A Goleta Neighbor Views the Money

Because I am disturbed at the huge amount of new building and development that I have observed in the recent years of drought in Goleta, and because we have an important election soon for members of the Goleta City Council, I decided to investigate each candidate in some detail. The data I found is readily available on the City of Goleta website:

www.cityofgoleta.org/city-hall/city-clerk/fair-political-practices-reporting/candidate-committee-statements-of-contributions-and-expenditures/

By far, the greatest amount of direct and indirect financial contributions is going to Tony Vallejo for City Council 2016. No other candidate came anywhere close. Some of the money was contributed in 2015, but most in 2016.

Here is a partial listing of the largest contributors and amounts:

The National Association of Realtors — direct contributions $15,000

The National Association of Realtors — indirect contributions $90,000 (at least, consisting of $28,240 in online ads, $35,373 in mailers, $26,480 for voter files and ID calls)

The Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce — direct contribution of $15,000

The Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce PAC (political action committee) — indirect payments of $33,265 of which $7,000 came from the Towbes Group and $2,000 from Camino Real LLC

Towbes Group also made direct payments to Vallejo of $1,600.

The Chumash Band of Indians made a direct payment of $2,500.

Camino Real LLC made a direct payment of $2,500.

Price Property Management contributed $5,000.

Crepac-(California Realtors Political Action Committee) contributed $1,500.

Many other contributions were usually less than $1000.

As far as I could discover from public documents, no other candidate received contributions from the groups listed above. No other candidate seemed to receive any significant amount of support from realtors, builders, and big business groups. I can only surmise that this data may explain the vast amount of construction we have seen in Goleta recently and that if Tony Vallejo is reelected we may see much more! Yet Tony Vallejo claims to be for slow growth and pro-environment.

I am voting for Stuart Kasdin and Kyle Richards

I’m also voting no for Goleta mayor on Measure C2016. It gives too much power in one person for too long. This position is currently rotated from among the five City Council members for a term of one year.

Your choice is your own. Good luck.