Santa Maria Sun / Cover Story

Council contenders

BY AMY ASMAN

They say seven is a lucky number. When it comes to the Santa Maria City Council race, however, only two of the seven candidates vying for council positions will end up winners come November.

The two seats opening up this fall currently belong to council members Hilda Zacarias and Alice Patino. Zacarias announced earlier this year she won’t be running for reelection; she’ll have her hands full as the Democratic candidate facing off against Republican Katcho Achadjian for the 35th District Assembly seat formerly held by Sam Blakeslee. Patino is throwing her hat back into the political ring after losing the election for 5th District Santa Barbara County Supervisor to Steve Lavagnino in June.

The incumbent will go up against a diverse range of candidates, including former City Council member Marty Mariscal; former Santa Barbara County Planning Commissioner Jack Boysen; local dermatologist Dr. Michael Moats; District Attorney’s Office program supervisor Terri Zuniga; nonprofit employee Jose Vargas; and machinist Tom Davidson.

The Sun recently contacted all of the candidates to ask them some questions about their political beliefs and goals for the city of Santa Maria if elected to the council. Here’s what three had to say (watch for the other four’s answers in next week’s issue):

What do you think makes you a qualified candidate for the Santa Maria City Council?

The commissioner Former Santa Barbara County Planning Commissioner Jack Boysen told the Sun ,“Our government's No. 1 responsibility is keeping our citizens—you and me—safe.” PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER

Michael Moats: I have spent 32 years practicing medicine in the private sector. I have met a payroll and provided health insurance and retirement benefits for my employees. I have dealt with regulations from governmental agencies. I know what it takes to administer a small business and meet the bottom line. I have served on the board of directors of the Community Bank of Santa Maria for the last 10 years. I have observed the financial hardships our community has suffered in the last three years from the viewpoint of a bank coping with our current prolonged recession. I know times are tough for our commercial and development communities. I have served the city of Santa Maria as a planning commissioner for the last five years, chairing the commission last year. This has given me experience in zoning and development issues and knowledge of what’s going on in our community. I have been a member of the Santa Maria Kiwanis Club for 25 years, where I have served as president and participated in many charitable Kiwanis activities. My wife and I have raised four children in the Santa Maria Valley, and we have five grandchildren living in Santa Maria.

Terri Zuniga: I have lived in Santa Maria for 50 years, raised a family here, and attended local schools. My background as the program director for Domestic Violence Solutions provides me with an understanding of program management, budgets, the importance of collaboration and working together to get things accomplished. At Domestic Violence Solutions we collaborated with the Santa Maria Police Department; that project provided me an inside perspective of the issues and concerns facing those who are charged with protecting our residents. I am happy to share that my candidacy for City Council is endorsed by the Santa Maria Police Officers Association. My current work as supervisor of the District Attorney’s Office Victim Witness Program continues my service to victims of crime. Working daily in the criminal justice arena, I have a keen understanding of the level, cost, and multitude of effects crime has on our community, its residents, and first responders. Both my personal and work experience in our community give me an in-depth understanding of the needs of our residents, the resources available, the ability to identify needed resources, and the understanding of the sometimes difficult decisions that need to be made as we face continuing economic challenges together.

Gangs and gang violence are admittedly problems in Santa Maria. As a City Council member, what would you do to remedy these problems?

Boysen: Our government’s No. 1 responsibility is keeping our citizens—you and me—safe. Our kids need to be safe in their schools; we need to be safe in our communities and in our homes. Our police, fire fighters, and first responders deserve the full support of our elected officials so that they can do their job. I am committed to maintaining current levels of peace officers. If budget cuts are to be made, they cannot be made at the expense of the safety of our community. Additionally, we must work with law enforcement authorities to develop and implement effective intervention, prevention, and re-entry programs to combat the rising tide of gang activity in our neighborhoods. Zero tolerance must be our mantra when it comes to gangs and gang violence. Gang injunctions and drug testing in our schools must be considered as tools to help our law enforcement agencies better protect the public. We must provide our police with the resources to monitor gang activity. As our community faces the early release of inmates from our state and federal prison systems, we must proactively work with police, probation, parole, and court officials to ensure that our community is safe.

The doctor Dr. Michael Moats, owner of Moats Laser and Skin Care in Santa Maria, said, “The best way to improve the local business/job scene would be to change our Legislature in Sacramento via more business-friendly legislators such as Sam Blakeslee.” PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER

Zuniga: The population of our community has increased fairly rapidly. I don’t believe the city was prepared for this rapid increase, the need for increased services, or the impact this growth has had on our resources. As a result, I believe many of the needs of our residents are unmet. Examples would be a lack of affordable housing, a lack of well-paying jobs offering benefits, overcrowding of classrooms, and a lack of infrastructure to deal with the many issues faced by our youth. If you view it from a social perspective, you would identify poverty, homelessness, drug and alcohol abuse, and gang violence as consequences of this unpreparedness. I would offer as solutions long-term planning for our future growth to circumvent the continuing increase of crime in our community. Additionally, I will work to promote our community as a viable place to employers who pay good wages, offer benefits, and long-term employment. I will work to develop collaborations with nonprofits, developers, and employers to build affordable housing. We must engage the youth in finding solutions for the issue of youth violence. We cannot continue to attempt to develop strategies, programs, and services to deal with youth violence without engaging them.

