Former Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Frank Ochoa wants the next mayor of Santa Barbara to be elected with more than 50 percent of the vote.
Ochoa made the comments in the latest episode of Santa Barbara Talks with Josh Molina.
“I think it’s a disadvantage for someone to be in the position of mayor of Santa Barbara, and not be able to say, ‘I was elected by more than 50% of the people,’” Ochoa said.
Currently Santa Barbara holds mayoral elections in November, and the top vote-getter wins regardless of what percentage that person gets. Ochoa said that under one model, known as “Ranked Choice” system, voters choosing from multiple candidates could rank their votes. Hear Ochoa talks about the runoff system in the podcast video clip below:
Ochoa was one of the people influential in shaping the city’s district elections policy. He said the issue of a mayoral runoff will go before the city’s district elections committee and then to the Santa Barbara City Council possibly this year.
He also talked about Juana Flores and the effort to help her stay in the United States.
Flores entered the United States from Mexico without a visa in 1988, two years after President Ronald Reagan signed the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act granting status to illegal immigrants.
Between 1988 and 2019, she married and settled down in California, where she and her husband, Andres — a permanent resident since 2009 and a U.S. citizen since 2015 — bought a home and raised a family.
In 1999, Flores, 57, traveled to Mexico to visit her dying mother and attend her funeral. When she returned to the United States, she was stopped by Customs and Border Protection.
Although she received several extensions to be allowed to stay in the U.S., on humanitarian grounds, those ended on Feb. 26, 2019. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office ordered Flores back to Mexico, and she voluntarily left the country. She has since returned for a year, but must go back unless Ochoa and others can secure her permanent status.
Ochoa is working with Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, and U.S. Senator Alex Padilla to ask President Biden to give her a pardon.
Ochoa also talks about his career, the role his father and parents played in his upbringing, and why he chose to go into law.
For the full podcast click on Josh Molina’s YouTube channel.