I was intrigued by Dylan Mancuso’s Oct. 11 commentary, “Santa Barbara Could Learn from Ventura How to Bring Holiday Magic and Business Downtown,” about the simple and inviting attractions the City of Ventura is featuring in its downtown as the holidays approach.
These are creative ideas will appeal to families and Christmas shoppers and benefit the community economy. I agree with Mancuso that Santa Barbara could learn a lesson here.
Susan Shields
Santa Barbara
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Lompoc deserves decisions grounded in good data and the experiences of people who live here. That’s why Lompoc Valley Community Healthcare Organization and Cottage Health commissioned the 2025 Lompoc Valley Needs Assessment.
The assessment combines established health and economic data with 12 focus groups involving 50 residents and service providers.
Those conversations weren’t intended to represent every resident. They helped explain what numbers alone cannot: the challenges people face accessing healthcare, navigating assistance programs and balancing medical appointments with work.
One finding deserves attention: Lompoc’s median household income is approximately $70,000, while the estimated income needed for a family of four to cover basic expenses in Santa Barbara County exceeds $150,000.
That gap matters because financial stability affects whether families can afford healthcare, housing and healthy food.
Acknowledging these challenges isn’t an attack on Lompoc. It’s how we identify opportunities and direct limited resources where they’re needed most.
LVCHO is already using these findings to guide our priorities. We encourage our community to read the assessment, ask questions and help shape what comes next.
Ashley Costa
Lompoc Valley Community Healthcare Organization executive director
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I am writing as a Los Olivos resident to raise a concern about the audibility of Los Olivos Community Services District board meetings.
At recent meetings, multiple members of the public, including me, have been unable to hear board members. Board members speak so softly, and without microphones, that attendees can follow only a portion of what was said.
Many attendees are older residents, and some have hearing difficulties. At least one longtime resident has stopped attending meetings altogether because she cannot hear the proceedings.
We are now entering a critical cycle in which property owners will learn about the sewer assessment methodology. We need to hear board members’ questions and comments. We do not want to be disrespectful by interrupting the meeting multiple times to say, “We are unable to hear you.”
Public meetings only serve their purpose if the public can hear. I am also concerned that this may not meet the district’s obligation to provide effective communication and equal access to people with disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The district should require all board members and staff to use microphones at every meeting and workshop, and test the sound system before each meeting.
Michelle de Werd
Los Olivos
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With four of seven Santa Barbara City Council seats up for election, we will decide if the city begins to solve its biggest problems or spends another four years studying, debating and falling further behind.
If you live in the 4th District, I urge you to vote for Monte Wilson.
He will prioritize making financial sense of key issues that are long overdue, like streamlining our ordinances to make it easier to do business; ridding us of needless red tape that slow progress; and incentivizing sensible retail and modernize our housing growth process.
He will get our financial house back in order, ensure city government efficiency and grow our city’s revenue (not taxes).
Wilson has vast experience in large and complex organizations and budgets. He is a fixer, a collaborator, a turnaround expert, a results-driven leader.
He has solid and specific ideas for downtown’s economic vitality, safety in our streets and neighborhoods, and efficiency in our government.
We can’t continue to have an inexperienced council that delays key decisions, calls for more costly studies, spending money we don’t have.
Who we elect to the City Council will affect the decisions that will shape housing, infrastructure, energy reliability, economic policy and the overall business climate for years to come.
We need a common-sense, independent voice on the City Council, someone who isn’t afraid to act decisively and who will bring a practical approach to making near and long-term progress.
Vote for Monte Wilson in District 4.
Alixe Mattingly
Santa Barbara
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Many letters to Noozhawk have endorsed Santa Barbara City Councilman Eric Friedman for mayor. Many have criticized Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon.
The common theme of these letters seems to be that Friedman’s endorsers are tied to the landlord and property owners and are fighting to continue their longstanding exploitation of those who need housing. Their letters contain absurd threats of dire results if Sneddon is elected.
Sneddon’s supporters on the other hand praise her balance and long-term independent streak. They look forward to balance and progress.
I urge support for the latter approach.
Glen Mowrer
Santa Barbara
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If anyone is not sure which candidate to vote for for Santa Barbara mayor, I would like to post my opinion.
I’ve known Eric Friedman for a long time. I’ve never met Kristen Sneddon but I have watched every city council meeting since Jan. 9, 2018. Maybe I missed a couple.
I’m voting for Friedman.
There are some letters to the editor writers who have endorsed Sneddon. I ask them, have they watched the City Council meetings?
It gives me no pleasure to say Sneddon has shown questionable questioning at times. This has been going on for years.
And as Noozhawk reported in an Oct. 6 article, “Santa Barbara Rent-Stabilization Ordinance Passes After Push for Final Change Fails,” she stopped a consent calendar vote on the biggest issue facing Santa Barbara.
After 50 minutes of comments by many folks, she withdrew the motion.
