There are two candidates on the November 5 ballot for City of Goleta Mayor.
Incumbent Paula Perotte is the first elected mayor of Goleta. She’s been serving on the city council for the last 14 years.
"I'm very much an environmentalist, and I care about oil, getting oil out. Public safety — and by that I mean police and fire, but also keeping our roads safe, our bicycles safe and our pedestrians safe," Perotte said.
When asked about Goleta’s budget, Perotte says it's balanced.
"We do not have a deficit. We have a healthy reserve. And yes, we have projects and it may look like a backlog of projects that need to be funded, but not all of them have been approved by the full council," Perotte explained.
Perotte's opponent in the race is Rich Foster. He says his biggest concern is Goleta’s large amount of grant funding.
"If we start giving grant money back, we can free up staff time that's being wasted on it. We also will be a little tighter for a while because we do have to give millions of dollars back slowly, but that will long-term free up money so we can start catching up on our roads," Foster said.
Foster agrees the budget is balanced but says with current spending, that could change.
"I don't think we needed a $32 million train station. The San Jose bike path started at $20 million and $2 million from the city," Foster said. "We have a city that's in trouble long-term financially."
