Posted on 07/28/2009 8:13:19 AM PDT by Zevonismymuse
The 26-year-old says his lack of formal experience gives him an advantage in addressing city issues.
He’s one of the youngest candidates in the race for Santa Barbara City Council, second only to 24-year-old Olivia Uribe, but 26-year-old Justin Tevis says supporters of all ages and walks of life are behind his run.
“I’m not trying to ride the youth vote by any means,” he says.
Tevis is somewhat of a mysterious figure, and had been less visible in the past than some of his other competitors, who have cut their teeth speaking at council meetings and organizing for community causes.
He contends he has plenty of experience in the private sector, an outlook he maintains is desperately needed in whoever wins seats in November. He’s a manager and works in purchasing at the Territory Ahead. He also worked for a production home builder, and helped in sales at a company called Polymer Logistics, where he helped set up a 65,000-square-foot distribution center in Riverside.
Tevis sees his lack of formal city experience as an advantage and is using a different approach than his more experienced candidate counterparts. “I truly have an outsider’s perspective,” he said. “I’m not going to vote for pay raises for my friends if it’s not in the budget of the city.”
After getting degrees in international relations and history at Claremont McKenna in 2005, Tevis said he’s always had a passion for politics, but never thought he’d be running for office. After seeing so much news coverage of the economic crisis, he said he felt that workers in the private sector were being underrepresented.
“I felt like citizens were being overburdened and having agendas pushed down their throats,” he said. “I feel that the way the economic crisis has been handled by all levels of government, federal, state and local, has really shown that the politicians in office are out of touch with reality.
“Instead of balancing the budget responsibly, they’re turning it back on the citizens and looking at our pocketbooks to make up for the mistakes that they’ve made.”
He has a few suggestions for Santa Barbara’s budget shortfalls, one of which would be holding city workers to the same levels of accountability as those in the private sector. “For example, a $35,000 administrative job in the private sector is getting paid over $90,000 at the city,” he said.
He said there are too many lifelong politicians at work in City Hall, and more people are needed in office, he said, representing “hardworking, private-sector citizens at large.”
“This is a pivotal time in our history,” he said, “and good people need to step up, or our city could become insolvent.”
Tevis was born at Cottage Hospital and grew up Santa Ynez. Preserving Santa Barbara’s “small-town cultural identity” is important, and he said he doesn’t feel that character should be compromised in the name of affordable housing or big projects.
Cherishing that small-town character was a sentiment Tevis saw in his parents, who still live in the Santa Ynez Valley. “We’ve seen what can happen with overdevelopment,” he said, and is supportive of limiting heights in downtown Santa Barbara.
Instead of fighting for more affordable housing, Tevis said he’d like to see the focus shift to maintaining basic infrastructure, such as upkeep for roads and bike lanes.
He’s in favor of neighborhood task forces working with police task force units to try to quell gangs in Santa Barbara, but said he’s not in favor of any type of gang injunction.
“I don’t think we need to live a big-brother, lock-down type of society,” he said. “I think that anything we do in regards to gangs needs to be taken with a grain of salt, and taking civil liberties and privacy and respect of human beings into account.”
As for homelessness, Tevis believes the problem is worse than it’s been since he’s lived in the area, and though he supports private charities and churches helping the homeless, he doesn’t support tax dollars going toward building shelters.
“I don’t think that we need to have a city council or a planning commission where their No. 1 priority is building free housing for the homeless,” he said.
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at lcooper@noozhawk.com.
Fieldmarshaldj, I hope you recognize that you’re becoming too emotional. You always have been vis-a-vis Romney, but to not insert him into a discourse in which he has no place is really telling.
STOP TELLING LIES ABOUT RUSH LIMBAUGH WITH REGARD TO IMAGINARY "SUPPORT" OF ROMNEY.
I heard Rush, too. And my opinion is vastly divergent from yours. Yes, it’s true that he never endorsed any candidate, but it was obvious that Romney was his preferred one. And McCain didn’t sit well with him at all.
Thank you for taking the time to read the article and posting a germane response. Rather than waste time with the silly mobs of thugs who troll FR, I am happy that you see the importance of this candidate running in a city like Santa Barbara. There is a crowded field with at least three and possibly four seats open, depending on the outcome of the mayoral race. Justin Tevis has a real chance at winning.
Our country is in serious jeopardy right now and we need to have appealing candidates with strong core principles get elected at the local level. I am 100% behind this young man because he is willing to stand up for freedom.
Don't waste time with these diversions...this article has nothing to do with Mitt Romney. This article is about how folks like me are working hard to preserve our freedom. There are folks with nothing better to do than in-fight and name call while our country is in dire straights.
Justin Tevis is a thoughtful, grounded conservative young man who gave a great speech at the Tax Day Tea Party that I helped organize. I doubt the name-callers spend much time or money organizing anything. They are probably just a bunch of fat slobs in bath robes typing with one hand while they shovel twinkies in their mouths.
Uncanny how much Justin Tevis looks like the EMT star of that new show on NBC “The Listener.”
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0646241/
If Justin ever makes history (which I hope he does, he sounds terrific) this actor should be the one to play him!
I think Justin is going to make history in November being the youngest conservative ever elected to the Santa Barbara City Council. I will keep the actor you suggested in mind...
Thanks for standing up for true conservatism.
I stand on what I said about the gangbanger comment.
I think you’re the one being a bit patronizing here.
Simple. This troll has a habit of promoting liberals.
If one person who doesn’t know anything about Mitt Romney except that Coulter likes him therefore he must be great sees this and wises up before we end up nominating the SOB in 2012 then it worth it.
Zevonismymuse forget the talking heads look at his record, it speaks for itself he’s a RINO millionaire who wants to be President to assuage his ego and probably to avenge his daddy’s loss in 1968. I had serous doubts about him but McCain came along and I had the mistake of actually voting for Romney. Only after did I learn his full story. He’s at best no better than McCain. JR Ewing for President!
And one man didn’t destroy civility on this forum. There has never been civility on any website unless it is moderated in a Nazi like way fashion like “Television Without Pity” where I swiftly was banned and insulted without warning for not liking military dictator William Adama on “Battlestar Galactica”. You don’t want that kind of thing here.
Now as to Justin Tevis. I’m not a hardcore law and order guy. I’ve very distrustful of police power. They are part of the government after all. I wouldn’t blow one statement on one issue by him out of proportion. I do hope he doesn’t oppose any sensible anti-gang measures though. I don’t know if they’re a big problem in Santa B. Gangs suck.
The troll also spouts off the same tiresome Slick Willard talking points, too. As for Hannity and Coulter, they jumped the shark a long time ago when the put good looks and $$ ahead of principles. They throw out that crap ad infinitum as if I’m supposed to be “impressed.” Like I said to the troll, maybe if I give her a dime, she’ll endorse me, too, and all the trolls will similarly “be impressed.” Why this one wasn’t shown the door a long time ago...
You have distorted my assertion. I never said what you are claiming I said. I said "contributed enormously" and I stand by that. There are certainly many other ill mannered people here that reflect poorly on this site.
I posted an optimistic article about a young man taking on the liberal establishment and was attacked out of the gate for something entirely unrelated to this fine young man's campaign for freedom. I thought a site named FreeRepublic was an appropriate place to post such an article. How can you solicit conservatives to come to a national Tea Party at the same time you trash folks on the front lines of the movement? This seems self-destructive.
Sure hope so. Sounds terrific in the video. Hope you'll post his progress!
Thanks. I'll keep you posted. This is gearing up to be a very exciting race. All politics really is local.
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