[Noozhawk’s note: One in a series about Santa Barbara’s switch to district-based City Council elections. Read the first story here.]
Growing up on Santa Barbara’s Eastside, Alejandra Gutierrez rarely saw her neighborhood’s issues and challenges addressed in local politics.
After noticing disparities in representation within the City Council, she decided it was her time to make a difference and try her shot at elected leadership.
“I started to realize that a lot of the things I wanted to see in the city at large, and specifically in my district, wouldn’t change without local politics,” she told Noozhawk.
“I thought this was an impossible challenge for me, but it came down to, ‘Well, who else is going to do it?’”
Gutierrez was a first-time candidate when she was elected to the council in 2019, believing she could bring a “whole different dynamic” to the panel since she had never been a politician before.
Representing District 1, Gutierrez said she brings passion to the council and won’t sit back and stick to the status quo.
“I would hear how disconnected people felt from the local government,” she said. “They didn’t believe their vote would count, so I targeted those populations and explained how local politics worked.”
Gutierrez partially credits her win to the district election system implemented in 2015, and said it probably would have been more difficult to win an at-large race.
Candidates need far fewer votes to win in this system, and are elected by residents of their district, not the entire city.
Gutierrez beat incumbent Jason Dominguez by just eight votes, with 963 total votes.
Santa Barbara moved to district-based City Council elections in a settlement of a California Voting Rights Act lawsuit, which had alleged that the at-large system disenfranchised certain voters, including Latino residents.
“The at-large system basically ignored certain neighborhoods throughout the city,” said Cruzito Herrera Cruz, one of the plaintiffs and himself a veteran of several unsuccessful campaigns for a seat on the council.
“Other areas controlled the politics for a long time because of this system.”
A Noozhawk analysis found that the city’s Mesa and Riviera neighborhoods held the largest power bases in the decade before district elections were implemented.
From 2005 to 2015, 40 percent of council candidates lived in those two neighborhoods, which also reported the highest voter turnout in many of those elections.
The lawsuit settlement included drawing six districts across the city, including two districts developed specifically to include a majority population of Latino residents of voting age, District 1 (Eastside) and District 3 (Westside).
With the new system, candidates can only run for the seat in the district where they live, and voters can only vote for one district seat, based on where they live.
City voters only have a say in electing two of the seven City Council members: their district representative and the mayor, who is still elected by an at-large vote.
In the at-large system, citywide voters ranked their top three candidates for three seats, and voted for all seven seats.
“While we’ve worked to move to district elections in the city, Santa Barbara still has a long way to go when it comes to achieving a true district election structure and bringing proper representation to the city,” said Jacqueline Inda, a community activist and another plaintiff in the district election lawsuit.
The plaintiffs had the goal of increasing the number of people of color on the council, specifically people of Latino heritage, Mayor Cathy Murillo said.
“The focus of the committee was the Eastside and Westside,” she said. “They wanted more Latinx people to serve.”
When Murillo was first elected to the council in 2011, she was the only Latina on the dais.
Today, four members are white and there are three members with Latino heritage, including Murillo as mayor, and two people who grew up in the districts they now represent: Gutierrez in District 1 and Oscar Gutierrez in District 3. The Gutierrezes are not related.
Current City Council members are also more diverse in terms of age and gender, with more women and more young, working adults compared to pre-district councils with a majority of older, retired residents.
Since district elections were implemented, voters in the Eastside and Westside districts have elected a Latino representative every time.
However, there is more work to do to accomplish other goals of the district elections effort.
The city has not seen a substantial increase in voter turnout, or additional input for the historically underrepresented neighborhoods, district election advocates say.
Election Year Turnout Ballots Cast What Was On the Ballot 2009 49.6% 23,167 Mayor, three at-large City Council seats, local measures on building height limits, changing membership rules for city commissions 2011 41.3% 18,387 Three at-large City Council seats 2013 38.3% 17,659 Mayor, three City Council seats, local measure on land transfer near MacKenzie Park 2015 36.2% 6,771 Three City Council seats (Districts 1, 2, 3) 2017 51% 24,948 Mayor, three City Council seats (Districts 4, 5, 6), sales tax measure 2019 38.9% 6,161 Two City Council seats (Districts 1, 2). Two more seats were uncontested and candidates were appointed (Districts 3, 6) rather than put on the ballot, to save money on the election cost
Studies from the Public Policy Institute of California and other organizations have demonstrated that even-year elections and propositions can improve turnout, and Santa Barbara’s election history shows that to be true.
The city will be moving to even-year elections in 2024, like every other city in the tri-county area, which is expected to have a larger impact on voter turnout than district elections did.
Elections for the six City Council seats are split, so three people are elected every two years. The mayor’s race is aligned with the Districts 4, 5 and 6 elections, which means every city voter can cast a ballot those years.
That means the City Council seats for Districts 1, 2 and 3 are scheduled on their own, without a citywide race, which could hurt potential turnout. Additionally, Districts 1 and 3 have the fewest registered voters among all the districts.
District-Based Commission Appointments
Some members of the community also feel that having one seat on a seven-member City Council is not enough to achieve neighborhood representation.
