[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?
DALE FRANCISCO: City council members are, at their best, public-spirited generalists. None of us can be experts on all the issues facing the city, but we have to be willing to learn as much as we can to make good decisions.
I took several years between high school and college, working at a wide variety of jobs — construction, farming, printing, landscaping and more — that gave me a better understanding of the productive foundations of society. When I came to UCSB in 1980, I studied engineering and literature, and obtained degrees in both.
My professional experience has been in computer networking as an engineer and as a manager. Working for large corporations such as Cisco Systems gave me an understanding of how such organizations work. The city is organizationally similar to a medium-size corporation; I feel that my experience has been a real help over the last four years in being effective as a city council member.
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?
DF: Yes. Restructuring public employee benefit plans is going to be a necessity, not just in Santa Barbara but throughout the state. California’s 10 largest public employee pension systems currently have a combined shortfall of $240 billion — roughly 10 times the size of the state’s intractable budget deficit.
Much of the reform has to happen at the state level — a difficult prospect given that most legislators, including our own Assembly member, Das Williams, are elected with union campaign contributions and spend most of their time finding ways to increase union clout.
At the local level, what we can do is make sure that we elect fair-minded city council members who will look out for the interests of the entire city (including those of city workers), not just the interests of union leaders. In the contracts recently negotiated with the police and fire unions, we asked — for the first time — for their members to pay part of the “employee share” of their pension costs. Not surprisingly, neither the police nor fire unions have endorsed any of the incumbents (myself, Randy Rowse and Michael Self), hoping that they can replace us with people who will do their bidding when their contracts are up for negotiation in two years.
Public safety employees must continue to pay a share of their pension costs. We will also need to go to a “two-tier” system in which pension benefits are set at a more realistic level for all new city employees.
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?
DF: We need to focus on the city’s real priorities. Public safety comes first. Eastside and Milpas area residents are right to call for greater police protection. I discuss this more below in answer to the question on the most important issue facing Santa Barbara.
NOOZHAWK: What do you think of the General Plan’s direction?
DF: As chairman of the City Council’s subcommittee on the General Plan update, I believed my task was to get the subcommittee to make a set of recommendations that would garner enough support on the council (a minimum of five votes) to successfully adopt a new General Plan. In that we were successful; the full council recently adopted our recommendations on a 6-1 vote.
On the other hand, I’ve been critical of the General Plan update process from the beginning. The update could have been much simpler — a straightforward revision of the existing plan rather than a top-to-bottom rewrite. We had a very expensive environmental impact report that failed to tell us some of the most critical information we needed for decision making, such as detailed information on commuters (how many, where are they going, where are they coming from, household characteristics, etc.).
Along with the top-to-bottom rewrite came an attitude that Santa Barbara needed radical change — a sentiment that I believe most residents don’t share. That’s why I fought successfully to reduce the scope of high-density development. Proponents say high-density development will provide abundant affordable housing; I ask where else that’s worked in California coastal cities? Santa Barbara already has a much better record of providing affordable housing than most cities in California.
NOOZHAWK: If re-elected, what is the one issue on which you would focus to improve Santa Barbara’s quality of life?
DF: Public safety. A feeling that our streets, neighborhoods, parks and waterfront are safe, clean and available to enjoyed by all.
To achieve that, we need, among other things, a police force that is adequately staffed. Previous councils had steadily reduced the number of police officers, from a high of 150 10 years ago down to a projected 137 this year. But this year the council stood up. We set a new baseline of 141 officers, and as long as I’m on the City Council, I plan to increase that number until we have enough staff to provide the visible presence on the street that’s necessary.
NOOZHAWK: What is Santa Barbara’s most neglected neighborhood?
DF: In terms of city services — police, fire, parks, libraries, etc. — every neighborhood is treated the same. I feel none are neglected.
But if you ask me which neighborhood is the most put upon, I’d say Milpas. It has become abundantly clear that Casa Esperanza created an enormous burden on the neighborhood. Crime rates and nuisances such as aggressive panhandling and public intoxication have increased approximately seven-fold over the years. Free meals at the Community Kitchen, the point of which was to serve the desperate and the mentally ill, unfortunately also serve as a draw for drug and alcohol addicts.
The other problem with the location is the easy access to alcohol it provides from many nearby liquor stores. Since many of Casa Esperanza’s residents are struggling to escape from addiction, this is truly unfortunate.
In the long run, we will need to move Casa Esperanza to a location that doesn’t unfairly burden a neighborhood, and that provides a safe refuge for people trying to leave addiction behind.
NOOZHAWK: What would you do to make city government more accessible to the Spanish-speaking community?
DF: City government is already very accessible to the Spanish-speaking community, from bilingual voter materials to Spanish translation of City Council meetings. We also have many Spanish speakers on staff in every department that has direct contact with the public.
NOOZHAWK: What is your position on funding a new Santa Barbara police station in the current fiscal environment?
DF: In the current fiscal environment it’s a tough sell. The aging Police Department building is cramped and poorly suited to modern needs. Unfortunately, replacing it will be incredibly expensive; we’ve had estimates of $50 million. Even with some money set aside for the purpose from our Redevelopment District budget, fully funding such a project will doubtlessly require a vote of the people on a bond issue.
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?
DF: Gang injunctions have proved successful in many cities in reducing gang crime. Our city attorney’s office and the police department believe that a gang injunction can be helpful here. Those are the reasons I support it. Of course, it has to be narrowly targeted and fairly enforced.
I will continue to support the city’s participation in and funding of the South Coast Task Force on Youth Gangs, the regional organization focused on reducing gang activity. With the departure of Gus Frias, we need to find an able, hands-on director for the task force.
Much of the work in reducing gang activity comes from the schools and the community. Innovators like John Becchio (former principal at Santa Barbara Junior High, now at Santa Barbara High) and teacher Mark Fidel have found ways help bring “at-risk” students back into the mainstream. Dedicated community leaders such as Sebastian Aldana and Father Rafael Marin also have an important role to play. And, of course, the neighborhoods themselves — families, churches and other civic organizations — are absolutely vital in keeping kids out of gangs in the first place.
As a city council member, I will continue to provide whatever support we can to community organizations in this critical work.
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?
DF: As I said in answer to the earlier question on gangs, we on the City Council need to continue to support the gang task force and school and community groups that are the most effective agents of change. This support includes funding help as well as clearing bureaucratic roadblocks.
As a city council member, I’ve worked for years to restore lost positions in the police department — finally this year with some success. Over the next four years, my goal will be to continue to add positions until we have the beat coordinators and other staff we need.
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?
DF: The history of the rise of union control over local politics.
| 2011 Election Coverage | Complete Series Index |
Additional Resources
» Click here for Dale Francisco’s campaign Web site, or call 805.218.2950. Connect with Dale Francisco on Facebook.
» 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)
