Candidate Statement
By Joan Hartmann
I have spent my life making government more responsive to the people. My greatest privilege has been serving as your supervisor, addressing your concerns and responding to your needs. I am honored to be endorsed in my re-election by both the Santa Barbara County Firefighters and Deputy Sheriffs Associations.
The hallmark of my office is responsiveness and openness. We respond to all calls promptly and I hold regular office hours in Solvang and throughout the district.
Despite recent natural disasters, the County’s budget is balanced, with a fully restored Rainy-Day fund. We’ve improved efficiencies in delivering mental health, homeless services, criminal justice, and programs for children and families. I have championed clean energy and water wise projects along with expanded parks and trails for public health and community well-being.
I have a balanced and pragmatic approach to my job and take pride in working with community partners to achieve shared goals:
– Public Safety: I worked to ensure that our Fire, EMS and Sheriff have the resources they need to ensure your safety. Together, we’ve improved disaster preparedness, are instituting borderless dispatch, and have held the utilities accountable for recent disasters and power shutoffs.
– Highway Safety: I championed a Traffic Safety Study of Highways 154, 246 and 101 to identify and fund upgrades. I chair the Highway 154 Safety Taskforce committed to bring improvements along this highway.
– Senior Services: I facilitated long-term leases for both the Solvang and Buellton Senior Centers and supported a major funding grant to the Buellton Senior Center.
– Libraries: I increased funding to keep our libraries open and serving the public.
– Tourism: I sponsored a successful bicycle tourism summit, and I support agricultural tourism through a new Farm-Stay ordinance.
– Bikes & Mobility: I advocated for the Santa Ynez Valley Bike Master Plan and a collaborative Safe Routes to School bike education program.
– Parks & Recreation: I am leading the countywide effort for a Recreation Master Plan to guide park and trail improvements. I initiated a major contribution from the County to the Santa Ynez Valley Aquatics Complex.
– Cannabis: The County seeks a well-regulated and enforceable cannabis industry consistent with state regulations and voter-approved Proposition 64. I led the effort to institute a cap on cultivation, to ban cultivation on small parcels, and to direct the planning commission to consider additional measures to resolve the conflicts between traditional agriculture and cannabis and further protect urban-rural boundaries.
– Camp 4. Without a local agreement, Camp 4 would have been put into trust by Congress and the County and community would have had no say in how Camp 4 was developed. Under pressure of this Congressional action, I negotiated an enforceable, local agreement with the Tribe that prohibits gaming, restricts development to 143 homes and a tribal center, while ensuring that 90% of the property will remain in agriculture or open space.
I am proud of my record of service.
I would be honored to have your vote to continue this important work.
Candidate Statement
By Karen Jones
My name is Karen Jones and I am running for 3rd District Supervisor to protect the rights of the individual, the smallest minority on earth. I want to bring rational thought to the County’s decision making process.
As a long time private property rights advocate, I am not against development as long as all parties are treated equally. I see an alarming trend of our elected representation catering to the interests of big money in a manner that is driving out the small business, the family farmer and the individual property owner in the 3rd District. Our current Supervisor and the other two candidates in the race have expressed support for Santa Barbara County writing rules and ordinances so complicated only the very wealthy are able to comply. This is destroying the fabric of our home and robbing us of our individual liberty.
In 2010 I was part of a small group of Santa Ynez Valley residents who founded the Santa Ynez Valley Opportunity Shop, a non-profit thrift store operated by an unincorporated association of volunteers established to raise funds for worthy local causes. After serving a two year term as president of the SYVOS board 2010-2012, I remain an active participant, volunteering in the thrift store and helping wherever needed.
The SYV Opportunity Shop has distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to various causes, including regular donations to the local chapters of the American Legion and VFW, the Buellton and Solvang Senior Centers Meals On Wheels programs, and academic scholarships for graduating SYVUHS seniors. In September 2019 our members voted to donate $10,000 to the Santa Barbra County Stand Down.
My first run for 3rd District Supervisor in 2016 was unplanned, unsuccessful and amazing. I am proud of my performance even though I came up short on election night. I was able to alter the dialogue of the race and the experience altered the trajectory of my life. My performance impressed some of my friends and neighbors who then encouraged me to run for the Santa Ynez Community Services District. Since assuming office in 2017 I have done the research, asked the right questions and I have been an instrument of positive change. I am the first woman to serve the SYCSD and was unanimously elected by my colleagues to a second term as board president.
In 2017 I was elected to serve on the Santa Ynez Valley Airport Authority Board of Directors. I served as secretary of the board in 2018 and currently am chairman of the membership committee. Once again the only woman on the board when elected, I now serve with a strong and diverse new group of directors.
