love my community and want to make it better for all residents. With my background and experience, I think I can help get our city through these tough times, with sound and fair decisions for our long-term benefit. Good leadership on the City Council seems to be needed now as much as ever.
NOOZHAWK: What three steps would you take first to resolve Santa Barbara’s financial crisis?
DP: To answer this question directly about first steps, before the end of January will be to partner with a coalition of council members (including the mayor) to inform city employees and the public that business as usual will not apply in these unusual times. Then I would encourage all city staff and the public to offer constructive, specific ideas for reducing city expenses. In my discussions with more than 1,000 city voters so far, I have hard numerous excellent ideas for improving our financial status.
The budget gap must be addressed through a combination of revenue gains and spending reductions. For instance, spending can be reduced through consolidation of programs, water billing every two months instead of monthly, early retirement for some staff with no backfilling of those positions, and a suspension of street sweeping in the outer, low-density neighborhoods where no revenue is derived from car parking enforcement that pays for the sweeping.
For revenue gains, full cost recovery for the city must be enacted for industries and projects that require a disproportionate — essentially unfair — amount of city attention and revenue to deal with them. For instance, the pot stores must be subject to annual or semi-annual permit fees that reflect the actual policing and other city expenses, and provisions like that must be incorporated into the marijuana “dispensary” ordinance revision now under review. As another example, the Lower State Street “drunk zone” should be subject to a benefit assessment (yep, like a property tax) that accounts for the consistently extraordinary law-enforcement attention required in that specific neighborhood. Vacation-stay lodging — essentially small hotels in residential areas — also need to pay the 12 percent transient-occupancy tax (TOT, or “bed tax”) that the mainstream hotels already pay.
NOOZHAWK: Public safety accounts for more than 50 percent of the city’s operating budget. With more spending cuts likely, how much would you trim from fire and police services?
DP: Probably not much if anything, because public safety is the minimal, and essential, public service that local government should provide. However, considering that the Santa Barbara Police Officers Association (POA, a public-employee labor union) contract with the city expires at the end of December, an opportunity will arise that could lead to no increase if not also possibly a decrease in this portion of the whole city budget. Again, none of the city’s public-employee unions have contributed to my election campaign.
NOOZHAWK: Would you support increasing or adding new municipal taxes as a revenue source?
DP: No, I would not support “new municipal taxes” if that means an increase in taxes or fees that would apply to all city residents, such as a sales tax, hotel bed tax, or water rates or similar. I am open to considering revenue gains that close gaps where some industries, projects or activities are not paying their fair share when other members of those groups already are paying, such as for the hotel bed tax.
NOOZHAWK: Should any municipal services be privatized? If so, which ones?
DP: The city seems to be following a good balance of hiring private firms for specialized professional services under contract. I would need to see the long-term cost/benefit analysis before privatization of municipal services could be considered to be an appropriate change.
NOOZHAWK: Why do you support or oppose Measure B, the ballot measure that would restrict downtown building heights to 40 feet?
DP: I support Measure B mainly as an aesthetic issue that helps to preserve the urban character of Santa Barbara by limiting new downtown buildings to 40 feet tall instead of the current limit of 60 feet (e.g., Canary Hotel). I do not think that extra floor or 20 feet of building height would do much if anything to improve the plight of truly affordable housing.
Instead, other city policies and ordinances to protect existing affordable housing are the best, direct tools to address housing affordability that truly will benefit existing Santa Barbara residents and their offspring. Younger generations in Santa Barbara have a lot more to gain for affordable housing opportunities by preservation of existing affordable rental housing than a thin, unsubstantiated promise — in my studied judgment — that taller buildings will lead to a meaningful gain in affordable housing stock.
NOOZHAWK: Do you feel the direction of the General Plan update is consistent with your vision? What kind of city will Santa Barbara be in 30 years?
DP: The outcome of the General Plan update would be easier to understand if the amounts of residential and commercial growth were decided first from the range of alternatives in the draft Environmental Impact Report that has yet to be prepared. I support the proposals for directing most of the residential growth — whatever that amount may be — toward downtown in the MODA (Mobility Oriented Development Area), rather in the outer neighborhoods that are largely built out.
In 30 years, I hope Santa Barbara will not have too much of a different look and feel to the urban experience. I also hope to be here to find out.
