District 2 Candidates Seek Votes on Santa Barbara Mesa
Randy Rowse is the incumbent running for re-election to the Santa Barbara City Council.
“I’ve lived where I live for 30 years,” Roswe said. “My kids went to school here. We’ve been involved. We’re pretty comfortable with our neighborhood.”
Rowse believes tackling the smaller things have helped make the quality of life better for residents throughout the City of Santa Barbara, from the city takeover and re-striping of Cliff Drive for safety reasons, to improving lighting in the city’s east and westside neighborhoods. The councilman said he is realistic about challenges facing the city, including hiring difficulties, and the need for teamwork.
“It’s really important who’s ever on council to understand that we’ve got one budget, one police department, one fire department, one parks and rec and we have to still cooperate,” said Rowse. “It won’t be about our individual fiefdoms, it’s going to be about running the city.”
K. Missy Sweeney Zeitsoff, another candidate in the running, is a self-proclaimed spark plug.
“Basically, I cut my teeth in municipal government in Malibu,” said Zeitsoff.
She is one of the first and founding members of the Malibu City Council and an advocate for social justice. The state of the current police department and our water crisis are among her top concerns and she said there are plenty of smart people in the community of Santa Barbara to help solve them.
“They’re out there,” said Zeitsoff. “If someone explains it to them and maybe changes council meetings to 6:00 p.m. so maybe they can come to more of them and get that same input and same feeling of being involved, I think we have an incredible population of people.”
Mesa native Luis Esparza is also vying for a seat.
“I think it’s a natural progression of my life to date: Education training, public service,” said Esparza.
Esparza said he is currently serving on the civil grand jury and likes getting things done “behind the scenes.” The council candidate sees a number of money-raising opportunities for the city that currently are untapped, from the vacation and home rental industry to medicinal marijuana, and Governor Brown’s granting of a one year period for cities to come up with their own rules and regulations.
“I really think the city has an opportunity here and it might be a small window to make some structural changes that could really benefit us all for the longterm,” said Esparza. “As opposed to letting it slide under the radar … Which has been the approach.”
NewsChannel 3 profiled candidates in Districts 1 and 3 earlier in the week.
Santa Barbara’s General Municipal Election is Tuesday, November 3.