Before most development projects, budget proposals and policy changes make it to the council, a variety of city boards and commissions weigh in and make recommendations.
These agencies are populated by community members who are appointed by the City Council, and usually the only application requirement is being a “qualified elector” in the city (a U.S. citizen age 18 or older).
Only one, the Neighborhood Advisory Council, selects members based on their neighborhood. It has limited authority, and mostly advises decision-making bodies and city departments.
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors appoints commission representatives based on districts, so there are members from different regions of the county.
That includes the Behavioral Wellness Commission, the County Arts Commission, the Human Services Commission, the Park Commission and the Planning Commission.
County planning commissioners often use their on-the-ground, local knowledge when they evaluate developments, such as a housing project near an Orcutt golf course. Residents can find out which member represents their area, and reach out with questions and comments.
Inda views the county’s by-district appointment system as a model for Santa Barbara to create more representation for people from all areas of the city.
“This is what we had hoped would happen in Santa Barbara,” she explained. “While council represents the final vote, commissions and committees do a lot of the lifting and the work before it comes to council.”
Santa Barbara residents can apply to serve on one of the city’s many commissions and boards, including the Central Coast Commission for Senior Citizens, the Housing Authority Commission of the City of Santa Barbara, the Metropolitan Transit District Board of Directors and the Mosquito and Vector Management District Board.
The City Council appoints applicants to these boards.
There is currently plenty of interest for most positions, although limiting members by district could reduce the total candidate pool.
This year, 128 people applied for 82 vacancies on city advisory groups. The City Council conducted interviews on Nov. 17 and appointed commissioners Dec. 8.
“If we truly want to achieve a comprehensive effective district approach, instead of moving someone to an open seat, we should have a district election structure where committees and commissions are the voice of the people who put the reports before council,” Inda said.
In addition to providing early input on project and policy decisions, these commission seats would be a pipeline for potential City Council candidates who are attuned to their neighborhood’s needs and know the ins and outs of city government, she added.
Several candidates and winners in recent years had experience on the Planning Commission, including Grant House, Harwood “Bendy” White and Mike Jordan, who was elected to the District 2 council seat last year.
Improving Outreach
Sebastian Aldana, an Eastside community activist and plaintiff in the district election lawsuit, hoped that switching to district elections would improve communication between representatives and constituents.
“There have been improvements to district representation since the switch, but nothing substantial yet,” he said. “This system was good at splitting the pie evenly and giving everyone their fair share on the council, but it is still like pulling teeth to try and get our projects moved to the discussion list.”
Aldana believes that the city administration wants representatives to pay attention to the issues brought forward at the meetings, but that there needs to be more outreach by them to listen to the actual needs of the community.
Click here for each council member’s contact information.
Aldana suggested simple things for representatives to increase outreach, such as scheduling frequent coffee meetings with constituents to hear their neighborhood’s concerns (maybe virtually, for now).
The Santa Barbara police and Santa Barbara County sheriff’s departments did versions of this (Coffee With a Cop) for community outreach before the coronavirus crisis intruded.
The council should then go through all the issues from each of the six districts and prioritize those to better match the needs of the community, Aldana suggested.
“I think we’re doing good things for the community, but it’s somewhat of the same status quo,” he said. “There has been some change, but not as much as there should be.”
Cruz suggested council members create legislation and management plans specifically for their districts every year.
“Right now, a district representative is sort of an abstract idea with no responsibility,” he observed. “We need to be more morally engaged as a community.”
While council members are elected by residents in one district, they vote on issues that affect the entire city.
Being attentive to neighborhood-specific and citywide issues can be a balancing act, Alejandra Gutierrez said.
“The challenge for me is that I constantly have to remind people that I don’t just represent District 1, I also represent the city at large,” she said. “I think as a district representative, and a person of color, I have to constantly deliver that message.
“I’m not just representing my own background.”
To create a more comprehensive by-district system, and achieve effective voter representation, the city still has a long way to go. Education about local politics, community involvement and representative-constituent interaction can all stimulate a more diverse and encompassing local government.
“This is how you get things to change in the community,” Gutierrez said. “We need to hold the City Council members accountable, and choose people who align with our values.”
Read The Series
» 5 Years Later, Santa Barbarans Reflect on Goals, Outcomes of Switch to District Elections
» Recruitment, Training Programs Help Increase Representation Among Women, Latino Candidates
» Goleta’s Public Engagement Commission Tasked with Increasing Participation in Local Government
» District Elections Did Not Increase Santa Barbara Turnout Much, But Even-Year Voting Should Help
» Making the Nooz: Noozhawk Digs Into Santa Barbara’s District Elections
About This Project
Noozhawk’s Report on Santa Barbara District Elections investigates the goals and outcomes of the city’s new system for choosing City Council members. Staff writers and editors collaborated on a series of stories and hope readers like you will contribute ideas and feedback for future reporting on the subject.
Santa Barbara has conducted three district elections, more than any other local city, and lessons learned from its implementation could help achieve the goals of the effort: improving voter and candidate participation to create a city government that better represents its residents.
This project was reported with help from the Solution Journalism Network’s Renewing Democracy grant.
— Noozhawk staff writer Jade Martinez-Pogue can be reached at jmartinez-pogue@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
