Born and raised in Santa Barbara, Anabella Lehne brings a poignant and powerful origin story to her upstart campaign for City Council.
A proud child of immigrants, the 43-year old Lehne was raised by a single mom, became a teen mom and a hockey mom, then refashioned herself over the years as a teacher, a law student and a family caregiver — before establishing a career as a small business operator who runs her own notary and financial services enterprise.
As of Aug. 17, she was officially certified as a candidate for the District 6 council race, a wide-open, four-way contest to replace the termed-out Meagan Harmon in representing downtown, Oak Park and nearby neighborhoods — a constituency that has the highest percentage of renters and the lowest rate of homeownership among the council’s six districts.
A close friend and ally of former council member Alejandra Gutierrez, Lehne (pronounced LEH-nay) in a Newsmakers interview offered a sharp critique of the incumbent council’s push for rent control, called for at least part of the eight-block State Street “promenade” to be opened to cars, and promised to bring a professional’s gimlet-eyed perspective to troubled city finances.
“I need to make some change,” she said when asked to explain why she decided to run for council in District 6. “So I’m not going to sit on the couch and just watch these things happen. I want to be part of it.”
“I grew up in District 6. I had my daughter from high school in District 6 — I’m your local,” Lehne added. “So if you want local, you want us to keep it Santa Barbara, hire me.”
Rent control conundrum. As a practical matter, one big challenge Lehne faces is convincing district voters — about 80 percent of whom are renters — that she would best represent their interests, despite her opposition to rent control in general and the rent stabilization ordinance now on offer at City Hall in particular.
She said that helping working-class families afford to stay and put down roots in Santa Barbara is a top priority of her campaign — but she fundamentally disagrees that rent control is an effective solution to achieving that goal. Government regulation of the market, she added, will work to constrict supply at a time when City Hall should move more vigorously to find ways to make it easier to build more housing.
“Santa Barbara will never stop being beautiful, but it’s also an expensive place and it’s not going to get any cheaper,” she said. “And I feel that … we don’t need to accept our families being pushed out, our small businesses being closed down. We need to focus on leadership that can focus on things that we can actually get done.”
“I am all for tenants — I’m a tenant myself — but we need to look at supply and demand,” Lehne told Newsmakers. “And if we are not motivating developers to make space for all of us who are already here, we will have less housing to go to.
“So let’s say my 18-year-old son at home eventually wants to leave the house and find an apartment. If there are no apartments, what happens? Next door normally would have been maybe a $2,000 apartment, but now because of the rent cap, no one is moving and no more buildings are being built. No more available space — of course that landlord is going to charge maybe $4,000.”
State of play. In the District 6 race, school board member Gabe Escobedo is the presumed front-runner, both because of his years of experience working on city issues and the organizational resources that come from his Democratic Party endorsement. His fundraising has lagged, however, as realtor Alexander Stoeber recently reported several major campaign contributions, and the fourth candidate in the race, electrician Jason Carlton, brings experience from having run previously.
Asked what differentiates her candidacy, Lehne responded, “I am born and raised here in Santa Barbara.
“I have had my entire life here volunteering and working here — I don’t plan to leave. I plan to stay here forever. So with that love and care, I do believe that people will see that I have the best interest of Santa Barbara in my heart,” Lehne said.
“Maybe people from out of town come in with other interests, to push to get onto bigger things outside Santa Barbara,” she added, an apparent indirect swipe at Escobedo, who grew up in San Bernardino County, settled here after college at UCSB and has made no secret of his desire to climb the local political ladder.
“I don’t want Santa Barbara to be used as a stepping stone. It shouldn’t be political. It should be, honestly, your neighbor on the city council,” Lehne said. “It shouldn’t be backed by any party.”
On the issues. In the Nov. 3 election, the balance of power at City Hall is on the ballot, amid races to replace retiring Mayor Randy Rowse and three termed-out neighborhood district representatives on the seven-member council. Our conversation with Lehne is the latest in a summer-long series Newsmakers is doing with candidates for council and mayor. In the interviews, we ask the candidates for their views on four key issues.
Here’s a glimpse at what Lehne had to say about them, lightly edited for clarity.
Rent control. “I do want to see protections for all of us. I do see the injustice, and I do see and hear … and it’s horrifying what some landlords have us go through, but I really doubt and question whether this ordinance is actually going to solve the problems and issues that we have as tenants … One issue with the ordinance is that we would have to have all our information in a database — safety with our information is a great concern to me … And on top of that are the startup costs … I’m terrified to hear what that is, and why are they not disclosing that? There shouldn’t be any hidden fees here. We should know what the fees are. If we go into this — while I definitely want tenant protections — what is the startup cost? Why do they keep dancing around that question?”
State Street. “As a local, I definitely do remember — it’s funny, because some people who are not from Santa Barbara say, ‘Oh, there’s no such thing as people just driving down State Street and looking at stores and saying, “Oh, I want to go there.” That doesn’t happen. You have to walk it all.’ Well, excuse me, that’s actually what we used to do back in the ‘90s. We used to go and cruise up and down State Street … That definitely was a culture here in Santa Barbara. Driving up and down State … I definitely miss it being open, so I agree with (mayoral candidate and council member Eric) Friedman, to have a smaller section be closed (to traffic).”
Budget. “I feel that we have been overspending. Our reserves — we’ve been touching them when we shouldn’t have been … So I feel that we need to be very careful with our future spending and make sure that we stay within what we can afford … I know some consultants and they’re very successful and very wealthy people, very amazing people, but I do feel that we could cut (consulting contracts). That is a very big cost, and we keep hiring consultants and not seeing results, or taking months to years with these consultants. So I know they have a lot to say and a lot of great input at times, but a lot of them don’t even come from Santa Barbara, so their studies are from bigger cities — or they don’t really have that love and care for our town. So if anything, we could probably find consultants at a better cost, or even just use our own resources and be our own consultants.”
Ranked-choice voting. “If it came with time (to consider details) and the cost was right — if we can afford it, why not? Let’s do it. I feel that that’s a great way to have people’s voices be heard.”
Check out our conversation with Anabella Lehne via YouTube below or by clicking this link. Our podcast is available on Apple, Spotify, or on SoundCloud. TVSB, Channel 17, airs the show every weeknight at 5 p.m. and at 9 a.m. on weekends. KCSB, 91.9 FM, broadcasts the program at 5:30 p.m. on weekends.
Newsmakers’ Candidate Conversations. To offer Santa Barbara voters early introductions to contenders for four City Council seats, including Mayor, in the Nov. 3 election, Newsmakers is publishing one-on-one interviews with the candidates over the summer. Upcoming interviews include council candidate Jason Carlton. Here is who we’ve spoken with to date: