The four candidates running for the Santa Barbara City Council’s District 4 seat met Wednesday night to lay out their visions for the city ahead of the November election.

The League of Women Voters forum included Devon Wardlow, Monte Wilson, Genevieve Taft-Vasquez and Jason Dominguez, who addressed prominent city issues to about a dozen community members at the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara.

District 4 includes the Riviera, the upper Eastside, Eucalyptus Hill and the Foothill neighborhoods. 

The candidates were asked about the State Street Master Plan approved by the council and a recent petition for a referendum to overturn the plan.  

“The referendum is a travesty because that should have never happened,” Wilson said.

He added that bringing businesses back to State Street was critical. 

“We will bankrupt the city if we don’t do something to get business back,” he said. 

Otherwise, he added, services will need to be cut, or taxes will need to be raised to cover the gaps. 

Taft-Vasquez was also frustrated with the referendum and said “it’s crazy” that there are still discussions being held.

“We have a master plan. Let’s move forward,” she said. 

Wardlow believes the communication about the plan “has gotten somewhat lost,” she said. 

She labeled it an infrastructure plan with goals to bring housing downtown and stormwater management — a “must,” she said. 

The candidates were also asked about the city’s role in cooperating with federal immigration enforcement as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reportedly detained several dozen people in the Santa Maria Valley this week.

All of the candidates condemned the federal immigration enforcement operations locally, and some advocated for the city to support local activist organizations, including 805Undocufund and SB Resiste.

“This is a full-blown crisis, and we must protect our community members,” Wardlow said.

Dominguez said he supported following the law, and Wilson supported the city doing the “bare minimum” that the city has to do in regard to ICE. 

Wilson added that he did not support sharing records with ICE or enforcing federal immigration laws.

“I am hoping this next election helps us course correct a little bit as a country because right now I feel like it’s a little bit out of control,” he said. 

However, Wardlow disagreed with Wilson’s bare-minimum statement and said the city should be using “every leverage” it has, including not allowing ICE activity on city assets.

The candidates also had differing opinions on the city’s financial stability. 

While many proposed different ways to generate revenue for the city, including bringing businesses downtown, Dominguez took a different approach.

He said the city needs to focus on reducing its costs, including axing out-of-town consultants.

Taft-Vasquez also noted that this year’s budget was balanced only because of “one-time fixes,” and the city needs to look at both costs and revenue. 

“There are some serious structural issues coming down the pipeline,” she said.

The candidates also discussed the city’s approach to homelessness and encampments.

Dominguez claimed that the Santa Barbara Police Department’s biggest expense is responding to calls regarding homelessness. 

He proposed an approach to get people into housing.

Wardlow and Taft-Vasquez’s responses were similar and highlighted that safety and support should be involved in the city’s approach.

“We need to be focusing on the prevention side,” Taft-Vasquez said. “There needs to be more spending on wrap-around services because that’s really where we are going to prevent this unhoused population from continuing and having more challenges.”

Wardlow added that the approach includes multiple agencies who all take a humanitarian approach.  

Wilson said he wants to help people who want it.

“What I don’t support is that somebody just wants to be a drag on society, they want to be disruptive, want to use drugs and make themselves a public nuisance,” he said. “I am sorry, but you are not welcome here.”

Looking forward, the candidates all agreed on one thing: keeping the next City Council civil. 

“(The divisiveness in City Council now) is really a concern for me,” Taft-Vasquez said.

Wilson joked it was a shame the four of them were competing against one another because they all get along so well. 

Wednesday’s forum was one of many the candidates have already participated in, often discussing similar topics. 

The two-hour discussion was organized by the League of Women Voters Santa Barbara and was moderated by Shane Stark, a director with the organization. 

Get to know more about the four candidates through Noozhawk’s profile stories. 

Check out Noozhawk’s election section and coverage here before the Nov. 3 election.