Santa Barbara City Councilman Oscar Gutierrez will be on an election ballot twice in 2024. He’s running for a seat on the Santa Barbara County Democratic Central Committee in March, and in November, he will seek a second, and final term on the Santa Barbara City Council.

Gutierrez, who grew up on Santa Barbara’s Westside, spoke with journalist Josh Molina in the latest episode of the podcast Santa Barbara Talks.

The 40-year-old councilman shares his views on wanting to serve on the Central Committee, which works behind-the-scenes to promote Democratic candidates and policies, and is instrumental during elections.

“Going off my experience with the DCC, there’s been a lot of criticism about the way they operate, about their endorsement process,” Gutierrez said. “I have been hearing it from a lot of people.”

Gutierrez said he personally felt that there needed to be representation for “other populations of our community that really haven’t been that visible or vocal on the DCC.”

“I decided to put my name on the ballot so I could better address those issues,” Gutierrez said. “I have heard it for long enough to see it as a concern.”

In this podcast, Gutierrez also offers his views on the Santa Barbara County Supervisorial contests in District 1 and District 2. The conversation then moves to his November 2024 re-election campaign, and then the latest talk on State Street.

He also talks about the progress he has made being taken seriously at City Hall. In previous podcast conversations, Gutierrez shared the challenges of being invited to meetings, and being included by City Hall brass when it came to policy-making. He has pushed harder and made progress to not just be at the table, but sit at the head of the table.

“I realized it was a bit naive for me to think everyone would know who I am just because I got elected,” Gutierrez said. “I definitely had to put the footwork into it. It’s one of the reasons I made it a point to show up to as many things as possible. I even show up to things I am not invited to.”

At the end, Gutierrez discusses his new personal relationship with DJ Darla Bea. Both of them grew up on the Westside and graduated from UC Santa Barbara.

“We just connected because we are everywhere, all at once,” Gutierrez said.