With two Santa Barbara City Council members and a former school board president running to be the city’s next mayor, November’s election will have a lot at stake.
At a major turning point for the city, the elected mayor will have to guide the council through State Street construction, the start of the rent stabilization ordinance, a budget crisis and uncertainty about federal operations.
Running to take on that responsibility are Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon, 55, Councilman Eric Friedman, 49, and former Santa Barbara Unified Board president Wendy Sims-Moten, 64. A fourth candidate, Matt Kilrain, known as “Boat Rat Matt,” also qualified for the ballot.
Residents will make their choice for mayor in the Nov. 3 election.
Candidate Background
Sims-Moten has worked for the County of Santa Barbara for more than 30 years. She is the executive director of First 5 Santa Barbara County.
She was first elected to the Santa Barbara Unified School Board in 2016 and stepped down in December 2024 after deciding not to run for re-election.
Sims-Moten told Noozhawk that she wanted to step away from service to deal with the death of her husband, who passed away in 2021.
She said she is now ready to take on the next level of leadership.
“I’m a leader that likes to unify and align so that we can be together and move issues and policies forward so that they impact our folks who live here,” Sims-Moten said. “When we align about things and when we’re together on things, we move those things a lot faster, and they impact in a positive way.”
Sneddon was elected to the Santa Barbara City Council in 2017 and again in 2021 to represent District 4. She teaches environmental geology at Santa Barbara City College.
She graduated from Santa Barbara High School in 1989 and went to Santa Barbara City College before studying applied geophysics at UC Los Angeles, where she also earned her master’s degree in environmental geophysics.
She spent six years as an executive officer on the Governing Board of Peabody Charter School. She currently serves on numerous boards, such as the Cachuma Conservation Release Board and the Cachuma Operation and Maintenance Board.
She and her husband have raised three children in Santa Barbara.
She told Noozhawk that she believes she can be the mayor to move the city forward.
“I really believe we’re at a critical time in our history and in our future, where we need a mayor who is forward-facing and honoring all that we’ve been and planning for what we need to be to face a changing world, but also to be responsive,” Sneddon said.
Friedman was elected to serve District 5 in 2017 and again in 2021. He grew up in Santa Barbara and attended Monte Vista Elementary School. His family moved to Lompoc when he was in high school. He is a Lompoc High School graduate.
He also has a history degree from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s degree in public administration from Cal State Northridge.
He is the chair of the city’s Finance Committee. He previously served as a Santa Barbara Public Library board member and is a former president of the Santa Barbara Public Library Foundation.
He has two children and works at Trader Joe’s.
“I’m on the ground, meeting people, getting results, and that’s what we need,” Friedman said. “That’s where we need to go. Having that understanding on how the city works, I will deliver on the services that the public demands, and I have a 25-year track record of doing so.”
Kilrain did not respond to Noozhawk’s interview request for this story.
He previously ran for mayor in 2021 and lost. He is currently suing the city, alleging defamation and conspiracy to commit defamation, according to court records.
Kilrain was arrested on Sept. 11 for allegedly violating a protective order, according to Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office arrest logs.
The Budget
This year’s budget deliberations are perhaps where campaigning truly began.
As the city was facing depleted reserves, Sneddon questioned why the council’s direction given in 2025 to replenish $2 million taken out of reserves hadn’t been followed.
“I was genuinely shocked to see the recommendation was continued deficit spending, and the $2 million hadn’t been replenished,” Sneddon said.
Critics of Sneddon at the time said she didn’t understand the city’s financial situation and was surprised by the dwindling reserves.
Sneddon, however, said her shock was that council direction wasn’t followed as reserves have continued to slip away.
“Of course I knew last year that this was happening, because that’s why I made the motion to replenish those $2 million,” Sneddon said.
Friedman explained that the Finance Committee had to focus on balancing the budget before it could address reserves.
“It is frustrating when it is said that we didn’t replenish the reserves, because in order to start replenishing reserves, you have to get out of an operational deficit,” Friedman said. “At the time, the operational deficit was about $10 million for this last year.”
Friedman said the committee focused on working with all city departments to balance the operating deficit, which did turn into a small surplus.
Going forward, Friedman and Sneddon said they strongly support fully replenishing the reserves by using one-time funds from the utilities user tax.
Sneddon also wants to use Measure C funds that will be freed up after the construction of the new police station, and Friedman wants to look into holding unnecessary expenditures.
Sims-Moten, who has worked on balancing budgets through the school district and First 5, said she would want to work with the finance director to determine how the city can handle unexpected expenditures and continue having public study sessions.
She particularly wants budget meetings that aren’t scheduled during the workday, so more people can attend.
“If you’re going to get people’s input, you need to have everyone’s input,” Sims-Moten said. “We’re going to also use time as an opportunity to be inclusive of folks to hear what we’re saying and being transparent.”
She also wants to take a close look at expenses to determine if there’s anything that can be cut that won’t “harm” people who need the services.
State Street
With the recent adoption of the State Street Master Plan, a few big questions remain: What will happen before construction begins, and how will it be paid for?
The plan includes a redesign of the 400 to 1300 blocks of State Street, with expanded 30-foot-wide sidewalks on both sides, two 10-foot travel lanes in the center of the street and retractable bollards at the intersections.
On Sept. 1, Friedman suggested bringing back vehicles to part of the street by reopening the blocks above Canon Perdido Street while the four blocks before Canon Perdido are under construction.
