A Look into Councilmember Alejandra Gutierrez’s Record of Attendance

Three Santa Barbara councilmembers are vying for reelection this coming November, but only one incumbent, Councilmember Alejandra Gutierrez, has been under a microscope for an alleged record of absenteeism and tardiness at City Council hearings. Several critics, including some former supporters, have publicly accused Councilmember Gutierrez of missing or being late to as many as 70 hearings over the past four years, while others have come to her defense, claiming that the number is inflated and she has only missed a handful of council meetings during that time.

This week, the Independent combed through public records to get to the bottom of this alleged record of absenteeism and find out which meetings Councilmember Gutierrez missed or arrived late to between 2021 and 2024, and to provide details on the issues that were discussed and voted on without her input on the dais. This information was verified using the city’s official meeting minutes and videos from the hearings — which are all publicly available online.

The review of records found that from February 2021 to July 2024, Councilmember Gutierrez was absent, arrived late, or left early for at least 70 meetings. More specifically, she had completely missed 47 regular and special city council meetings during that period.

This number is consistent with those reported by the Santa Barbara County Young Democrats — an organization that endorsed Gutierrez during her 2019 campaign, but is now endorsing her opponent, Wendy Santamaria, for the same Eastside district seat this year. The group’s president, Christian Alonso, wrote in an op-ed last month that their own public records analysis found that Gutierrez had missed “nearly one in five” council meetings.

Alonso, who has been outspoken about his disappointment in Gutierrez’s record over her first term, said that it was “troubling” not only to see the amount of meetings Gutierrez missed, but also to know that some of these meetings included votes on some of the city’s biggest issues, such as housing and budgets. “It’s not just meetings; it’s votes,” Alonso said. “The public record is the public record, and I think voters deserve to know if you’ll do the job and show up.”

The review of meeting minutes highlighted the discrepancy between the numbers reported by critics and the lower number of missed meetings reported by Gutierrez and some of her supporters, such as the Democratic Women of Santa Barbara, a group that commented via a post on social media: “We did check Councilwoman Gutierrez’s attendance and she has missed seven council meetings in her term, which is similar to other members.” 

This discrepancy is based on how the meetings are being counted, and whether “special meetings” are being considered along with regular weekly meetings. From 2021 to 2024, Gutierrez missed only seven regular weekly council meetings and more than 40 special meetings. Special meetings, which all councilmembers are expected to attend, are called to discuss specific items several times a month.

Among these regular and special city council meetings that Gutierrez missed were financial discussions over the 2022 budget, 2023 budget, and departmental budget reports regarding parks and recreation, electoral redistricting, sustainability, police and city attorney, and public works. On March 9, 2023, Gutierrez was absent for a two-and-a-half-hour budget work session about the upcoming 2024-2025 budget and the expected $7 million general fund deficit.

Some involved the approval of new hires for key positions within the city. She was one of three councilmembers absent when the city approved the hiring of Public Works Director Cliff Maurer in 2021, and the only councilmember absent for the approval of new Police Chief Kelly Gordon in August 2022.

Several of these meetings involved housing, including a three-hour hearing on the city’s Housing Element and a December 2022 council meeting in which the city decided to allocate $3 million in surplus funds toward an Affordable Housing Trust Fund and another quarter-million dollars toward a right-to-counsel program for tenants facing evictions.

It was at this meeting in particular that Santamaria, Gutierrez’s challenger in the District 1 council race, remembers speaking “to an empty chair” during public comment. When Santamaria spoke in support of using the surplus funds to help tenants in the city, every other member of the council was there to listen, she says, except Gutierrez. 

“It’s the reason I’m running,” Santamaria said during the District 1 candidate forum on September 23. “Because I’m tired of seeing the neglect in our district; I’m tired of seeing no action being taken…. Our taxes pay our city councilmembers, and I think the least we deserve is some accountability — a response to an email, a response to a phone call, a text.”

During the same forum, Gutierrez addressed the criticism, explaining that she was going through health problems that forced her to miss a large number of meetings, and that city staff and her fellow councilmembers were well aware of the legitimacy of her absences.

“I actually find it a waste of time, and I want to set the record straight,” Gutierrez said. “I was extremely ill, and I did miss meetings…. I do have the privacy of my own health, and being open about something so private is not something that is okay to weaponize [against me].”

Gutierrez said that, while she has missed meetings, she feels that she has been “very present when it comes to hard conversations” during her time on the council, and pointed out that other councilmembers had been absent but do not face the same level of scrutiny. (In the same meetings that Gutierrez missed, Councilmember Meagan Harmon had 16 absences, while Councilmember Mike Jordan missed nine meetings, and councilmembers Kristen Sneddon and Eric Friedman each missed three.)

“We really have to be mindful when you attack somebody because of health issues,” Gutierrez said. “The reason that I won by eight votes [in 2019] is because I have been present. I have served my community for over 20 years. I’ve helped first-generation students to go on to higher education. I’ve helped families to navigate the education system. I’ve helped local business owners gain resources from the local government and have a voice.”

Her opponent, Santamaria, said that she never intended to dive into Gutierrez’s health, but only to call out the public record of attendance.

“I want to be very clear: We should not even be inquiring about Ms. Gutierrez’s health,” Santamaria said. “But this is five years, and we can see on the City Council minutes when somebody’s absent. It’s one thing when everything’s closed for COVID and you’re on Zoom — that makes sense — it’s another for it to say ‘absent’ or ‘late’ and miss the important discussions.”

Mayor Randy Rowse weighed in on the topic during an appearance on Newsmakers with Jerry Roberts this weekend. Rowse, who has voted with Gutierrez on a number of issues, including reopening State Street and opposing rent control, admitted that Gutierrez’s absences were “her biggest fault,” but that he understood she had medical issues and “she always let us know when she couldn’t attend.”

“Yeah, the absences were problematic,” Mayor Rowse said. ”Everybody knows about them, they’re all documented, and they’re unfortunate. But as far as doing the work and doing the job, I have a lot of confidence in her.”