Recent announcements from current and potential City Council members made the first week of June an important one for Santa Maria’s upcoming elections—the first round of district elections in the city’s history.
Rafael Gutierrez, a longtime Santa Maria resident and attorney specializing in criminal defense and personal injury, announced his candidacy for the District 4 City Council seat on June 8.
A group of supporters gathered outside the Allan Hancock College student union building that evening, where Gutierrez shared his plans to increase and diversify Santa Maria’s job opportunities, improve public safety, and revitalize downtown.
“I made the decision to run for City Council, the 4th District, not because I thought it would be easy,” Gutierrez said at the event, “but because our community deserves better leadership.”
Although Gutierrez described himself as a left-leaning “middle of the roader,” several notably liberal community members—including former broadway actor Gale McNeeley and the House of Pride and Equality President Jessie Funes—spoke in support of Gutierrez’s affinity for inclusion and plans for positive progress.
Gutierrez, they said at the event, would better advocate for the needs of Santa Maria’s long undervalued and underrepresented demographics.
Gutierrez—an alumni of Ernest Righetti High School, Hancock College, UC Berkeley, and Columbia Law School—said that after leaving for school, he had always planned on moving back to Santa Maria. For years he struggled to find high-paying job openings outside Santa Maria’s health care industry, and when he finally was able to return in 2013, Gutierrez said he was shocked at how little had changed.
“So we’re the biggest city between Salinas and Oxnard,” Gutierrez told the Sun, “but what do we have to show for it?”
Santa Maria’s downtown is still essentially nonexistent, Gutierrez said, the city’s economy still heavily depends on agriculture alone, and Santa Maria’s leaders continue to prioritize corporate restaurants and businesses over local small-business owners.
“We have big-city problems and this small-town mentality about how to approach them,” he said.
If elected, Gutierrez said he would work to change that. With the addition of a city grant writer, designated City Council office hours, increased support for local businesses, and immediate improvements to downtown roads and sidewalks, Gutierrez said Santa Maria could finally become a city that attracts tourists, long-term residents, and high-paying jobs.
Gutierrez wasn’t the first to announce candidacy for the District 4 seat.
Current 4th District City Councilmember Etta Waterfield announced her bid for re-election on Nov. 20, 2017, outside the Santa Maria Public Library, where a group of roughly 40 supporters and colleagues gathered to hear her speak.
Waterfield, who is backed by several local conservatives, including Mayor Alice Patino and Santa Barbara County Supervisors Steve Lavagnino and Peter Adam, was elected for her first four-year City Council term in November 2014. Since then, Waterfield said she has worked to upgrade the Santa Maria Police Department and has implemented several programs dedicated to bringing new businesses into the area.
Before her years as a council member, Waterfield worked for more than a decade with the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Commission and the Santa Maria Economic Development Association, according to her city bio. She also helped found the Santa Maria Police Council, a nonprofit organization that provides additional funds for police safety equipment, materials, and training.
“As your councilwoman,” Waterfield said at her announcement event last year, “I pledge to continue to work tirelessly to enhance our public safety efforts, including fire, police, and traffic circulation—which has been coming up—and to retain the attraction of new jobs, new employment, and making the growth of the city an economical and prosperous one.”
Waterfield could not be reached for comment for this story.
Both Waterfield and Gutierrez reside in the district they hope to represent, a new requirement the city approved in 2017 after an unsuccessful City Council candidate threatened to take legal action against the city, citing the California Voting Rights Act. Now, only community members living in District 4, the southeast portion of Santa Maria, will be able to vote in November’s District 4 election.
Individuals living in District 3, the southwest portion, will also have a chance to vote this year, although a candidate from that district has yet to come forward.
Mayor Pro Tem and two-term City Councilmember Jack Boysen, who represents District 3, announced in a written statement on June 7 that he would not run for re-election.
“I feel that two terms is enough for anyone to make their footprint on an elected body,” Boysen wrote in the statement, adding that he and his wife plan to spend more time in Southern California with their grandchildren. “It is time to bring in fresh ideas and renewed energy.”
The city will consolidate its November election with the Santa Barbara County Registrar of Voters as usual, according to Mark van de Kamp, public information manager for the City Manager’s Office. The first ballots will be mailed out by the county on Oct. 8, and residents will have until Oct. 30 to vote.
Prospective candidates can file to run with the county starting July 16 through Aug. 10.
City Council elections for Districts 1 and 2 will be held in November 2020.
Staff Writer Kasey Bubnash can be reached at kbubnash@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 14-21, 2018.