It’s not self-governance, per se, but it’s the closest the densely populated student enclave has ever been to it.
On Nov. 8, voters in Isla Vista will be deciding whether to form a community services district, a limited form of government that gives the half-square-mile community power to address a number of long-standing needs.
Among the slew of candidates and propositions on this year’s ballot, Isla Vistans will be voting on Measures E and F.
Measure E, the creation of the CSD itself, requires a simple majority of voters to win passage, while Measure F, which would enact an 8 percent utility user tax to fund the CSD, requires a two-thirds vote.
Isla Vista’s movement for greater autonomy stretches back decades and includes a few failed cityhood attempts in the community west of the UC Santa Barbara campus.
Fresh life was breathed into the dream in late 2014, when Assemblyman Das Williams, D-Santa Barbara, introduced Assembly Bill 3, which proposed a CSD for I.V. and was approved by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown a year ago.
A CSD is not incorporation, but its governing board is authorized to provide and fund a variety of services that, for Isla Vista, traditionally have been taken care of by Santa Barbara County.
In April, the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission approved eight initial services the district may provide, although the CSD’s board of directors must apply to the county again in order to make changes to county-owned land or enact a municipal advisory council or planning commission.
The CSD would have the power to finance the operations of a municipal advisory council; create a landlord-tenant mediation program; finance operations of an area planning commission; exercise the powers of a parking district; contract with the county or UC Regents or both for additional police services; acquire and maintain community facilities; acquire, construct and maintain infrastructure; and remove graffiti.
The crucial utility user tax, for which low-income households and UCSB would be exempt, would apply to services that include electricity, gas, water, and sewage/trash, and would generate an estimated $512,000 a year.
UCSB has pledged an additional $200,000 every year from 2017 to 2024, at which point renewal would be considered.
According to LAFCO, the roughly $18 million the county spends on services in Isla Vista each year results in an $8 million annual shortfall of locally generated taxes paid by the county.
Governing the CSD will be a seven-member board of directors, five of whom will be elected by Isla Vista voters, one appointed by the Board of Supervisors, and one by UCSB’s chancellor, currently Henry Yang.
Four of those five positions, along with the two appointed ones, have four-year terms, while the other elected position has a two-year term.
For this first election, however, two of those four four-year terms will be truncated to two-year terms.
Eight candidates are on the ballot for the five contested slots, several of whom were heavily involved in the CSD creation process.
Running unopposed for the two permanent four-year seats are UCSB student Spencer Brandt and Jay Freeman, a software developer who ran an unsuccessful campaign earlier this year for the Third District seat on the Board of Supervisors.
On the ballot for the permanent two-year seat are Ethan Bertrand, an Isla Vista Recreation and Park District director, and UCSB student Joel Ruiz, who suspended his campaign after the filing deadline.
The other four candidates are competing for the two temporary two-year seats: local pastor Jon-Stephen Hedges and UCSB students Natalie Jordan, Michael Kile and Andrew Gabriel Pragin.
Efforts to pass Measures E and F have been going well, Bertrand said.
“We’re working around the clock to build community support for the measures,” he said. “And we’re also working very hard to register voters.”
More than 7,000 people in I.V. and at UCSB have been registered to vote, he said.
“We’re ready for greater self-governance, we’re ready to have a larger say in the direction of our community,” he said. “And in all of our interactions with residents, they’re really excited as well.”
Until recently, opposition to the measures has not been nearly as visible or concerted; the utility-user tax is opposed chiefly by I.V. landlords, who say it will translate to higher rents.
Arguments opposing either measure, though, weren’t filed for Isla Vistans’ election guides, and the landlords’ campaign hasn’t been nearly as well funded as supporters’.
Should voters approve Measures E and F, the Isla Vista community services district will officially be formed on March 1.
Under its conditions of approval, LAFCO would conduct a municipal service review after one year to assess the district and to determine how well it is providing services.
— Noozhawk staff writer Sam Goldman can be reached at sgoldman@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.