Fourth District Santa Barbara County Supervisor Bob Nelson proposed giving one county official a 6-year term by moving the election date, but his colleagues quickly shut it down on Tuesday, calling it rushed and not transparent to voters.
Every four years, Santa Barbara County voters elect a sheriff-coroner, district attorney, clerk-recorder-assessor, auditor-controller, treasurer-tax collector-public administrator and superintendent of schools.
State legislators voted in 2022 to move sheriff and district attorney elections to presidential primary election years, starting in 2028. Presidential election years historically have higher voter turnout, which was reasoning behind the move.
That means Sheriff Bill Brown and District Attorney John Savrnoch each get a 6-year term after being elected in 2022.
The rest of the county offices are on the June 2, 2026, primary ballot.
Nelson proposed moving the treasurer-tax collector election to 2028, which would give incumbent Harry Hagen a 6-year term.
The Election Code allows supervisors to move county office elections to presidential primary election years, except the superintendent of schools.
The supervisors are on staggered terms, which helps with continuity running the government, Nelson said, so the same thing could help with the elected department heads.
His colleagues seemed shocked at the timing of the suggestion, since the next county election is less than six months away. The candidate filing period opens Friday and goes through March.
“Everyone was caught off guard, and I don’t think that’s how we do democracy,” Second District Supervisor Laura Capps said.
“I’m uncomfortable with the authority for us to be doing that, especially over the holidays, in this kind of rushed manner,” she said.
Third District Supervisor Joan Hartmann asked staff to instead look at options for converting some elected county offices into appointed positions, which report to the Board of Supervisors.
“They perform critically important work, but they operate outside the normal administrative chain of command,” she said. “So in practice, this can create real challenges for coordination, accountability and effective management particularly in such a complex organization as the county.”
She added, “It’s not about any one office holder, it’s about our governance structure.”
First District Supervisor Roy Lee said he was also against the proposal.
Steve Lavagnino, who represents the Fifth District, called Hagen honest and trustworthy, “a beacon of what a public official is supposed to be,” but also said the proposal had bad timing.
“It would have been great to talk about this four or five months ago, but on the eve of people ready to pull papers, I think it could be construed as trying to block someone’s candidacy, and I know that’s not the intention at all,” Lavagnino said.
Nelson said it was rushed because there’s a short timeline to adopt an ordinance if the supervisors wanted to move the election date for that office.
He said he was fine with letting it go, since there was no support from his colleagues, and was interested in learning more about elected versus appointed department heads.
“Why is this office being considered and not other offices? Does the board have the authority to grant this extension? At the very least, there should be public hearings before any action is taken,” the League of Women Voters of Santa Barbara wrote in a comment letter on the issue.
Capps also said she was open to looking into changes such as Hartmann was suggesting, but not for the 2026 election.
County Elections
County Counsel Rachel Van Mullem said the Election Code determines which positions are elected versus appointed, and some can be converted to appointed positions by ballot measure.
Three positions have to be elected, per the constitution, she said: sheriff, district attorney, and assessor. Staff agreed to return with more information about elections for county offices.
Nelson noted that several counties have recently moved elections for county officials to presidential primary years, including Napa and Solano.
County offices to be filled in the June 2, 2026, primary election include clerk-recorder-assessor, auditor-controller, treasurer-tax collector-public administrator, superintendent of schools, second district supervisor and fifth district supervisor.
Five judicial positions are on the ballot as well as federal and state offices.