1-on-1. In D5 Council Race, Film Producer Cevin Cathell Faults SB's "Polarized" City Hall: "I'm Not Beholden to an Agenda"
Touting professional budget and organization skills, lifelong Democrat says behind-the-scenes political intrigue - and her opposition to rent control - froze her out of party endorsement.
Cevin Cathell worked for decades in the production side of the film industry and says the skills she developed — administering budgets, organizing complex projects, managing personality clashes, herding cats — equip her for the duties of serving on Santa Barbara’s City Council.
A political novice, Cathell came to Santa Barbara in 2000 and has paid community dues for a quarter-century as a low-profile volunteer with the SB Women’s Club, the Music Academy and the Film Festival. Now she is seeking the District 5 council seat being vacated by the termed-out Eric Friedman, who is running for mayor.
In an interview, she said she was prompted to run for office for the first time by watching the current council, where long-range consequential decisions like rent control, the future of State Street and even the city budget are being decided on 4-to-3 votes — which she said is leading to “polarization” across the city.
“We are at a crossroads now in Santa Barbara — the polarization is not good for the city,” Cathell (her name is pronounced Keh-vin Ka-THELL) told Newsmakers.
“I’m at a point where I feel like I can give back — I have the skills, I have the organizational skills, I have the budgeting skills,” the 67-year-old Cathell added. “I feel like my strengths, in everything I’ve done, have been to help bring people together — not necessarily in a kumbaya way, but just being able to talk to people and get them to work together.
“I don’t know if that’s gonna be possible, frankly, but I’m gonna do my darndest,” she said.
State of play. District 5 includes Upper State Street, part of San Roque, Hitchcock, Hidden Valley and other nearby neighborhoods. U.S. Census data shows it is relatively affluent, with the highest share among the six council districts of bachelor’s degree holders, and over half of households owning their own home.
Cathell is one of three candidates who have pulled papers to run, with Democratic Party-endorsed Ian Baucke, an aide to Sen. Monique Limón, and financial planner James Zurlinden also vying for the post.
Cathell’s commentary on key policy questions is heavy on platitudes — “we’ve got to bring everyone to the table” — and short on specifics — “I don’t have the whole entire answer; I wish I did” — but she speaks clearly in broad strokes about the big issues facing the city: she opposes rent control and most new taxes, and favors experimenting with returning cars to several blocks of upper State Street on the downtown “promenade.”
“We need to develop more retail, and we need to support the retail that we have already,” she said. “Building affordable housing downtown will bring more businesses down there as well, and of course that will increase sales tax revenues.”
*** Cevin vs. DCC. A lifelong Democrat who was raised by liberal, politically active parents in North Carolina, Cathell said she sought the Democratic Party endorsement but was surprised and disappointed to learn that the county committee had “handpicked” Baucke as their candidate early on. In any case, she was disqualified because of her opposition to rent control, a determinative issue for the party.
She gave this account of her dealings with the party:
“From the very beginning, when I started telling people that I was thinking about running, they were so encouraging — they said, ‘We’re thrilled; however, you have to know that the DCC, the Democratic Central Committee, has chosen somebody else. They’ve handpicked somebody else.’”
“And I said, ‘Fine, I’m going to go for their endorsement anyway, even though I know that they’re going to choose this other person…And so, yes, I went up against the big machine. I did get an interview with the Democratic Central Committee. It was not the most positive interview I have ever done, but I knew going in that they were not going to choose me.
“I feel that they have chosen somebody who has gone with the party line, which is more of a socialist-democratic platform, rather than opening up to all of us …
“I’m not using this as a stepping stone. I’m doing this because I really care about what’s going on in Santa Barbara. And I’m willing to sacrifice and use all my talents to actually try to do the right thing for Santa Barbara … and not be beholden to an agenda.”
*** (Update 9:08 p.m. 7-23-26: About an hour after Newsmakers posted this piece, we received an email from DCC Chair Christian Alonso taking issue with her version of events in which he stated:
“I have great respect for Cevin and the energy she's bringing to this race, and I also understand that campaigns are hard, personal, and often exhausting. But I want to be direct: the characterization of our endorsement process in her Newsmakers interview is not accurate.
The Santa Barbara County Democratic Party's endorsement process is open to every registered Democrat who chooses to seek it. Every candidate who applies receives the same interview process before our Central Committee, made up of elected representatives from across the county. No candidate is chosen in advance, and no outcome is predetermined before candidates have had the chance to make their case.
I take seriously any suggestion that our process was unfair, and I've reached out to Cevin directly about her concerns. But I want your viewers and readers to know clearly: our committee's decisions reflect the votes of its members, made through an open process, not a "handpicked" outcome decided in advance. I wish Cevin well in her campaign and look forward to a race focused on the issues that matter to District 5 and city voters”).
On the issues. Our conversation with Cathell is the latest in a summer-long series Newsmakers is doing with candidates for council and mayor. In our campaign interviews, we ask the candidates for their views on four key issues. Here’s what she said about them.
Rent control. Cathell said she opposes the rent stabilization ordinance before council next week — specifically the 60 percent of Consumer Price Index limit on rent increases — and thinks it will discourage construction of new rental units. “We need more affordable housing, and I’m not sure that this one-pronged approach is going to get us there. It is going to work in the short term for a very small number of people, but I do believe that it will discourage more housing, and we need more affordable housing. That’s the only way we’re gonna get out of this.”
State Street. Cathell said she greatly enjoys the so-called “arts district” and the lower four blocks of State Street, which she thinks should remain closed to traffic, but that the city should be more flexible with the closed upper blocks. “There are a lot of people on the upper part of State Street that are suffering, and those businesses may not be there for much longer. We need a more vibrant downtown, and if opening it up is part of the way to do it, great … Open it up with the option of closing it.”
Budget. Cathell said she might support increasing the city’s Transient Occupancy Tax but opposes a so-called “vacancy tax” on unused downtown properties or housing units. She declined to identify any specific savings in the city’s $257 million general fund, deferring to “the experts” on City Hall staff. “But we are very heavily taxed here. Personally, part of the reason I’m running is because it’s hard to live here. It’s very expensive. And when you are being taxed heavily and your insurance is going up and inflation is going up, it’s very difficult to keep going. And so I think we need to get creative.”
Ranked-choice voting. Cathell said she has not studied the notion of changing the city’s election system but would be willing to support putting it on the ballot in a regular even-year election, but not as a special election measure.
Check out our complete conversation with Cevin Cathell 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 candidates Ian Baucke, Alexander Stoeber, James Zurlinden, Wendy Sims-Moten and Kristen Sneddon. Here is who we’ve spoken with to date: