From Our Inbox: Letters to the Editor for the Week Ending Nov. 2, 2026

Santa Barbara's opinion pages delivered a one-two punch this week: a warm endorsement in the Santa Barbara Unified school board race, and a sharply worded complaint about the tone of the City Council District 4 contest. The letters, collected by Noozhawk in its weekly "From Our Inbox" feature published Nov. 2, capture a familiar tension in local politics — between campaigns built on resumes and ideas, and campaigns that voters here have historically resisted when they turn negative.

With Election Day falling the day after the letters ran, the timing gave both writers a final word in races that will shape the city's school governance and the balance of its City Council.

A School Board Endorsement Built on Fiscal Stewardship

Lindsay Cortina of Santa Barbara used her letter to endorse Val Amparan for the Santa Barbara Unified School District Board of Education, drawing on a working relationship through the Junior League of Santa Barbara, where the two served together in leadership.

Cortina framed her endorsement around two themes: Amparan's character and her approach to district finances. Describing Amparan as a mother and youth advocate, Cortina argued that responsible budgeting is not merely an accounting exercise but a way of protecting an institution's core mission — in this case, educating children.

Amparan's stated priorities, as relayed in the letter, include financial stability, academic achievement, transparency, and accountability. Cortina also emphasized collaboration, writing that Amparan "listens, builds relationships and brings people together around a shared purpose."

The endorsement lands at a moment when school districts across California continue to navigate tight budgets, declining enrollment-related funding pressures, and post-pandemic academic recovery — issues that have made fiscal fluency a central credential for school board candidates countywide.

A District 4 Race Turns Personal

The week's spicier letter came from Barry Schoer, a Santa Barbara resident since 1975 who wrote that he has worked on campaigns stretching back decades, naming Walter Capps, Bill Wallace, and Bob Lagomarsino among them. His complaint: that this year's District 4 City Council race has broken from the region's tradition of respectful, issues-focused campaigning.

Schoer praised candidate Devon Wardlow for staying focused on what he described as voter priorities — housing, fire preparedness and neighborhood safety, a functional downtown, and a City Council that "can get things done." Wardlow, he wrote, "hasn't taken the bait" in responding to attacks.

His criticism was directed at Wardlow's opponent, Genevieve Taft-Vazquez. Schoer wrote that he attended a Taft-Vazquez campaign event where, in his account, much of the focus was on criticizing Wardlow, and that her supporters have circulated letters attacking Wardlow's work history with what he called "clearly misleading information."

Schoer also questioned Taft-Vazquez's own biography, noting a career that included Coca-Cola and, until January of this year, Goldman Sachs. He pointed to a tension between her campaign mailers' "No More Consultants" slogan and what he described as her operation of a corporate consulting firm based in Virginia, asserting that her clients include federal agencies such as the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Justice, Energy, Agriculture, and Interior, along with the Defense Logistics Agency.

These are the assertions of a letter writer, not independently verified findings by this publication — but they reflect the sharpened tenor of a district race that has drawn unusual attention this cycle. Notably, Schoer's closing line made his standard explicit: "Negative campaigns don't work in Santa Barbara, and they shouldn't."

Why Local Letter Pages Still Matter

Noozhawk's letters feature remains one of the few open forums in the county where any resident can publish a view, under ground rules the outlet spells out each week: letters should be brief — under 200 words, with sub-150-word letters given priority — must include valid contact information, and must be relevant to Santa Barbara County and the Central Coast. Noozhawk, founded and published by William Macfadyen, typically runs the feature on Saturdays.

That brevity constraint shapes what the letters page is: quick-hit endorsements and rebuttals in the final stretch of a campaign, when a well-placed 150 words can circulate widely among engaged voters.

What Comes Next

For Santa Barbara residents, the stakes in both races are concrete. The school board oversees a district serving thousands of local students, with decisions ahead on budgets, facilities, and academic priorities. The District 4 council seat will help determine the council's direction on housing production, downtown revitalization, and wildfire resilience — all issues both campaigns have acknowledged as central.

Ballots in the Nov. 3 election were being processed by the Santa Barbara County Elections Office, with results rolling in over the following days. Residents can track official results through the county's elections portal, and both races — if the letters page is any indication — have left neighbors with strongly held views about not just who should lead, but how campaigns should be run in a community that has long prided itself on civility.

Whether Schoer's axiom — that negative campaigns don't work in Santa Barbara — holds true was being tested at the ballot box the day after his letter published.