Comments by David_Pritchett
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Posted on November 11 at 9:23 a.m.
Facts always are good when making policy decisions.
This essay needs a link or two to the original report with the data, and I am sure another reader will post it.
1 of 2 people thought this was a good comment.
Posted on November 5 at 10:31 a.m.
Some of these new Councilmembers will be especially... uh, interesting to watch....
1 of 3 people thought this was a good comment.
Posted on October 30 at 9:39 p.m.
Tired of slates, PACs, and smear ads?
Consider me as the un-allied independent instead, endorsed by both the Independent and Daily Sound newspapers and many other groups and individuals for those very traits.
List here: http://www.davidpritchett.org/
As my campaign funding has come from individuals, I will not be beholden to the usual interests that influence the City Council. I will be fiercely independent to make policy decisions for the whole and long-term benefit of the City. I will owe nothing to corporate interests, public employee unions, or Political Action Committees.
I do support and respect the City¹s fine workforce, and I would be able to make decisions impacting them without the burden and conflict of an obligation to political campaign contributors.
To the voters: I will be nobody¹s Councilmember but yours. Vote for me, and together we will shake up City Hall.
Posted on October 23 at 2:08 p.m.
I wish thank Nick Welsh for his prolific reporting and writing this past week for these candidate profiles and the narrative preamble article.
Just a few clarifications or amendments:
* The Randall Van Wolfswinkel Political Action Committee (PAC) has now contributed (report yesterday) more than $500,000 into this election, a doubling in the past month.
* My challenge to Michael Self to renounce the sleazy tactics of the PAC, conducted to benefit her, is reported here:
http://www.thedailysound.com/results/101...
* I am on the Board of Trustees for this local Special District agency, not named "Control" but fully "Mosquito and Vector Management District of Santa Barbara County"
http://www.mvmdistrict.org/
* My mother not only was an "office worker" but she also was a cook in the County jail.
* This is not a "shoe-leather" campaign but a synthetic-rubber-soled sneakers campaign.
* I worked 4 years for the federal agency Fish and Wildlife Service, which is not a separate "Department" but a bureau within the broader Department of Interior.
* I am no longer advocating for a pot store "tax" like a sales tax, because that would encourage the City to want more revenue from the proliferation of pot stores. Instead, I support the ordinance revisions for a finite number of pot stores that would have to obtain a license or franchise from the City, and where they would pay an associated fee that fully covers the expenses of the City to deal fully with the review and policing of these finite number of pot stores.
* I hardly have commented on "every article printed" or even at websites accepting comments, but I am glad the Indy writers think so.
* My video show Off-Leash Public Affairs is here, which recently has video about my campaign and issues:
http://offleashpublicaffairs.blogspot.co...
* I do not recall ever using the term "special interests" but I do think voters and news reporters should look into the huge campaign contributions that the various public employee labor unions have paid to 6 of my rival candidates from either trio of bloc endorsements. Such contributions exceed $10 thousand for some of them, all an obvious conflict of loyalties for the tough budget and contract negotiations next year the City Council will have to do with those same public employee labor unions. I do support and respect the City’s fine workforce, and I would be able to make decisions impacting them without the burden and conflict of an obligation to political campaign contributors. To the voters: I will be nobody’s Councilmember but yours.
* And finally, any SB City voters who want to learn more about my campaign and ask me any questions are always free to contact me by email or telephone. Both are readily found at my website: http://www.davidpritchett.org/
Posted on October 19 at 8:54 a.m.
TODAY (19th October) is the last day to register to vote for this election. Here is the link to the form due today with a postmark or delivery to the County Elections office at 130 E. Victoria St.
http://www.sos.ca.gov/nvrc/fedform/
For Santa Barbara city residents who have voted before but have not received the big ballot envelope in the mail, the reason for not receiving a ballot likely is because the current residential address DOES NOT MATCH the current voter registration address. Thus, a new voter registration is necessary to have the new address on record.
Ballots DO NOT FORWARD in the mail. They are returned as undeliverable and nearly a thousand ballots have been returned and eventually shredded by the Post Office, all as the law specifies.
For any questions, no bouncing is necessary; just call the City Clerk at 805-564-5309.
YOUR VOTE IS YOUR VOICE
Your ballot should have arrive two weeks ago is that big heavy envelope with the City Seal in color and the big words in color that say: "THIS IS YOUR BALLOT"
Posted on October 15 at 3:22 p.m.
No "TK" necessary; Measure D-2009 allows the option for one of the seven Harbor Commissioners to be a County resident and qualified elector. See:
http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/NR/rdonlyr...
And for ABR, the members are structural architects and landscape architects, but not "landscapers".
Now that is an insiders experience with an outsiders attitude!
1 of 1 people thought this was a good comment.
Posted on October 9 at 9:51 p.m.
How could a billionaire be a Communist?
Posted on September 21 at 9:53 a.m.
Great work for this important step to install order to the taxi chaos, including clear charges for airport fares.
I have articulated for a year --and it is in my Ten Policies proposals-- that the City needs to enact more flexibility for taxis to pick up passengers quickly in the downtown "nightclub zone" to benefit traffic flow and public safety with fewer drunk drivers.
I hope to work with the Taxi Committee on these details when elected to the City Council. Local taxis are part of the transportation solution for Santa Barbara.
--David Pritchett
http://www.davidpritchett.org
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Posted on November 19 at 11:11 a.m.
Bart (who sent in this letter) is sort of advocating for Instant Runoff Voting, as a way to vote for a ranked choice of candidates:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-run...
EastBeach proposes a more practical way for individual voters to deal with the conundrum of more preferences than the 3 votes to cast on the ballot, by voting for the candidate you think needs the votes instead of a presumed winner.
District elections have been a discussion topic during the past 3 SB City election cycles, yet by January the issue completely fades.
District elections have their advantages and drawbacks. But once elected via the at-large system, the incumbent City Councilmembers have little to gain by pushing a new District election system that favors new challengers, where votes would be earned by person-to-person popularity in neighborhoods instead of through big fundraising to pay for mass advertising.
Nearly endless fighting also can ensue by how to set the District boundaries, and whether politicos simply move their residence (or at least get an address) in a District where they think they have a lot of voter support.
If the people of Santa Barbara want election reform, campaign finance reform and public finance could be a way to get there. District elections could be another, and would cost the City budget far less money.
However, Santa Barbara had District elections ("wards") up through about 1969, when (according to a story told to me by Hal Conklin) the residents of the district and its Council representative were opposed to the proposed La Cumbre Mall, but the rest of the Council wanted it and voted in that mega-project against the wish of that district representative. Council districts were dissolved shortly thereafter.
While District elections are standard, unquestioned procedure for large cities, such as San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Los Angeles, etc., Modesto is a California city about the same population size of Santa Barbara. November 2009 was their first election with 6 Council districts. Lots of reporting on this is available at the Modesto Bee news website:
http://localsearch.modbee.com/sp?aff=110...
On The Missing Fourth