[Noozhawk’s note: There are 10 candidates running for three Santa Barbara City Council seats in the Nov. 8 election. Over the next five days, Noozhawk will be posting two candidate Q&As each day, based on the order in which the questionnaires were returned.]
| 2011 Election Coverage | Complete Series Index |
NOOZHAWK: What experiences from your professional or personal life make you uniquely qualified to be a Santa Barbara City Council member?
IYA FALCONE: I served for two consecutive terms on the Santa Barbara City Council, helping to bring people together to craft real solutions, enhance public safety and to protect our environment — all during times of economic downturn following 9/11. While on the council, we established and I chaired the Legislative Committee to work with leaders in Sacramento and Washington on important local issues, especially dealing with sharing resources and available funds.
I have led efforts to increase recycling in the city from the mid-30 percent diversion of 10 years ago to more than 70 percent diversion from the landfill when I left office. I helped establish the Creeks Committee, cleaning and restoring our creeks, estuaries and beaches; revitalization of Arroyo Burro Beach, Bohnett Park and Mission Creek are just a few examples. We implemented LEED (Leadership in Environment and Energy Design) standards for new buildings, including the new airport terminal, and promoted solar energy systems that provide renewable energy and reduce ongoing costs. I fought to eliminate pesticides from our public parks, protecting residents and children from dangerous chemicals through the creation of an Integrated Pest Management Program. Under my chairmanship of the Ordinance Committee, we drafted and passed both the Living Wage Ordinance and the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance.
Before serving on the City Council, I worked in the field of developmental disabilities in children, including autism, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy. From that background, I moved into the field of crisis counseling, working with severely emotionally disturbed adolescent girls, and became Crisis Center director on the campus of a residential treatment facility.
I have a bachelor’s degree in Child Development (concentration in Abnormal Psychology) and a Juris doctorate degree from the Pacific McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. I am licensed to practice law in both California and Nevada.
I have always had a passion for helping others and serving our community. I am a skilled negotiator with a proven track record of bringing diverse parties to the table to find workable solutions to difficult problems. I will bring these skills — together with my core progressive values, vast knowledge of the issues and the workings of the city — back to the City Council.
NOOZHAWK: Most of Santa Barbara’s labor concession agreements expire in 2012 and 2013, and CalPERS costs are expected to increase by millions of dollars. Would you support restructuring the city’s retirement or benefit plans?
IF: City employee pensions through CalPERS are funded from three sources: employee contributions, employer contributions and investment income. Since the Wall Street meltdown, the city — like all participants in the CalPERS fund — has been asked to make a larger contribution to the fund. Retirement and benefit packages have been negotiated in good faith by those who have worked for us in the past and present. It is unacceptable to break our pledge to those who have worked for us and relied on our promises. We must remember that our city employees do not qualify for Social Security, so this is their only retirement fund.
Santa Barbara is not alone in facing increases to CalPERS costs and we will not solve the problem alone. CalPERS’ obligations lag by two years, so this backfilling of funds is a result of the deep stock market crash of two years ago and which are now coming due in 2012. The market returns of 2010 will dictate our obligations in 2013. It would be irresponsible to renegotiate retirement packages on a jurisdiction by jurisdiction basis. These large and complex negotiations must be done at the state level to achieve uniformity. There is much work to be done in the coming years, and I believe I have the experience and understanding to make a difference in these matters.
I am greatly concerned by the current efforts to abolish collective bargaining. Further, I am disappointed by those who are mixing the issue of pension and benefit reform with the wholesale dismantling of the unions that “collectively bargain” on behalf of the hard-working men, women and families who are the members. These are two separate issues and should not be tangled together in the discussion.
NOOZHAWK: There have been several violent attacks on Santa Barbara’s Eastside and in the Milpas area within the last three years, and residents have called for more police protection. With the limited budget, how would you realistically address that community’s concerns?
IF: During my tenure on the council, I consistently advocated for greater staffing of police on the streets. We set the minimum number of sworn officers at 141 back in 2008. Any assertions that his happened more recently are false. It takes almost two years to get new officers through the academy and trained before they can be on the streets patrolling by themselves.
Public safety is my No. 1 priority. But public safety is more than just adding to the police budget; it’s making sure we are effectively staffed and implementing community policing and crime and violence prevention. The funds actually exist to adequately staff the sworn police officers, but it will take policy direction from a courageous City Council to change some current policies and redirect funds.
I believe strongly that we must have a comprehensive response to gang violence that includes prevention intervention and law enforcement from multijurisdictional governments, agencies, nonprofit organizations and the community, working collaboratively. I was instrumental in developing the South Coast Task Force on Youth Gangs and I look forward to continuing that important work.
NOOZHAWK: What do you think of the General Plan’s direction?
IF: I believe we should have approved the Plan Santa Barbara proposal as it emerged from the Planning Commission, with the reasonable modifications made by the Community Coalition.
It is unfortunate that this General Plan update became a political football with much bad information being circulated. The plan as proposed would have prioritized our limited resources toward workforce housing while protecting our small-town character, our neighborhoods and our quality of life.
