The Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce is on the verge of sealing a deal to create an economic development proposal for the city of Santa Barbara.

The plan is for the City of Santa Barbara to spend $250,000 this year and up to $1 million over three years for the plan. After that, the city would spend about $500,000 annually, ongoing, for the Chamber to develop strategies to help Santa Barbara financially.

The city’s Finance Committee recently discussed the matter. Councilwoman Meagan Harmon suggested that there should be a request for proposals before working directly on a new contract.

In this podcast, journalist Josh Molina talks about the pros and cons of such a contract and gets to the bottom of why Santa Barbara is willing to shake hands with the Chamber without considering other options.

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Local Dems Pass on Endorsing Mike Jordan

In the second half of the podcast, the Santa Barbara County Democratic Central Committee decided not to consider Mike Jordan, incumbent Santa Barbara City Councilmember, for an endorsement in his bid for re-election.

The Central Committee met July 22 and no one made a case for why he should be endorsed. Technically, they can still endorse him at a future meeting.

Jordan was endorsed by the Central Committee four years ago. So what happened?

Opposing rent control, and a couple of other votes that the Central Committee felt, according to member Daraka Larimore-Hall, were counter to the Democratic Party platform.

Jordan, who has been endorsed by other Democrats including Meagan Harmon, Eric Friedman, Salud Carbajal, Laura Capps, and Gregg Hart, said it was over rent control and that he felt berated over his opposition to rent control during the endorsement meeting.

In this podcast, Josh Molina dives into whether it was appropriate for the Central Committee to pass on Jordan, who is a registered Democrat.

After the original podcast aired, Larimore-Hall requested time on Santa Barbara Talks to offer his point of view. That podcast can be found here.

The election is November 5.

Joshua Molina is journalist who currently writes for Noozhawk and formerly covered politics and land use for the San Jose Mercury News. Santa Barbara Talks is an independently owned podcast where Molina looks to bring together voices from all perspectives to discuss and provide solutions to the challenges related to housing, education, transportation and other community issues. Subscribe to his podcast here and consider a contribution here.