This story was last updated at 9:10 a.m. Wednesday
Paula Perotte appeared headed to re-election as mayor of Goleta, overwhelming her challenger, Councilman Roger Aceves.
Perotte received 64.2% of the vote to 35.4% for Aceves, in semi-official election results with all precincts reporting.
“I am really honored and I am so happy that constitutents in my community have the confidence in me,” Perotte told Noozhawk. “It looks like the four-year term on the ballot went through as well. I am just thrilled. It was an interesting campaign in the middle of the pandemic. We did the best we could to get the word out.”
Goleta City Council incumbents Kyle Richards and Stuart Kasdin also appeared to be on their way to re-election.
“I’m thrilled to be given the opportunity to continue my work with the City of Goleta,” Richards told Noozhawk. “We have significant hurdles ahead to overcome the economic challenges of COVID-19, but I look forward to working together to preserve and protect what we all love about the Goodland.”
Kasdin was also thrilled with the results.
“I am certainly excited,” Kasdin said. “I am certainly glad. I think we have done good work. I am proud of the things we have accomplished. We have challenges ahead, the coronavirus in particular. We will be up for it, and I look forward to the opportunity to continue the job I really enjoy.”
The Santa Barbara County Elections Office released semi-official election night results including thousands of vote-by-mail ballots and all 14 city precincts, and those results showed Richards with 33.4% of the vote and Kasdin with 30.9% of the vote.
Perotte, 69, was first elected to the Goleta City Council in 2010. She is a former employee of the Community Action Commission, now CommUnify, where she helped parents of children with special needs obtain services for their children. She is a former PTA president and business owner.
She said she’s proud of Goleta’s efforts in recent years to create more bike paths, create a new park in the Old Town neighborhood, and maintain public access to the Ellwood Mesa and preserve the butterfly habitat.
During Perotte’s term as mayor, the council in 2019 approved a zoning ordinance to help steer development and land use rules and regulations for residents and businesses.
She said she wants to devote a portion of Goleta’s budget to economic development, and improve relationships with the Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce.
Aceves, a retired Santa Barbara Police Department detective, is the only Latino ever elected in Goleta, which was incorporated as a city in 2002.
Aceves, 65, is a registered Democrat, but he said he doesn’t believe party politics should play a role in Goleta elections.
People in Goleta, he said, care more about the fact that he has never missed a meeting in 14 years on the council.
Aceves said he learned how to negotiate from years working as a hostage negotiator for the Santa Barbara Police Department.
Politics, too, is about listening, according to Aceves. He said it’s also about leadership.
Aceves served as mayor in 2009, before it was a directly-elected position, and he led the city during the aftermath of the 2008 recession.
He said the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic most likely will take at least five years.
Aceves grew up on the Eastside and went to Cleveland, Franklin and McKinley elementary schools. He started as a police dispatcher in 1975 before joining the police academy in 1977.
He has two years left in his term.
Both longtime City Council members were vying to win the top elected spot in a city that is wrestling with affordable housing challenges, redevelopment of Old Town Goleta, a lack of park space, traffic congestion, and managing infrastructure in a city that has seen a boom in commercial and residential development in a short period of time.
Goleta’s growing technology scene, including Google, also is attracting a population that is younger and recently out of college, which is increasing pressure on decision-makers.
Perotte aligns with activists in the community and has ties to the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party. Aceves is a moderate Democrat who has a reputation for being more business-friendly.
Five candidates were on the ballot for two seats on the Goleta City Council.
Following Richards and Kasdin, candidate Justin Shores had 14.9% of the vote, Grace Wallace had 14.7% of the vote, and Bruce Wallach had 5.8% of the vote.
Both Richards and Kasdin were endorsed by the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party.
Kasdin is a Santa Barbara City College instructor. He brings a wonkish style, mixed with jokes, to the City Council meetings. He said his priorities are the COVID-19 response, making good budget choices, and restoring creeks and watersheds.
Richards said economic stability, natural resources and affordable housing are among his priorities. Richards said that during his first term, he is proud of the improvements to Old Town Goleta, such as the opening of the Jonny D. Wallis Neighborhood Park, the sidewalk improvement project, and the field renovation at the Goleta Valley Community Center.
Also on the ballot was a measure requesting voters to extend the mayor’s term to four years from two years, which would align it with the length of other City Council terms.
Voters were supporting the measure in early results, and it had 53.7% approval.
Unofficial election results are still developing and are likely to change as more ballots are received and processed on Tuesday night and the days afterward.
Ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 can arrive at the Santa Barbara County Elections Office by Nov. 20 and be counted.
County election results are typically finalized and certified several weeks after an election. The Board of Supervisors certified the March 3 election results on April 21, seven weeks later.
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