NOOZHAWK: If elected, what is the one issue on which you would focus to improve Santa Barbara’s quality of life?
IF: We were once the undisputed world leaders in the environmental/sustainability movement; now we can’t even agree that plastic bags are bad for the environment. This type of complacency must be addressed head-on. We made great strides during my tenure at addressing many environmental issues. I am concerned that we are taking steps backward and dismantling programs affecting environmental health. I will work to protect our community, both from a public safety perspective and our environmental quality of life.
We stand to lose our diversity. The loss of the technology centers and our start-up businesses is taking a toll on our region as a whole. This loss deprives us of our young entrepreneurs coming out of our many educational institutions in the area. We have seen in recent years not only an exodus of established companies leaving the area but also a lack of new startups from UCSB settling here. Not too long ago, the South Coast was the site for new and innovative start-up companies to settle. That trend is no more. This is attributable mostly to the lack of middle-income housing affordable to the employees. We must again become the location where the next generation of bright new entrepreneurs chooses to settle.
Most disturbing of all, for me, is the recent loss of civility in public discourse. To have a fruitful and meaningful dialogue about these competing issues, those engaged in the debate must not vilify those of opposing ideas. I bring to every discussion a passion based upon my values and the strength of my ideals, but respect, understanding and calm analyses and practicality must also be brought to bear. I have always believed that people can disagree without becoming disagreeable.
NOOZHAWK: What is Santa Barbara’s most neglected neighborhood?
IF: Unfortunately, under the current council, virtually every neighborhood feels neglected and every neighborhood has issues. The current council has given much lip service to addressing one vocal group that is concerned about the Eastside and waterfront areas, but in reality little of substance has been done. As a council member, I had a record of addressing concerns in every neighborhood and improving public safety everywhere in the city. When a crime, medical emergency, fire or natural disaster occurs, we all need to be prepared.
NOOZHAWK: What would you do to make city government more accessible to the Spanish-speaking community?
IF: The city provides materials in both English and Spanish, and council meetings are televised with a Spanish translation, but we must do more to make the Spanish-speaking and limited English-speaking population feel included in city issues. This means reaching out to the community directly and through those they trust — churches and nonprofit organizations. One area in which we can do better is in helping the Spanish-speaking and limited English-speaking community access our services — everything from water and sewer services, to business licenses and building permits, by having an ombudsman to help explain the rules upfront. We could also consider having a staff liaison/ombudsman available at various locations throughout town.
NOOZHAWK: What is your position on funding a new Santa Barbara police station in the current fiscal environment?
IF: We have needed to address deficiencies in the current police station for more than 15 years. In the current fiscal environment, I think it is more important to have officers on the street than a new building. That being said, we must look for funds to make sure those officers have the tools they need — modern dispatch, evidence collection and storage, modern computers, forensic technology and the like to do their jobs efficiently and effectively. We must work with the community on a comprehensive funding mechanism that can address all these issues. One source of funding should be the Redevelopment Agency.
NOOZHAWK: Do you support the city’s attempt to get a gang injunction, limiting the activities of identified Eastside and Westside gang members? What are some other anti-gang efforts you would pursue?
IF: I do not support the gang injunction. I felt it was an extreme measure that was not well-thought out, may give residents a false sense of security that this will “solve” the problem, and may be taking vital resources away from addressing the real problems. I believe we must have a comprehensive response to gang violence that includes prevention intervention and law enforcement from multijurisdictional governments, agencies, nonprofit organizations and the community, working collaboratively.
NOOZHAWK: Many community policing resources have dried up, including the full-time DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and beat coordinator positions at the Santa Barbara Police Department, the Santa Barbara County truancy program and school resource officers. What low-cost solutions would you pursue to provide prevention and intervention services to the community’s young people?
IF: I am, and always have been, a strong supporter of working with our nonprofit community to address many of our issues. They have the ability to leverage our limited city funds with private funding. Programs like Santa Barbara Police Activities League (SBPAL) provide low-cost prevention and intervention programs. We do need to work with the schools to find funding for the truancy program and school resource officers, and I want to see us increase the staffing at the Police Department to return the beat coordinators and other community policing operations, like cops on bicycles, in our neighborhoods and throughout our business districts. It is possible to use nonsworn officers in some situations.
NOOZHAWK: Noozhawk’s Prescription for Abuse series has been exploring the misuse and abuse of prescription medications in our community. What Santa Barbara issue do you think Noozhawk should tackle next?
IF: I would like to see a comprehensive investigative series on the city budget — really providing transparency to the residents so they can become effective advocates for programs and services they feel are important. I think questions and answers to where the money actually comes from, where it is kept and what it is used for are important to clearly understand. There is much attention paid to the General Fund, but there are many other funds that are neither enterprise funds nor general funds that the public has little to any knowledge about. I think this would be a useful public service.
| 2011 Election Coverage | Complete Series Index |
Additional Resources
» Click here for Iya Falcone’s campaign Web site.
» Click here for more information on the city of Santa Barbara’s Nov. 8 election.
Larry Nimmer’s “Touring with the Candidates” video (www.nimmer.net)
