Helene Schneider glided onto the City Council in 2003, the top vote-getter, and part of liberal faction that promised to shake up City Hall.

A feminist woman from New York, Schneider coasted to victory on a progressive platform that saw her promising to help the homeless, advocate for women and inclusion,  and fight for the city’s middle class.

Six years after she was first elected, Schneider soared to the mayor’s seat, a post she would hold for eight years.

She officially handed over the gavel to Cathy Murillo on Jan. 9, exiting City Hall after a roller coaster ride in office that would test her in ways far greater than just fixing the potholes around town.  

“She was a good mayor,” said Das Williams, now a county supervisor, who was elected to the City Council alongside Schneider in 2003.

Together, they made up sort of a one-two punch of lefty, progressive politics. Williams was the guy on the far left, and Schneider represented the more pragmatic, so-called sensible liberal to his right.

“She was always able to get a lot done when she has wanted to,” Williams said. “Living-wage ordinance, permanent preservation of Veronica Meadows, more sustainability for parks and recreation, supportive housing for those transitioning off homelessness, and even the AUD program that is giving us the first new rental housing in decades. All that is a result of the coalitions she pieced together.”

Although Schneider hit political turbulence when she ran for Congress, as mayor she was respected by those on the left and right, and for being able to run meetings and frame discussions without being divisive or heavily partisan.

Her big legacy may have been her professionalism and acumen on the dais.

Schneider told Noozhawk that her greatest success was “being able to set a tone as mayor” during council meetings.

“I had an ever-changing and very diverse City Council throughout my term, and yet found strong unanimous support in approving budgets, and adopting the General Plan, among other strong policy issues,” Schneider said. 

Republican Tom Widroe consistently speaks highly of Schneider, even though the two could not be further apart on a wide variety of social issues. Widroe is the president of City Watch, a government watchdog organization. 

“Despite some political differences between Helene and City Watch, I was impressed at how she ran council meetings,” Widroe said. “Her ability to move the discussion forward in a positive way was a good strategy for keeping the city on track with major issues. Bottom line, Helene was a good mayor and deserves plenty of credit for her years of valuable public service.”

Had it not been for a strange twist of fate, Schneider might never have been mayor. She ran for the spot in 2009, against Dale Francisco and Iya Falcone.

At the time, both Falcone and Francisco were formidable challengers. Both were liberal Democrats, and not unlike the 2017 election, Democrats were worried about the Dems splitting the vote and Francisco, a moderate Republican, winning the seat.

In a turn of events that surprised everyone, Falcone waited until the final day to turn in her 100 signatures to qualify for the ballot.

The City Clerk determined that some of Falcone’s signatures were invalid, and she was disqualified; the move paved the way for a battle between Schneider, Francisco and Chamber of Commerce president Steve Cushman.

With the other liberal candidate out of the way, Schneider won the top spot. At 40 years old, she was the reigning queen of progressive poliitics. 

She served with Francisco until 2015 and earned his respect.

“Helene and I certainly had our differences on policy, though at the city level not as much as her supporters or mine might have thought,” Francisco said. “On the critical issues of fiscal responsibility during the recession, we were on the same page.”

Francisco appreciated her logical, reasoned thinking. 

“On a personal level, Helene was always a pleasure to work with,” Francisco told Noozhawk. “She did an excellent, even-handed job running council meetings. Though we didn’t always agree on things that came before council, I felt that she reached her decisions based on reason starting from her premises, rather than on an unbending reliance on ideology.

“I also think that the longer she served on council, the more this became true.”

In noting her own accomplishments, Schneider said gang crime has dropped 59 percent since 2009, and homelessness is down 24 percent between 2011 and 2017. During her tenure, the council also dramatically increased water conservation and activated the desalination plant. 

A former human resources manager at Planned Parenthood, Schneider always seemed effective, efficient and elegant inside City Hall. Outside of it is where she ran into occasional pushback or skepticism. 

In 2012, she proposed a series of financial initiatives that caused political observers to question her judgment. She proposed putting four items, including pension reform and a half-cent sales tax, on the city’s November ballot.

In an abruptly called news conference, Schneider addressed about a dozen reporters at Studio 8, the office of videographer Brent Sumner on De la Guerra Street, instead of at City Hall.

