Meet Al Clark • Carpinteria City Council District 5 Candidate

Clark, a 35-year Carpinteria resident and current Vice Mayor on the Carpinteria City Council, has served on the council since 2006. Sometimes a vocal dissenter from majority council decisions, Clark has largely been the sole councilmember against renting out the public land – Lot #3 – to the Surfliner Inn’s private developers. He was the only councilmember not to sign an August council letter opposing the controversial Measure T Initiative.

Introduce yourself and tell the community why you are running for Carpinteria City Council. Speak to any experience you bring to the table. 

I have lived in Carpinteria for 35 years. I am married to Kathleen Lord who has started volunteer efforts in Carpinteria, including Sealwatch, Bellas Artes and the Peace Corner. Our children are Charis Haines, Ben Haines and Spencer Clark. Ben is an artist, and his wife Carolyn is a teacher at Canalino. They have two children: Adam and Jeremy. Jeremy is on the water polo team at Carpinteria High School. Charis lives in New York and was the principal dancer in a major dance company. Spencer is a musician in Europe. 

I have served on the council for 16 years. I was appointed to the City Finance Committee, where I spearheaded and co-authored Measure X. This measure provides $3 to $4 million each year – money that has helped make the dreams of our own library, skatepark and street paving come true.

Running for election in the Fifth District, I find that the small beach town we all love and that you have helped me to protect is at another high-stakes crossroads. Will Carpinteria remain “the last great beach town in Southern California” or will that soon be lost? Around town, many people I talk to are deeply concerned that our City Council is tilting backwards, moving us towards big business’ development interests and away from the interests of our residents. It’s time to reset our course. If you share my vision for our small town, please help me get re-elected to City Council. I will continue my work to protect us from inappropriate development, address the housing crisis, plan for the Chevron property and address sea level rise. I stand strong for women’s rights, racial equity and against threats to our very democracy.

Please help me save our city and keep Carpinteria, Carpinteria by giving me your vote.

The city has seen a number of hot-button issues in its community forums recently, related to crime and community safety, employment, and residential and commercial development, such as the Surfliner Inn project. What do you see as Carpinteria’s most pressing or important issue, and why?

Carpinteria’s single most pressing, central, and important issue is how do we keep Carpinteria, Carpinteria. There is constant pressure to grow and change. Most agree that some change is good. I maintain that we will prosper if we focus on what is important.

I believe we can remain the last great beach town if, in all of our decisions, we equally balance the protection of our fragile environment with preservation of our small local businesses and with serving the needs of the people of Carpinteria who care so much about our town and about each other. Overdevelopment threatens not only our quality of life, but our natural treasures, our open space, and our appeal as a special tourist destination. Repurposing and reusing existing buildings should be prioritized. I have a constant and proven vision on how to keep Carpinteria, Carpinteria. As a councilmember I do the research and ask the questions that will lead me to the results. I look for problems that Carpinteria faces and try to address them in advance. 

Example: I helped create the formula business ordinance to protect our downtown business community from out-of-town chain stores; I initiated an ordinance to control the spread of short-term rentals that decimate our housing stock; I initiated another ordinance reducing local use of plastic bags and Styrofoam to protect our environment; I initiated Measure X and made the financial decision to bring a sales tax increase to a public vote to bolster our budget and fund our local library, etc. As a result of my leadership, all of these measures drew support from my colleagues on the council. I am the one with the vision that Carpinteria needs to continue to grow and prosper and yet stay the same place we love.

Reflect on a recent city council decision. Would you have made a different decision? Why or why not?

I disagree with a decision made at a council meeting in late February 2021. The council had by then received over 1,000 written or oral comments from the public about the Surfliner Hotel, many requesting that the public be allowed to vote on the project.

An advisory vote made sense to me, and I knew that Councilmember Carty had repeatedly said that he wanted more public input before making a decision. I therefore asked that he join me in requesting this item be put on the agenda for full council action. He did so.

When the item came up at the next public meeting, two weeks later, I made the motion to proceed with a non-binding, up-or-down advisory vote that would allow the public to voice their opinion. No members of the council, however, agreed to second this motion. They cited time and expense. It would seem that the majority of the council failed to realize the depth of the public’s concern. The result is the current voter initiative to change the zoning in order to obviate commercial development, including the Surfliner hotel.

The advisory vote would have cost the city much less than the initiative process and taken the same amount of time. More importantly, it would have avoided putting the community through all the current confusion and given the council the public’s straightforward, unequivocal opinion on the proposed hotel.