His council colleagues did not support that idea, which Friedman said didn’t surprise him.
He still believes that is how the city should handle the interim period before the project is completed and is concerned that an eight-block closure is too long.
“Let’s open it back up to circulation for north of Canon Predido, see how that works, give those businesses some relief, increase circulation, while we focus on these other four blocks,” Friedman said.
He also wants to see a plan for how the city can work with businesses during construction.
“It’s going to affect all the businesses down there, but they need to have a stake in it,” Friedman said. “That involves one-on-one businesses, involves working with the Chamber (of Commerce), working with the downtown business association, so that we are all on the same page, so that we’re maximizing the resources that we need.”
Sims-Moten said she wants to see the conversation around State Street shift away from cars versus no cars, and back to focusing on stormwater improvements and making it a better place for the community.
“Let’s make a decision because it takes over everything,” Sims-Moten said. “Everything else that’s so important — housing, childcare — it gets overshadowed by, ‘Are we going to stay closed?’ It can’t overshadow the everyday net necessity needs, and it has. So let’s get on with it and get it done.”
She also wants to have more conversations with community members about vehicle access, especially those who don’t go to State Street, and see if there’s room for compromise.
Sneddon said construction needs to be phased to connect the stormwater system, which she said needed to be fixed.
“Hopefully it’ll be a block of disruption at a time, moving its way up,” Sneddon said. “It’s really important that it goes quickly, and that takes decisive leadership. It takes a decisive council. We cannot afford to waffle on it as we go.”
The plan doesn’t dictate what vehicle access will look like, but it does provide flexibility for the council to decide in the future.
As far as what that flexibility would look like, Sneddon wants to see structures in place to deal with dangerous e-bike behavior as well as making it a space where people want to spend time.
“I also want them to be able to linger and feel like it was an inviting place to shop or to dine or to come see a show,” Sneddon said. “I can envision it as the draw of something to go to, to be in the experience of.”
She also wants to see a free electric trolley system that takes people to the waterfront, as well as free parking with validation.
In the interim, Sneddon wants to see a council committee created to come up with ideas to keep State Street going during construction.
Both Sneddon and Friedman said they strongly support parades returning to State Street.
Rent Stabilization
As a candidate who wasn’t on the City Council for rent stabilization discussions, Sims-Moten said she does support trying to stabilize rent costs, but she thinks there should be a sunset date for the ordinance, so after a certain amount of time, the city can look back to see if it’s actually working.
“It gives us a pause to really talk to each other because there’s such emotion on both sides of it,” Sims-Moten said. “You’re talking at each other, you’re talking around each other and you’re not hearing anything, only what you’re bringing to the table.”
She hopes the rent stabilization ordinance can give the city a pause and a chance to work with housing providers on improving affordability.
When it comes to the rent stabilization ordinance set to go into effect next year, Sneddon and Friedman have been on opposite sides of the issue.
Friedman has voted against it and believes the ordinance will raise rents overall citywide and reduce the supply of available units.
“When you have locals that are invested in the community, they can work with renters if something comes up, but once you get these big property management firms, it’s all about profit for them,” Friedman said. “And this actually incentivizes us moving away from local ownership to big conglomerates that own these properties.”
However, he said he understands where tenant activists are coming from. He wants to focus on building more affordable units, funding tenant resources and ensuring protections are in place.
Sneddon voted in favor of the draft ordinance. She said she’s spent a lot of time with landlords and property owners to help them understand whether their units even qualify for the ordinance and how the regular increases would financially affect them.
In many conversations, she’s found that most landlords would financially come out ahead by doing the regular smaller increases over time than if they did a larger increase every few years.
The city is still in the process of adopting the ordinance, with the proposal set for consideration on the Tuesday agenda.
Sneddon told Noozhawk she would like to see incentives for mom-and-pop landlords who have kept their rents low over time.
“That’s an example of something that I think still needs to be addressed: ways to really reward those local property owners who have been really great housing providers,” Sneddon said.
Federal Immigration Enforcement
With frequent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Santa Barbara during the past two years, Friedman said the city should work with neighboring jurisdictions to work on responsive policies.
Friedman is president of the Channel Counties Division through the California League of Cities. If elected as mayor, he would automatically be appointed to the California League of Cities Board of Directors to work with other cities on immigration policies and other topics.
“Ensuring that we have those regional and statewide connections, so there’s strength in numbers that we can respond accordingly, is very important,” Friedman said.
Sneddon has been trained as a rapid responder — a volunteer who documents ICE activity — by 805UndocuFund. She said the city needs to continue to fund and support immigrant legal defense and update policies to make it clear that the city doesn’t cooperate with ICE agents.
“We need to continue to have meetings with community members who are organizing response and city administration and the Police Department, so that we are unified and standing together, looking out for each other,” Sneddon said.
As far as how to fund support, Sneddon said the city should use the general fund money because it is meant for public safety and well-being.
“I think it’s a perfectly appropriate use for general fund money,” Sneddon said.
Sims-Moten said ICE activity and arrests should be considered an issue that affects the whole city.
“When we are a city for all, if one is hurt and being attacked, we all are,” Sims-Moten said.
If elected, she would want to look at how the city works with law enforcement on that issue, build relationships with federal officials, and push back on ICE actions in a visible, nonviolent way.
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