Who Will Be Santa Barbara County’s Next District Five Supervisor?
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) - Three candidates are on the ballot to fill Steve Lavagnino’s seat as District Five Santa Barbara County Supervisor, since he’s retiring at the end of this year.
Ballots are on the way to voters’ mailboxes if they haven’t already been received, and polls will be open on June 2nd for in-person voting.
Maribel Aguilera’s term on Santa Maria’s City Council ends this year, and her priorities are public safety, as well as youth education and training programs.
“I’m an attorney,” says Aguilera. “I know how to read the law. I've lived in the district my entire life. So I know what is important to this district.”
Cory Bantilan has served as soon-retiring Steve Lavagnino’s chief of staff for the 5th district for the last fifteen years.
In addition to community restoration and recreation, Bantilan’s priorities include public safety, job creation and homelessness.
“I’ve actually lived in every single district in the county,” says Bantilan. “I think that's an advantage, because the Board of Supervisors deals with land use issues all over the county, and they don't always understand the nuances of the different neighborhoods.”
Ricardo Valencia is a teacher at Santa Maria High School and a board member of the Santa Maria-Bonita School District.
“I’m a multi-generational, multiracial, coalition builder,” says Valencia.
Valencia intends to champion living wages and quality childcare.
“I want to make sure that the county is investing in affordable housing so that every income level families can live with dignity,” says Valencia.
All three candidates have a priority focus on the housing crisis, but their approaches to the various issues involved are a little different from each other.
“There's not a whole lot that a county supervisor can do,” says Cory Bantilan. “Those levers on inflation are pulled in Sacramento and Washington, DC, so I don't want to make promises I can't keep, and I don't feel that I can make folks lives more affordable. When it comes to housing, you have to build the right amount of infrastructure for housing. If you're going to build housing, you need to make the roads bigger. You need to make the traffic lights, more efficient. And we just haven't seen that locally.”
If any one of these three candidates receives 50% plus one from the June 2nd primary election, they automatically win the vote without appearing on the November ballots, and will assume the seat after Lavagnino’s retirement.
“Whoever gets to 50 plus one, then we're done and we can start to work on the issues that really matter at the county level,” says Maribel Aguilera.
But if the results are more widely spread than that in June, the November ballot will contain the leading two candidates for a final vote.
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