If elected to City Council, what would you do to bring sustainable jobs to Santa Maria?

Boysen: Santa Maria has a golden opportunity to provide significant increased economic expansion through the development of the stalled Airport Research Park. It is imperative that we work with the Airport District to explore ways of re-energizing this effort. We must develop the infrastructure to attract companies that will employ our residents in middle- and higher-income jobs. Our City Council needs to work closely with the county of Santa Barbara to assure that federal stimulus funds allocated to our city will benefit local businesses and provide middle- and higher-income jobs to our local residents.

Moats: We live in troubled times as relates to job formation. Massive federal spending does not seem to have made much of a dent in creating private-sector jobs. We need to remember we live in a state that seems to be discouraging job creation in the private sector by its policies on taxation and regulation. New businesses would prefer to locate to states that are more business friendly, and if a California business considers expansion, it might likely go out of state. It’s a battle just to keep local businesses here. Perhaps we can steal away some businesses from Santa Barbara, where the cost of doing business is even higher than here. The best way to improve the local business/job scene would be to change our Legislature in Sacramento via more business-friendly legislators such as Sam Blakeslee. In any event, we can create infrastructure for business to locate here, such as the proposed airport business park.

Zuniga: As I indicated above, I would work to promote our community as a viable place of business for potential employers. I believe we need to focus on employers who provide good wages, benefits, and long-term employment. I would also look to recruit employers who are environmentally conscientious. I think the relationship between the City Council and the Chamber of Commerce is an important one. I would work to clearly identify the roles of each entity in terms of the recruitment of employers to our area. I would begin by identifying industries we would like to have here, our ability to meet their needs, what recruitment efforts should be made, which entity should be responsible for the recruitment, and what we might have to offer employers to encourage them to locate to our community. Also, we should not ignore the local talent we have, and I would support the local small business owners and entrepreneurial endeavors of our residents.

Besides gangs and jobs, what do you think are some key challenges facing the city of Santa Maria?

Boysen: Housing needs to be affordable for working families. At the same time, we cannot sacrifice prime farmland or negatively impact our city’s water, traffic, safety, and open space. Through my work as a Santa Barbara County Planning Commissioner, executive assistant to Supervisor Joe Centeno, and as the CFO of Good Samaritan Shelter, I am thoroughly familiar with the issues and dynamics regarding affordable housing and the various governmental and environmental codes and ordinances affecting new development. The city of Santa Maria currently has a very stable financial position. However, challenges with both revenues and expenditures lie ahead. On the revenue side, sales taxes and hotel taxes should continue to be major sources of revenues to the city. New shopping development on the 101 freeway corridor and the revitalization of our downtown area will energize and diversify the Santa Maria shopping experience and will also strengthen sales tax revenues. Consideration should be given to reducing development fees to encourage a responsible degree of growth. As a member of the City Council, I will also support and promote increased tourism within Santa Maria. Hotel taxes, paid by visitors to our city, go directly to our bottom line: funding city services.

Moats: A key challenge for Santa Maria is to attract people with significant disposable income. Currently, it seems just the opposite is happening, with the local demographic tilting toward new residents with minimum-wage job expectations and subsistence lifestyles. For example, if a new health-care professional moves his practice to Santa Maria, would he locate his family to Santa Maria? Would he want his children to attend local schools in the city? Probably not. Most likely he’d move to Arroyo Grande or Orcutt. What would you do? We have a specific plan for development of our downtown area to create a vibrant and interesting place (a little like Higuera Street or State Street). But will it ever be built? The city can’t build it. It takes private capital investment by businesspeople who feel a new vibrant downtown would be a profitable investment. When I moved to the Santa Maria Valley 32 years ago, the schools were good, crime was low, and the Saints could actually beat Righetti in football. It was a good place to raise a family. Now crime rates are soaring and school standardized tests scores are cratering. Is Santa Maria still a good place to raise a family? We need to make sure it is.

The supervisor Terri Zuniga, who currently oversees the District Attorney’s Office Victim Witness Program, said, “We must engage the youth in finding solutions for the issue of youth violence. We cannot continue to attempt to develop strategies, programs, and services to deal with youth violence without engaging them.” PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER

Contact News Editor Amy Asman at aasman@santamariasun.com.