Republican Etta Waterfield has been living and working in the Santa Maria community for more than 25 years, but she’s probably best known for running against Katcho Achadjian for California State Assembly in 2010.
Waterfield didn’t win that race, but she said campaigning taught her some valuable lessons.
“Running for Assembly was the best experience because it taught me how politics work and how things are run. It didn’t turn me off to the political process at all. If anything, it energized me more,” told the Sun.
Now Waterfield wants to focus her efforts on the city of Santa Maria.
“I’ve been on the [Santa Maria] Planning Commission for going on eight years now. It’s time to bump it up a notch at the city level,” she said.
If elected to the Santa Maria City Council, Waterfield said her two biggest priorities would be encouraging job development and bolstering public safety.
“The best thing you can do for a person is give him a job,” said Waterfield, who served as a member of the Santa Maria Valley Economic Development Association in the 1990s. During that time, she worked with all levels of government to relax regulations that she said impeded business. She was also a member of the California Space and Technology Alliance, a group of business people from Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties that strove to bring more of the space industry to Vandenberg Air Force Base.
“We created a 10-year moratorium on sales tax for any company that produced components that went into launch [technology],”
she said.
Waterfield wants people to work together similarly in Santa Maria. If elected, she plans to look closely at the building process to see where things can be improved.
“I don’t see any reason why we can’t develop Santa Maria as the top manufacturing and retail hub on the Central Coast, as it used to be,” she said. “It’s all about customer service. You’ve got to be able to work with people … especially in an economy like today’s.”
Some projects she’d like to be more involved with include bringing California Lutheran University to Orcutt and establishing a nonstop flight from Santa Maria to Hawaii via Allegiant Airline.
“It’s about everyone getting on the same page,” she said. “It’s not going to be easy—it’s going to be a lot of hard work. But is it achievable? Heck yes.”
Waterfield would also like to see more revenue generated for the city’s public safety departments.
“We’re so understaffed right now,” she said.
When asked to comment on the scrutiny currently being placed on the Santa Maria
Police Department, Waterfield said: “I support the third party investigation. So many things have been reported by so many people; I really think this investigation is going to clear things up.”
She said she’s talked with police officers on both sides of the issue—those who support and those who oppose Police Chief Danny Macagni—about the way the department is run.
“I still believe in the Santa Maria Police Department and all its employees and officers. I can’t even begin to think about all the things they do to protect us, things that the public isn’t even aware of,” she said.
When asked why she decided to run for City Council, Waterfield said, “It’s about trying to make things a little bit better.”
She credited her foray into politics partly to her mother-in-law, film icon and adoption advocate Jane Russell, who died a year ago.
“She told me, ‘As long as you’re alive and you have breath inside of you, there are two things you’re going to need to know about: Your personal relationship with the Lord and the political process. And you need the Lord to get through the politics,’” Waterfield recalled.
This article appears in Apr 5-12, 2012.