Mayoral Candidate Jamie Baker and Mayor pro-tem David Brown are both running for the mayor's seat in this year's election. Both Brown and Baker are long-time Solvang residents who say health and safety will be among their top priorities if elected.
In addition, Jamie Baker told KSBY he also would focus on other local issues.
"Our water issues and maintaining our revenue so that we don't always have to raise taxes to solve our issues," Baker said.
Baker also has the goal of revitalizing the city's arts and culture scene to encourage tourists to stay for longer periods.
"It's time for the city to have a renaissance, a renaissance, very much like it had 40 years ago when the town was bustling," Baker said.
As for David Brown, one of the issues he seeks to improve is traffic flow through town during peak tourism days by increasing pedestrian safety and decreasing congestion.
"We are a little town with theme park problems. We can control the pedestrian traffic. And I'd like to see crossing monitors. Having that, particularly during the peak hours that we have, like a theme park would have, will make that traffic flow much better," he said.
In addition, Brown says if elected he’d re-negotiate city contracts.
"I'd like to get better value from our sheriff's contract," Brown added.
KSBY reached out to candidate Denise El Amin seven times via phone and three times over email in the past few weeks but did not receive a response.
