Snapshot: Das Williams
Age: 29
Occupation: Master’s Degree Candidate and Teaching Assistant, UCSB, Environmental Studies; Legislative Aide (on leave) for Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson
Background: Grew up in Santa Barbara; worked with Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress, California Democratic Party, County Supervisor Gail Marshall, Community Environmental Council, Environmental Defense Center, Vote the Coast P.A.C, Santa Barbara County Action Network, Living Wage Coalition

LD: Why do you want to be on the City Council?

DW: This is my home. … To me the most important jobs in the community are city and county level, and the coastal commission.
… And I believe the people in Santa Barbara want or believe in the same things that I stand for, which are clean water, good transportation and good planning, and empowerment of the neighborhoods. Those are issues that transcend ideology. They’re not about left or right; they’re about Santa Barbara.

LD: What would you most like to see change?

DW: I would like to have the city respect and pay attention to its neighborhoods. I think when people come to city hall, they want to know that their council members haven’t already made up their mind before they’ve been heard and that their opinion matters as much as anybody else in the city no matter how powerful they are. I will be that kind of council member that listens to the neighborhoods. That not only listens to them when they come to city hall but go out to the neighborhoods and listens to them. … I think whether it is true or it is only perception, the neighborhoods — whether they’re working class, middle class or affluent in this community — don’t feel like their opinion matters as much as it should. Now I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but I think it’s a problem that they feel that way. And I want to make sure that they don’t feel that way by effectively engaging the neighborhoods and representing the neighborhoods.

LD: What about your views on spending?

DW: … I think being fiscally responsible goes beyond being fiscally conservative. You can’t address basic infrastructure and economic needs of a community by just shutting down and hoping the problems go away. … I think investing in basic infrastructure, like clean water, like a good transportation system, is one of the best ways we can do that. … In the short term it would create more jobs, because sewer replacement and rail authority create jobs. And in the long run it would also create more jobs because it would be easier for business to operate here in Santa Barbara.

LD: What issues would be your priorities if elected?

DW: One of those is clean water. I’ve done a lot of environmental work for Hannah-Beth, including this oil bill that was just signed into law by the governor … I wrote that for Hannah-Beth … I’ve also helped on creek and ocean water quality issues with Hannah-Beth. And I’d like to take my policy experience to city hall to tackle the issue of water quality. I think it’s important to Santa Barbara, not just from an environmental perspective, but it’s part of our identity to have clean water. It’s a public health danger if people don’t know when it’s safe to take their kids out into the ocean. But it also poses an economic threat to us. Every time there’s a beach closure it means less business in town, fewer jobs and less revenue for the city.
I think it’s one of the best examples of why sometimes it’s the most fiscally responsible thing to do something rather than not do something. People say fiscally conservative but that implies that you don’t do anything about the economy or that you shut down operations in the city and you cut departments. My viewpoint is that there is a cost to doing something but there is also sometimes a cost to not doing something. Water quality is one of the best examples of that. If we don’t spend money to clean up our creeks and oceans we’ll have less money in the future.

LD: What do you appreciate most about Santa Barbara?

DW: The natural beauty of our coast, and the inner beauty of Santa Barbara’s people. We’re a different kind of place; we’re a place where the prosperity of Santa Barbara’s business and the health of the environment go hand in hand. I believe the interests of working families in Santa Barbara are also in the best interest of the economy in Santa Barbara. And our best example of that is transportation, which is the second most important issue. … We need to take a large step, which is to begin our regional rail authority with Ventura County and North County governments and split the cost of a commuter rail. I think nothing would be more beneficial for the working families here, I think nothing would be more beneficial for the environment. And nothing would be more beneficial for business.

LD: What are your feelings about growth in the community?

DW: I am a firm believer in protection of open space, protection of the coast and I have always supported slow growth candidates and helped elect those folks. But I do think that we need to provide enough affordable and workforce housing that we do not lose the middle and working class of Santa Barbara, which we are in danger of doing. … I also wouldn’t want to see inaction on our part in the city be a cause of the development and the destruction of adjacent coastlines which are a part of our identity and a part of our city. The Gaviota Coast may not be in the city boundaries but it’s a part of who we are. The Ellwood Bluffs and More Mesa, these are places that are part of Santa Barbara and part of who we are.