Krishna Flores decided to join the Santa Barbara County 4th District supervisor election to give voters a choice in the March 5 primary elections, she told the Sun.
“I’m a newcomer. I’ve never run for public office before, and this whole process is new to me. Having said that, I’ve learned so much in the last few months,” Flores said.
After the 2021 redistricting process, the 4th District now encompasses Orcutt, Tepusquet, Garey, Sisquoc, Los Alamos, and Casmalia, as well as parts of Vandenberg Village and the Space Force Base. Voters in the updated district can drop off their vote-by-mail ballot from Feb. 6 to March 5 or hit the polls on March 5 for the primary election.
Flores, a Los Alamos resident, came to Santa Barbara County in 2008 because her husband was stationed at Vandenberg and she previously worked in human resources for publicly traded companies, she said. Since 2018, she’s served as a board member for Manzanita Public Charter School and volunteers at Orcutt Academy High School and Vandenberg.
“In terms of HR, you need to be a critical thinker, problem solver, you’re involved in the day-to-day operations like budgeting requirements, community outreach, and those are all the things I see as skills [that] would be beneficial for a supervisor,” Flores said. “In terms of my work with the school board, there’s a lot of collaboration. It’s working with the board and sharing a vision and having the same way forward and sharing values and high expectations for our school and leading in a collaborative way.”
If elected, Flores said she wants to focus on housing affordability and living wages, access to health care, and supporting educators in the community. For housing affordability, she said she wants to prioritize low- to middle-income housing and explore rezoning, disincentivizing corporations owning housing, and promoting low-income tax credits or rental assistance to help workers afford to live in Santa Barbara County.
Community health programs, forming partnerships with local organizations, and setting up more mobile clinics are ways she’d like to help expand timely access to health care, she said.
Flores said that she wants to host public forums with the communities she represents in order to better support their voice—something she said is lacking from her current representative in her experience as a community member.
“I find value in gathering, meeting together, and hearing the ideas, issues, and thoughts of the communities. I think there’s a lot to learn from listening,” she said.
Current 4th District Supervisor Bob Nelson told the Sun that he’d like to do more work around forming community services districts (CSDs) in his district’s unincorporated communities, which could better advocate for their needs and have more power to directly serve their constituents.
“Otherwise, it falls on the county, and the county has all these different services, and they might not be thinking about what Los Alamos might need. From sidewalks to schools, that’s not coming to mind when you’re running a county as large as ours,” Nelson said.
Advocating for agriculture and public safety continue to be Nelson’s priorities to balance the need for more housing with the county’s top industry and as rural crime continues to plague farmers.
“I’ve always been a strong advocate for ag, and it’s a good person to be in that seat,” Nelson said. “If I’m no longer on the Board of Supervisors, that no longer exists. My opponent doesn’t have that background; I’m sure that she can bring a lot of great things to the table, but she doesn’t have the perspective I have.”
Greater investment in infrastructure and recreation spaces in North County are also things he’d like to see expand. He added that he’d like to see the county’s Emergency Medical Services contract agreement through to fruition as it gets worked out in court and the new universal dispatch center system kicks off.
“Having an opponent gives me a chance to talk about what I’ve done and what I’ve been doing. There’s a bit of heartache, it’s a bit personal, but I think it’s good for democracy,” Nelson said.
Visit https://registertovote.ca.gov to register to vote before Feb. 20.
This article appears in Jan 11-21, 2024.
I have live in Los Alamos for over 50 years. And very involved in the community and I have no clue who this person is. She has not supported any fundraising or community events. Bob has had at least 3 different meetings at either the mens club or park and she did not attend those. As for as housing. Shes part of a group thats trying to stop a development being built in Los Alamos which includes low income housing. It makes you really wonder if what shes saying is truthful.