NOOZHAWK: The General Plan update will have consequences for housing, transportation and other key issues in the region. Does the city have a responsibility to think regionally when it makes policy decisions? How would you rate the city’s record?
DP: No specific required responsibility, but regional solutions can be entirely beneficial to the specific needs of Santa Barbara, such as an improved commuter rail system that will ease freeway traffic congestion.
NOOZHAWK: If elected, what is the one issue on which you would focus to improve Santa Barbara’s quality of life?
DP: The city budget, choices for spending or cutting, and the city’s fiscal savings are the single direct issue that affects quality of life for everyone here.
NOOZHAWK: What is Santa Barbara’s most neglected neighborhood?
DP: All neighborhoods have their challenges and issues. As an example, I have been working with the West Downtown Neighborhood Group on cleanup events and coordinating with city authorities on the Mission Creek bridge replacements, street lighting, pedestrian safety and a proliferation of pot stores.
NOOZHAWK: How would you control aggressive panhandling?
DP: Let the new, seemingly thorough ordinance take effect and we shall see. Its implementation seems to be contingent upon the “Alternative Giving Program” starting up somehow. This program mainly is about the boxes where people are encouraged to put their cash donations instead of paying aggressive panhandlers who likely would spend the money on liquor. Somebody, please sketch such a box on a bar napkin and wave it around during a City Council meeting so a finding can be that this program has begun and the rest of the aggressive panhandling ordinance then can begin!
NOOZHAWK: Santa Barbara has a plethora of medical-marijuana dispensaries, relative to other tri-county cities of similar size, but has yet to reject a single application. Why? Is that in the public’s interest?
DP: Applications are not rejected because they are found to comply with the ordinance. Obviously, the ordinance needs to be revised, heavily, to set a clear, legal distinction between compliant pot stores and those that flout the rules with resale of the pot product. I have advised the public coalition that drafted revisions to the existing city ordinance, as Noozhawk reported. The franchise approach to regulating pot stores seems to be a good opportunity for limiting the number and location of them, with them competing for the limited number of franchises or permits issued by the city, and paying the hefty franchise license fee.
NOOZHAWK: Even with two catastrophic wildfires within the city limits in the last year, the danger is hardly diminished. What can the city do differently to prepare for the next one?
DP: City authorities, other partner agencies (Santa Barbara County, U.S. Forest Service, etc.), and neighborhood groups, such as the Riviera Association, must keep up on wildfire preparation drills. The city also needs to stop approving lot splits and other projects that place more people and structures up in the wildfire zone.
NOOZHAWK: A grocery clerk asks you, “Paper or plastic?” You say:
DP: Neither. I try to bring my own bags that are readily available from many schools and environmental organizations in our community.
NOOZHAWK: How often do you use alternative transportation?
DP: Daily.
NOOZHAWK: What is Santa Barbara’s most precious asset?
DP: It is becoming a cliché, but our “small town feel” is the asset to keep so we do not end up like any other Southern California beach town.
NOOZHAWK: What’s your favorite view?
DP: I like what I see from atop the Lot 10 city parking garage, on the corner of Anacapa and Ortega streets, and from the upper end of Loma Alta Drive.
NOOZHAWK: Health care is all over the news these days. What do you do to stay fit?
DP: Nearly every day I am out walking the streets of Santa Barbara to meet voters at their homes and listen to their concerns so I would be a better city council member.
NOOZHAWK: The Coast Village Road roundabout is slowly nearing completion, but the island inside it is missing something. Do you support our plan to erect a Noozhawk statue there?
DP: No; per Caltrans regulations, the central zone of a roundabout must be free of glorious distractions that would be a traffic safety hazard. Instead, I will task the new Public Works Commission I am proposing and the Arts Advisory Committee to partner with the Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative in an economic stimulus project for Noozhawk statues to be commissioned for some of the existing eight designated locations on State Street for public art installations. Other statues would be dedicated to other news media, including Craig Smith’s Blog, Santa Barbara Daily Sound, Santa Barbara Independent, KEYT, KPMR, Edhat and KCSB.
Additional Resources
Click here for David Pritchett’s campaign Web site
Click here for Noozhawk’s candidate interview
Larry Nimmer’s “Touring with the Candidates” video (www.nimmer.net)
David Pritchett – Touring with the Candidates for S.B. City Council 2009 from Larry Nimmer on Vimeo.
Click here for SBCityVote.org’s candidate statement video