I am happily married to a multi-generational native son of the 3rd District. Two of our adult children and all five of our grandchildren live in Santa Barbara County so the issues and challenges we face matter to me on multiple levels. I care about protecting agricultural land, water and air quality, and the rights of every individual who calls Santa Barbara County home.
Candidate Statement
By Jessica Alvarez Parfrey
We are living in a world that is changing very quickly, increasingly complex, and uncertain for many. I believe that it is imperative that we recognize a growing desire to see our politics and our institutions reflect this changing world in a meaningful way. NOW must be the time for big visions, bold changes, and real collaboration.
It’s getting personal, being real, and allowing ourselves to be vulnerable enough to take into account the richness of our diverse experiences and viewpoints will help us to master an ability to find the common ground that exists between anyone who calls themselves human. This planet is shared, and the fate of future generations will depend on the choices we make here together, and the difficult conversations we have the patience and compassion to master.
The issues and the ideas surrounding “home” are very personal to me. As a renter in Santa Barbara County, I find that my idea of home has become much less about acquiring a mortgage, and much more about connecting to the land that I am on (including its history) and collaborating with people in my community to build a shared sense of safety, connection, meaning, and value. We may not pay property taxes on a real estate asset, but we are paying dearly to live in a county, that needs us but does not seem to want us.
The need for affordable housing that can be deployed in a timely and cost-effective manner (low carbon, low capital) is in greater need than ever. I would take on this challenge even more precisely and ask that the birthplace of the environmental movement offer up the courage, vision, creativity, and leadership to address systemic issues in a truly intentional holistic process that is place-based, participatory, and just. We must prioritize a shift to community-driven processes, and real collaboration through governance to help inform a truly green and just economy.
“Bouncing back” or Resilience is at its heart a systems design method that takes a cue from the way in which emergent and natural systems are able to maintain enough fluidity, diversity, and responsiveness to challenges and changes. I believe that our county needs to learn from the mistakes of the past, and be better at recognizing and responding to the immense challenges and opportunities that come along with our budding Cannabis economy — including both the smokable and wearable kind.
I believe that we need to be more excited and engaged with the energy coming from the Isla Vista/UCSB Community — this is our gateway to the future, a true county asset! We need to thoughtfully and intentionally explore the power of public banking; furthering our vision of a healthy and rooted financial infrastructure that empowers us to do more and better as a community.
I believe that Santa Barbara County, and the diverse communities of the Third District, have immense potential and opportunity for climate-smart regional economic development and design that is innovative, responsive, regenerative, and yes — beautiful.
Candidate Statement
By Bruce Porter
Every election represents a choice, and this year, the choice could not be more clear.
County leaders constantly leave the Santa Ynez Valley in the dust. For decades they have enacted laws that make it hard for small businesses to thrive and contribute to our economy. When cuts are necessary and the budget ax falls, public services have often been the first on the chopping block.
The result: Our roads are some of the worst in the county, a bungled cannabis policy left neighbors and law-abiding cannabis growers in the dark, a school district has been pushed to the brink of bankruptcy while others are forced to reduce staff, and we have fewer Sheriff’s deputies than we did before the recession.
But the Santa Ynez Valley is not the only community with unmet needs. In fact, the entire third district — which has the greatest number of residents living in unincorporated communities — is hit the hardest by the lack of leadership and direction by the current board.
When I took an oath to serve my country after graduating from West Point, I promised lifelong service to my neighbors and community. I served for 25 years alongside thousands of young men and women in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. I helped build and manage critical infrastructure projects, protected natural resources, fought tyranny in the Gulf War, and responded to natural and manmade disasters including oil spills and wildfires.
I have been proud to call Santa Barbara County my home for two decades. Since settling in the valley with my wife, Jeanette, and our children, I have served on the boards of the Red Cross, Food Bank, Boy Scouts, Rotary, and Santa Ynez High School — where I helped balance budgets through tough times and graduated 99 percent of our students. I hope to continue my record of service as your next county supervisor.
I want to bring a shift in priorities to the county government on what’s most important: maintaining roads, parks, and libraries; protecting our environment; improving water infrastructure; ensuring public safety; addressing the rise in homelessness; and enhancing our quality of life.
My goals as Supervisor would be to restore common sense and local governance, focused on creating an economically sustainable and resident-responsive government. We should not be scrambling to fix our own failures by papering them over with additional taxes and unbinding resolutions. We should not wield ordinances like a hammer against any industry who looks like they are going to “do too well.”
This is a way of governance that has been in place for decades at the county level – one I am committed to changing my first day in office.
I promise to focus on better support for families in Guadalupe, responsive governance in Isla Vista, fairness for all in the Santa Ynez Valley, protection of agriculture and the Gaviota coast, and returning $5 million to Goleta annually.
I hope to earn your vote. Visit my website, BrucePorter.Org, and email me at Bruce@BrucePorter.Org if you have any questions.
