District 3 Candidates Seek Santa Barbara Council Seat

This district 3 race for Santa Barbara City Council pits a community activist and a new face in city politics against an incumbent.

Cathy Murillo is the only incumbent, running against local activist Sharon Byrne and local resident Cristina Cardoso.

The candidates spent their final days before Tuesday’s election making a final push to reach Westside Santa Barbara voters before Election Day, Nov. 3.

More than 50 percent of District 3 voters are Latino. Each of the three candidates agree that parking congestion, illegal dumping, and pedestrian safety concerns are important to this community.

“I brought the bus service, preschool money, pedestrian safety measures, better cross walks, better lighting,” said Cathy Murillo. “It’s fair for people to ask, ‘What have you done for The Westside?’ And I’m glad I have a record to show.”

Murillo, a forrmer journalist and current council member, boasts that she was a big part of revitalizing the Westside Neighborhood Association. If re-elected, Murillo says she will continue to look out for her district but also issues that matter to the city as a whole.

“The city is doing well under my leadership,” said Murillo. “We are saving money again after the recession. We’re restoring services the new children’s library for instance and crime is down under my watch.”

Murillo says one of her top goals is to get the city using more solar power.

One of those gunning for Murillo’s job is Byrne. Working with the Milpas Community Association, Byrne said she helped get 10 homeless residents off the street and re-purposed trash cans with children’s art. However, Byrne said her activism started on The Westside after a murder in 2009.

“One of the reasons we have street lights in this neighborhood now is because we worked with the mayor to get them installed,” said Byrne. “Because it was so dark and we had a lot of crime in the neighborhood.”

Byrne worked to get a mural up to cover gang graffiti and wants to make the streets safer.

“If you look at our streets, you’ll notice that they haven’t been updated in years,” said Byrne. “Yet the traffic patterns have grown significantly on an older configuration. I’m an engineer, so I like solving that kind of problem.”

Cardoso may be the wildcard. Her campaign is small, but she is well-known in the community, having worked in the school district for 16 years. The housing authority employee said Latinos on the Westside are under-represented on the city council, and she wants that to change.

“I will go out to the community and call them into meetings because the changes we need to produce in the Westside, they need to be involved,” said Cardoso. “They need to say, ‘This is what we want, this is what we need and here we are.'”

Cardoso wants more after-school programs for teens and rent control.

“We are sending many families who work here who work eight, 10, 12 hour shifts, and they cannot afford to live here in Santa Barbara.”

Roughly 15,000 residents live in Santa Barbara’s Westside community, and voter turnout is typically low. However, candidates hope the arrival of district elections will inspire more residents to cast their ballots.