Candidate Q&A: Cory Bantilan, Fifth District County Supervisor

Cory Bantilan

Noozhawk invited Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors candidates to answer questions about important local issues.

The June 2 primary election includes two county supervisor seats: the Fifth District, representing northern areas of Santa Maria, Guadalupe and Tanglewood; and the Second District, representing the Eastern Goleta Valley, Isla Vista, UC Santa Barbara, and portions of Goleta and Santa Barbara.

Three candidates are running for the Fifth District seat to be vacated by Steve Lavagnino, who is not seekinng another term.

The candidates are Maribel Aguilera-Hernandez, Cory Bantilan and Ricardo Valencia and they each submitted responses to Noozhawk’s Q&A.

Read Cory Bantilan’s responses below.

Read Maribel Aguilera-Hernandez’s responses here.

Read Ricardo Valencia’s responses here.

Cory Bantilan

Question: What do you think are the three most pressing issues the county faces over the next five years? How would you address these issues?

Bantilan: Public safety, homelessness, and the budget are three of the biggest issues facing the County.

Public Safety – As more custody deputies are hired to keep up with mandated operations at the jail, there has not been the same urgency with respect to deputies patrolling our streets. There are nearly 2,000 active felony warrants in Santa Barbara County, and the Fifth District has more than any other. I successfully pushed for a felony warrants detective to track down these fugitives, but we need more cops to help make our neighborhoods safer.

Homelessness – I have visited and cleaned up homeless encampments, and have talked to people living there. Along with contributing factors like alcohol, drugs, and mental health issues, many homeless individuals are estranged from their families. We have seen success with public-private partnerships like the one with Dignity Moves at Hope Village near the County Government Center on Betteravia, but the key ingredient for keeping people off the streets is reuniting them with family. We have kept the riverbed and other areas cleaned up over the last two years, and it’s important to maintain that continuous effort.

Budget – The County is facing budget shortfalls based on changes to state and federal programs, but next year the discretionary general fund will be under more pressure and will face additional cuts. The Board of Supervisors needs to look at more ways to grow the pie without raising taxes.

While we must remain vigilant over the next few years, there is good news at the end of the five-year window. The County’s pension costs will be reduced dramatically due to a prudent decision made more than a dozen years ago. Tens of millions of extra dollars will be available to spend every single year, and I would like to see that money spent more on one-time projects than on recurring programs. Let’s pave roads and improve parks that are used by thousands of residents on a regular basis.

Question: The current board is developing an oil and gas phaseout plan. Do you support this phaseout; why or why not?

Bantilan: I am not in favor of phasing out production. There are so many questions to unpack here. What happens to the hundreds of employees with head-of-household jobs? What replaces the revenue to the County? How are mineral rights holders made whole? What are landowners able to do with their land after oil production is banned? Is County government going to stop using oil if it won’t allow it to be produced here?

My fear is that this ordinance will be passed no matter how unsatisfactory the answers to those questions are. I support an “all of the above” strategy when it comes to energy, but if we want to improve the oil industry or any other industry, there needs to be a serious conversation that includes carrots to go along with the sticks. Let’s talk about what is trying to be accomplished and how we can get there without eliminating a large chunk of the local economy.

Question: What do you think is the county’s role facilitating and building new housing for local residents?

Bantilan: I believe the County’s role in housing is to streamline the permitting process to allow good projects to proceed on a faster timeline. What I don’t see as our role is playing developer ourselves. The County Housing Authority and organizations like People’s Self-Help Housing are experts in affordable housing that already do great work, and we should support them in that effort rather than join them. I support CEQA reform at the state level to facilitate more cost-effective projects that are not bogged down by bureaucracy and red tape.

I don’t consider myself pro-housing or anti-housing, but rather someone who supports the right project in the right location with the right infrastructure. The infrastructure piece has started to become overlooked as local governments seek ways to benefit from increased property tax and sales tax revenue without allocating enough funding to mitigate traffic and parking impacts. We should be able to look residents in existing neighborhoods in the eye and tell them we are doing everything we can to alleviate the impacts of growth.

Affordability is the buzzword that other candidates are falsely promising voters. I encourage voters to be wary of such claims because inflationary levers are pulled at the state and federal levels, not locally. I am willing to say what others won’t: we cannot build our way to affordability in Santa Barbara County. It is a simple question of supply and demand, where, unless it becomes undesirable to live here, demand will always exceed supply.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of recent housing projects in the Fifth District have been for rent only. While ADUs and apartments have been the development of choice, opportunities for new homeowners are far and few between. We need more projects that offer entry-level ownership, like condos or townhouses.

Question: What are the biggest infrastructure spending needs in your district over the next five years?

Bantilan: While there are several substantial Caltrans projects coming up along the Highway 166 corridor and in Guadalupe, at the County level the Santa Maria-Guadalupe River Levee Trail project and the bridge replacement at Bonita School Road will be large and important undertakings. With few recreational opportunities available, residents of Santa Maria and Guadalupe should be able to safely walk or bike along the levee. The bridge project is important because it is the only crossing between Hwy 1 and Hwy 101, and the current crossing is quite dilapidated. Roads are always a priority, and the area near Tanglewood will see two separate and much-needed paving projects completed over the next year or so.

An even larger project is the North County jail expansion, the biggest County-funded infrastructure project in history. The new jail wings will replace most of the aging jail facility near Goleta, and it will be safer for deputies, more efficient for taxpayers, and will bring the County into regulatory compliance.

Question: How should the county respond to federal immigration enforcement operations affecting local communities?

Bantilan: I think most people agree that if you commit a serious crime and are not here legally, you should be deported. Unfortunately, instead of prioritizing enforcement on a worst-first basis, what we have seen is ICE agents failing to pick up convicted felons from the County jail and instead picking up people shopping at Home Depot or working in the fields. Current training standards for ICE agents are a fraction of what local law enforcement is subject to, among other issues.

But what is the County’s role?

The County Sheriff is the elected official who makes daily decisions in accordance with existing laws. The Board of Supervisors can pass resolutions, but the reality is that they are not enforceable. If ICE shows up to stage vehicles on County property, the County has no recourse and cannot remove them. I think we need to be frank with the public; while this is an issue at the front of mind for many people, it is not one within the jurisdiction of a County Supervisor.

These answers have been lightly edited for style and formatting.