Dan Seibert
Santa Barbara
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As a longtime Santa Barbara resident and former president of the Eucalyptus Hill Improvement Association, I have spent years working on wildfire prevention, emergency preparedness, traffic safety and neighborhood concerns.
I’ve learned that leadership is measured not by promises, but by whether elected officials listen, respond and deliver.
That is why I’m endorsing Monte Wilson for District 4 on the City Council and Eric Friedman for mayor.
I’ve met with all four District 4 candidates. Wilson stood out for his willingness to listen, ask thoughtful questions and understand issues before proposing solutions.
He brings executive experience, favors encouraging housing rather than regulation, stimulating economic vitality, and understands the need to balance affordability, public safety, neighborhood concerns and fiscal responsibility.
Friedman has been accessible and responsive to me and our neighborhood. His actions demonstrate the value of responsive leadership.
Consider Alston Road. Residents offered to fund a radar speed sign, asking only that the city maintain it.
Years of effort through Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon went nowhere. Progress came only after residents sought broader council support.
With encouragement from Friedman and Mayor Randy Rowse, and help from City Administrator Kelly McAdoo, an agreement was secured and the sign installed this year.
That is the difference between expressing concern and delivering results.
Friedman has also challenged budgets that rely on reserves as the city faces major commitments, including the State Street Master Plan and rent stabilization. Tenant protections matter, but so does accounting honestly for legal, administrative and financial costs.
We can bring economic vitality downtown and protect tenants without diverting resources from streets, parks, libraries, and police and fire protection.
Santa Barbara needs leaders who listen, scrutinize spending and solve problems — not simply make promises.
Loy Beardsmore
Santa Barbara
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And the Oscar goes to … Santa Barbara City Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon!
When the rent stabilization ordinance was on the City Council’s consent calendar, “actress” Sneddon made a motion to set the rent cap at 3%.
After a multitude of meetings with housing providers, all saying 60% of CPI was too restrictive, she didn’t make any such motions during previous opportunities.
Hearing from critics that this ordinance is too restrictive and it’s hurting her mayoral campaign, she tried to make a pivot that was pure theater. Mayor Randy Rowse and Councilmen Eric Friedman and Mike Jordan all said this proposed change could have happened months ago.
Sneddon’s angle: she can tell voters that she listened and tried to compromise. It was too late to make that move without creating legal liability, something she has not shied away from in the past.
There was nothing sincere about the motion. She amended and moved to adopt the ordinance in its original form. It passed.
It was all theatrics meant to benefit her bid to become the next mayor. Do we really want a mayor who manipulates governmental processes for her benefit, or do want true, responsive, transparent leadership as demonstrated by mayoral candidate Eric Friedman?
Michele Carbone
Santa Barbara
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Lompoc voters face a serious dilemma when it comes to choosing who should be our next mayor.
In a Sept. 7 article, Noozhawk reported that Mayor Jim Mosby “claimed that there’s a great attitude at City Hall” under his leadership.
What he didn’t discuss is that City Hall has lost a significant number of top employees in the past two years, many privately pinning their departures on Mosby’s return.
Both publicly and privately, Mosby’s favorite targets include criticizing city staff, such as work by individuals and in general. He also has lobbed criticism at other agencies, including Santa Barbara County and regional organizations.
His challenger, Councilman Jeremy Ball, has organized rowdy demonstrations in both the council chambers and participated in them during organized protests over enforcement of federal law in Lompoc.
So which candidate should I vote for? The person whose “favorite targets include criticizing city staff, such as work by individuals and in general” or the one who favors mob rule?
Neither one represents the type of leader I could support.
Ron Fink
Lompoc
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I normally do not involve myself in elections involving districts where I do not live, but this year is an exception. In Santa Barbara City Council District 6, there is a very real choice between common sense and political ideology.
While there are several candidates running for the council, there are essentially two contenders. One is a product of a political machine whose focus is less on policy and more about winning elections.
The other candidate is Alex Stoeber, and it is my privilege to endorse him for the Sixth district.
Stoeber has risen from a difficult childhood and built a successful life. He has chosen to run for city council out of a sincere desire to serve.
I am aware that he has been putting in hard work to prepare for this position for more than a year. I am very impressed with his willingness to work and his desire to serve.
Stoeber cares about the city and his district. He brings a strong commitment to fiscal stability, policies focused on doing the most for the city, and a compassionate approach to challenging issues like homelessness and affordable housing.
He has experienced homelessness firsthand as a child, so this discussion will never be merely a theoretical policy discussion where he is concerned.
I hope I can play some small part in persuading the voters from District 6 to vote for Alex Stoeber.
Barney Melekian
Retired Santa Barbara police chief
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In his Oct. 9 letter to the editor, Ron Fink wonders if anyone is verifying certain voting requirements in Santa Barbara County. The answer is the Santa Barbara County Elections Office / Registrar of Voters.
Brian Epstein
Santa Barbara
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