Former Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Blum served in the city’s highest elected post from 2002 to 2010, and she loved the job.
So much so, that when she had a double mastectomy because of breast cancer in 2004, she only missed a week at City Hall.
“If I had not been in office, it would have been a lot harder to deal with,” Blum said.
When she found out she had cancer, she walked into City Administrator Jim Armstrong’s office and asked him how she should deal with it. She considered taking a leave of absence and not telling the public why she was out.
“He said, ‘Oh Marty, if you don’t tell them what’s wrong with you, they are going to make up something,’” she said.
So she decided to put out a press release that said “Marty Blum has cancer.”
Blum shares a story about how she was inspired to return to the office quickly because she believed another councilmember wanted her seat and was planning to seize the moment in her absence.
Blum said she went into the mode of “I can do this.”
“I’ll come to the council on Tuesday, I’ll have my surgery on Wednesday, and I will come back the next Tuesday,” Blum said. “Sometimes you are really crazy and you don’t even know it. “
In this podcast, Blum also talks about the current state of City Hall, and shares her thoughts on councilmembers Meagan Harmon, Kristen Sneddon, and Mayor Randy Rowse. She also talks about the state of affordable housing, downtown and State Street, and offers her wisdom and insight into a variety of political matters.
Blum is one of Santa Barbara’s most decorated elected officials. She served four years on the city Planning Commission, eight years on the City Council and another eight years as mayor.
Blum won the mayor’s seat in a closely fought battle, edging out former councilman Gil Garcia.
After the City Council, she enjoyed another run in elected office as a trustee at Santa Barbara City College.
Blum during her time as mayor famously feuded with former councilmember Iya Falcone, and often clashed with the police and fire unions on issues of salaries and wages.
She worked with a who’s who of names to ever walk through City Hall: Dr. Dan Secord, Das Williams, Gregg Hart, Roger Horton, Helene Schneider, Babatunde Folayemi, Brian Barnwell, Dale Francisco and Frank Hotchkiss were just some of the people she regularly rubbed elbows with.
Josh Molina has been a journalist in Santa Barbara for 20 years. He also covered City Hall for the San Jose Mercury News. In addition to working as a reporter at Noozhawk, he teachers journalism at Cal State University, Northridge and Santa Barbara City College. Please subscribe to his You Tube channel for more content.