Guadalupe’s in quite the fiscal pickle.
Facing a $1.6 million deficit, the city’s elected leaders made the prudent decision to cut their own stipends as way to help tackle budget woes—even though it only amounts to savings of $2,100 per month, every little bit counts!
It’s quite the opposite of what its neighbor to the east decided to do. Santa Maria’s elected leaders gave themselves a raise in August. As the city faces a more than $7 million deficit, council members will raise the city’s expenses by $1,700 a month starting in December.
Every little bit counts!
I do feel for the Guadalupe City Council, which has weathered a rough ride and is heading into stormier financial seas. Council members, who didn’t make that much to begin with, will be down to $150 per month starting next year.
Talk about taking one for the team!
At Guadalupe’s Sept. 8 meeting, Mayor Ariston Julian described the cuts as showing “that we’re a player in this.” It does show that.
Santa Maria City Council members, on the other hand, will be making $2,000 per month before the end of the year.
So, these two councils are not the same, population-wise, revenue-wise, or otherwise.
It’s good that Guadalupe realizes that it’s stuck between a being a city and not being a city, a pickle that’s confounded the little city that could for as long as I’ve been squawking. And even longer than that.
But the arguments about council pay are valid: The lower the pay, the more wealthy someone has to be to be able to afford to take on the position or the more retired someone has to be to be able to dedicate time to the position rather than working. A pay cut could discourage people from running for office, as Guadalupe Councilmember Whitney Furness pointed out.
“You’re not going to get the quality of people able to do this if we don’t offer incentive to be here,” she said. “The people that are running for the council seats that are open may not have run.”
Well, one candidate, Robert Diaz, stepped up to the public comment mic to let her know that he’s great with the pay cut and that if a pay cut dissuades someone from running, “maybe that’s for the best.” Well, he’s running unopposed, so perhaps the $500 per month that council members currently make wasn’t really an incentive to run.
Then, former Mayor Frances Romero had to weigh in, as one does when they used to be on the council but now make a regular practice of criticizing it: “The idea that somehow you get a better person because of a couple of hundred dollars, I’m not buying that at all,” she said. “If some people choose not to do it over a couple of hundred bucks, then, oh well.”
Shots fired.
Furness did her best to fire back. She said the council should just cut stipends to zero, then. Nobody responded. Nobody likes a petty Betty, I guess.
Better to get $150 than not have a city because it had to dissolve over fiscal insolvency, amirite?
The Canary thinks it depends on who you ask. Send a response to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in September 17 – September 24, 2026.
