Two Goleta City Council Seats up for grabs in historic election, City Mayor to be decided

GOLETA, Calif. – The Goleta City Clerk anticipates high voter turnout in Goleta this year.

“Right now is going to be a higher turnout, just, you know, given that it's the presidential election, you know, in non-presidential elections, there tends to be a little bit lower. We’d like to have them high all the time,” said Goleta City Clerk Deborah Lopez.

This is the first time districts 3 and 4 will get to vote on their respective council members.

Prior to 2022, council members represented the city of Goleta in its entirety.

“In 2022, the last election, it was a historic one for Goleta. It was the very first time that we had district elections. So we were teaching the community and educating the community about knowing their districts, because this is new to Goleta,” said City of Goleta Community Relations Manager Kelly Hoover.

The city is divided into 4 districts— with district 1 being the Northeast Fairview area, district 2 being the Southeast Old Town area, district 3 being the Northwest Winchester area, and district 4 being the Southwest Ellwood area.

Luz Reyes-Martin and James Kyriaco are set to continue representing districts 1 and 2, respectively.

Ethan Woodill is running against Jennifer Smith in District 3.

Business owner Eric Gordon is running against city council member and professor Stuart Kasdin in District 4.

Voters citywide will cast ballots for mayor as well.

Author Rich Foster is running against incumbent mayor Paula Perotte.

“What we find is important to Goleta is pretty much what's important to most communities, and that's public safety. It's the future shaping the future, whether that be development, construction, preserving parks in open spaces, caring about the environment,” said Hoover.

“We do have one measure. That's the Measure G 2024, and that's the Land Protection Initiative, which extends basically Measure G 2012, another 20 years,” said Lopez.

Measure G prohibits changing agriculture-zoned properties of 10 or more acres in the city limits or planning area unless approved by voters.

The Agricultural Land Initiative Extension Measure would change Measure G's expiration date from 2032 to 2052.

It is the only measure on the Goleta ballot.

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