In partnership with TV Santa Barbara and the "Santa Barbara Talks" podcast, Newsmakers this week sponsored the first City Council campaign forums of the local election season, a pair of instructive and revealing, livestreamed face-offs between top candidates in Districts 1 and 3.
Josh Molina and the genial host co-moderated both events, featuring the incumbents and challengers from the city's Eastside and Westside districts. On this week's edition of Newsmakers TV, they proffer a debrief about the clear political and policy contrasts that surfaced in one-hour debates and discussion provided by each set of rivals.
Perhaps the most consequential matter of the evening concerned rent control, or "rent caps," the phrase favored by proponents of the policy.
In District 1, incumbent Alejandra Gutierrez, an independent-minded political moderate, and challenger Wendy Santamaria, a progressive carrying the Democratic Party endorsement, disagreed about rent control, and a host of other issues.
In District 3, a political mirror image found the Democrat-backed incumbent, Oscar Gutierrez, and Tony Becerra, his pro-business challenger, also differing on rent increase restrictions.
As a political matter, the conflicts between the candidates are significant because there currently exists on council a one-vote, 4-to-3, majority against rent caps, which could change based on the results of the election, amid the high stakes community debate about housing.
Deep in the weeds. Some background and context:
In November, voters will decide how much power local governments are authorized to exercise about rent control, by making a decision about Proposition 33.
California state law, for several decades, has restricted the ability of cities to regulate rents, under a 1995 law known as Costa Hawkins (then-state Senator, and now longtime congressman Jim Costa, a Fresno Blue Dog Democrat, collaborated with then-Republican Assembly member Phil Hawkins of Bellflower to pass the measure, which was signed by GOP Gov. Pete Wilson).
Costa-Hawkins prohibited local governments from imposing limits on a landlord's ability to raise rents for a) apartments or other units built since 1995; b) single-family dwellings; c) when new tenants move into a property.
In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature enacted the so-called Tenant Protection Act, which modified these rules somewhat, by setting new state standards for rent increases.
Under current law, California landlords may not impose annual rent hikes of a) more than 10 percent; or b) 5 percent, plus the annual increase in the government's Cost of Living index.
Single-family homes remain exempt from any rent restrictions; however, the prohibition involving units built after 1995 was eased, and the new statewide rent cap law instead excepts units constructed during the 15 years, prior to occupancy.
Now comes Prop. 33, which would repeal state mandates restricting cities in putting their own, municipal rent controls in place.
At this week's District 1 forum, Wendy Santamaria said she favors Prop. 33, and expressed support for a rent cap in Santa Barbara that could be more restrictive than state law now permits. Alejandra Gutierrez said she opposes Prop. 33, with its bid to do away with Sacramento's barriers to local rent caps.
The two also dissented over other matters concerning landlord-tenant relations; local regulations governing construction of new housing; and the need for a proposed half-cent sales tax increase that will be on the city ballot in November.
You can watch the Gutierrez-Santamaria debate via YouTube below, or by clicking through this link. The podcast version is here.
The Oscar and Tony show. The District 3 exchange was an uncommonly affable affair, in part because Oscar is a former pupil of Tony's martial arts dojo ("I love this guy," the latter at one point said of the former, sparking a moderator to wonder if the rivals were making a Bud Light commercial).
Despite this, their antithetical responses to questions, limited to two minutes, highlighted multiple differences of perspective about the proper role and power of government to regulate commerce.
As a longtime small business owner and operator, Becerra expressed his belief that the less government red tape, the better; Gutierrez, seeking re-election as a champion of renters, the homeless, and the poor, stood (literally, due to a bad back) on the left, activist side of the political spectrum throughout.
This gives District 1 voters a distinct choice, between a supporter and an opponent, not only of rent control and eviction legislation, but also of Measure I - the proposed half-cent sales tax increase. They also disagree about:
Forcing developers to build higher amounts of "affordable housing," set aside for middle-class members of the local workforce and lower income people; the incumbent said the required percentage should be much higher than the current 10 percent benchmark, while Becerra favors the status quo;
Imposing a moratorium on conversion and construction of new hotels; Oscar says yes, Tony says no;
Responding to the heated controversy about the closure to vehicles of an eight-block stretch of State Street, a traffic ban put in place during the pandemic as an emergency measure. Becerra wants the street re-opened to traffic, while Gutierrez would extend it further, to the 400 block.
Plus: Tony talks about what it was like being evicted with his family during Covid, and Oscar speaks about the "privilege" of getting to live in a house owned by his parents.
You can check out the District 3 candidates' substantive and civil discussion of all this and more via YouTube below or by clicking through this link. The podcast version is here.
Where things stand. For this reporter, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle makes it a difficult trick to fulfill the role of debate moderator, while simultaneously witnessing, processing and synthesizing the event as a political journalist.
After a couple of days sorting through the two, quite different, Wednesday night discussions, herewith our post-game analysis and commentary
On this week's episode, the fellas talk about what happened, who said what, and what the implications are, both for the campaign over the next 10 weeks, and for the city, given the sundry scenarios that may unfold at the ballot box.
Plus: Josh tells all about the dystopian hell on earth that is parking in Old Town Goleta.
All this and more, right here, right now, on Newsmakers TV.
JR
Check out our review of the city council district debates via YouTube below, or by clicking through this link. This podcast version is here. TVSB, Channel 17, airs the program every weeknight, M-F, at 8 p.m., and on weekends, Sat-Sun., at 9 a.m. KCSB, 91.9 FM, broadcasts the show at 5:30 p.m. on Monday.
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