“This is not something coming from the city machine,” she said at the time.

One of her proposals would have required a handful of nightclubs and bars downtown to pay a new business license fee. She argued that those businesses consume an inordinate amount of police resources when they close in the early hours of the morning. The fee would be based on a quarter percent of all gross revenues.

She also wanted police and fire employees to pay a larger share of their pensions, along the lines of the 8 or 9 percent that the Service Employees International Union employees pay.

She also proposed a half-cent sales tax increase, and then, finally a measure that voters would split the money between the city of Santa Barbara and the Santa Barbara Unified School District. 

The package of proposals was met with widespread opposition, so much so that she first scaled them back, and then ultimately dropped them. 

“The whole purpose of presenting the initiatives was to start a community dialogue about how to overcome these challenges, especially since the process was to determine whether voters were willing to sign papers to place the initiatives on the ballot for a vote,” Schneider said. “It was a worthy conversation, and even after making the decision not to submit the petitions, multiple people commented to me that they were appreciative of the attempt.”

She hit some turbulence again in her race for Congress. She took on longtime county supervisor Salud Carbajal, who locked up most of the political support on the left, forcing Schneider to strategically move to the middle.

Carbajal had long been planning and fundraising for a congressional run when former representative Lois Capps stepped down.

They most pointedly sparred over the widening of Highway 101. Carbajal was for it, but Schneider wanted to see a greater environmental review. She and the city of Santa Barbara had concerns about how the widening plan would affect traffic at busy intersections on Santa Barbara streets.

“It has become increasingly apparent that this project as currently designed and funded will result in significant additional traffic congestion on our local streets without the financial means to mitigate them,”” Schneider said in a letter to Noozhawk at the time. “As frustrating as the current freeway traffic congestion is today, I want to make sure that Santa Barbara residents understand the current funding policies and the sacrifices to local streets and infrastructure the current widening plan entails.”

Political analysts thought Schneider was purposely siding with Montectio homeowners, who had long opposed the Highway 101 widening, as she positioned herself for a run for Congress in 2015. 

“It was worth running for Congress,” Schneider said. “It was a tough race, and I had a strong team with great support. Congressman Carbajal obviously had a stronger campaign, and I think his time spent preparing for the race for a long time before it opened up worked well for him. I wish him success in his new role and I expect to partner with him on issues of mutual interest in the near future.”

The formal Democratic Party sided with Carbajal, as did many elected officials, some of whom were one-time Schneider supporters.

The propositions she introduced, her attempt to challenge Carbajal, who most insiders believed had earned the rights to run for the seat, and her unwillingness to endorse some Democratic Party candidates in local races, had collectively painted a picture of Schneider as out on a island on some political issues.

Schneider believes she was treated differently in her congressional race because she is a woman. 

“I think we are seeing even more people – especially women – stepping up and deciding to run,” Schneider said. “Any open seat for an elected office should not be handed over by a small group of people, but rather be earned by the voters.

“There were some people and organizations that chose not to support me and specifically mentioned to me one or two items of disagreement as their reason – or one vote on one issue, rather than looking at my entire political resume,” Schneider said. “I don’t think other candidates received that same kind of scrutiny.

“In my experience talking with and meeting other women candidates and elected officials from around the country, I don’t think this was unique to me. If people want to see more women run and win office, then we need to support them, and while we should expect that they be qualified, we should not insist that they have a perfect record on every item.”

She said she learned another lesson while in office. 

“I learned here and elsewhere about how sometimes its imperative to do what you think is the right thing to do on behalf of your constituents, even if it is not the political safe thing to do,” Schneider said. “Too often, elected officials take the politically safe route, rather than the bolder one that could actually make a big positive difference.

“Sometimes, the ‘go along to get along’ process is rewarded by your elected colleagues, rather than asking the tough questions to get to the best answers. Many times, the media or their commentators will vilify an elected official for taking that approach, thus perpetuating the cycle. That’s unfortunate.”

Santa Barbara City Administrator Paul Casey said Schneider was an effective mayor. 

“I thought Helene did a great job as mayor,” he said. “She represented the city well — with grace, dignity, and intelligence.”

Schneider has announced that she will work as a regional development manager for Cal State Channel Islands, and regional coordinator for the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.

— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.