For the third cycle in a row, 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino will be running unopposed for his seat on the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors.
“I either figure people think I’m doing a good job—or doing my best—or it’s so screwed up that no one wants the job,” he said. “I get a lot more input from people, but at the same time I think it’s because they [community members] see how much you have to put up with as a public official. It’s just a different job now than it used to be.”
After redistricting, the 5th District looks slightly different in 2022, with both Santa Maria and Guadalupe grouped together, and Lavagnino said he’s excited about the new community makeup.
“I love the addition of Guadalupe. I’ve had the opportunity to go out there for their food distribution program. … You wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the mayor and a volunteer. It’s really cool and makes me want to do more, and they are going to be a focus this term,” he said.
Along with Guadalupe, Lavagnino’s priorities this term include maximizing cannabis revenue while minimizing neighborhood impacts, reforming the criminal justice system, and monitoring county project spending, he said.
“I’ve always been more focused on the budget than other supervisors. My No. 1 job is to make sure the county’s being fiscally responsible and our taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely,” Lavagnino said. “Our board is good at living within our means, and our board makeup is going to change a little bit, I just want to make sure that focus remains the same.”
The board’s changes include 2nd District Supervisor Gregg Hart stepping out of his seat and Laura Capps filling it in June, as no one filed to run against her by the March 16 deadline. Running unopposed in a supervisor race isn’t uncommon in Santa Barbara County. Both 4th District Supervisor Bob Nelson and 2nd District Supervisor Gregg Hart also ran unopposed for their last terms (2020 and 2018, respectively), Lavagnino said.
Capps said she decided to run for office after serving on the Santa Barbara Unified School District board of trustees for five years because of the major issues she saw as a board member—poverty, the housing crisis, and COVID-19’s economic impact.
“I want to be a part of the solutions to strengthen our county, especially for those who are marginalized. I found that Santa Barbara County is an incredibly beautiful yet challenging county to live in,” Capps said. “Poverty is my top priority because we have such a challenge when it comes to poverty; we have some of the highest poverty rates in the state.”
According to research conducted by Stanford University, Santa Barbara County has a 22 percent poverty rate. To help, Capps said she wants to increase participation in the earned income tax credit—a program that gives tax credit to low-income individuals who are working, as long as they file their taxes—to help with poverty levels, she said.
“Right now, not enough hard-working low-income people throughout Santa Barbara County are receiving the funds they’ve earned because they don’t know about the program, and that means they are missing out on potentially thousands of dollars,” Capps said.
Under the umbrella of poverty reduction, she added that she’d like to address the housing crisis and get the county’s economy back on track. By working at the county level, she hopes for collaboration between all of the supervisors to come up with solutions to local issues, she said.
This article appears in Mar 24-31, 2022.
