Maribel Aguilera
Candidate for Santa Barbara County Supervisorial District 5
Maribel Aguilera was raised in Santa Maria, the daughter of Mexican immigrants; she worked in the strawberry fields alongside her family as a child and attended Fairlawn Elementary, El Camino Junior High, and Santa Maria High School. She is an attorney and a partner at the law firm Kirk & Simas, PLC, practicing business and real estate law. She served on the City of Santa Maria's Planning Commission for eight years, from January 2015 to December 2022, and has served on the Santa Maria City Council (District 4) since 2022, three and a half years during which she says the city's crime rate fell 32% and fire-service capacity expanded 20%. She advanced to the November 2026 general-election runoff for the Santa Barbara County Fifth District supervisorial seat after finishing second to Ricardo Valencia in the June 2 primary, in a race to succeed retiring four-term Supervisor Steve Lavagnino.
Positions in brief
Aguilera's platform centers on housing affordability, public safety, and county fiscal responsibility, including opposing cuts to social-worker positions while questioning county spending on electric-vehicle charging infrastructure and proposing to refinance the county's pension debt, alongside protecting North County's agricultural economy.
Aguilera calls the cost of living and housing affordability her top issue and has proposed an "Affordability by Design" approach — working with home builders, trade unions and skilled tradespeople from the design stage to create entry-level homes affordable to working families — and streamlining permitting for modest-income housing, citing Ventura County's and California's accessory-dwelling-unit models. On public safety, she points to a 32% crime reduction and 20% expansion of fire service during her Santa Maria City Council tenure, commits to adequately staffing county fire and sheriff's departments, and has proposed a Youth Empowerment Program exposing teens to skilled trades and public-safety career pathways. On county finances, amid a roughly $70 million county budget-reduction effort, she opposed eliminating social-worker positions, criticized about $4 million in annual spending on electric-vehicle charging stations as a lower priority than protecting vulnerable residents, and proposed refinancing roughly $160 million in county pension debt. She also commits to protecting North County's agricultural land and economy — the backbone of the Fifth District — while pursuing sustainable development and environmental stewardship.
On the issues
- Housing & Homelessness
Names the cost of living and housing affordability as her top priority for the district.
“The cost of living is crushing the families.”
Source → - Housing & Homelessness
Proposes an "Affordability by Design" approach, working with builders from the design stage on entry-level homes affordable to working families, and wants to streamline permitting for modest-income housing.
Source → - Public Safety & Policing
Commits to adequately staffing and resourcing county fire and sheriff's departments and proposes a Youth Empowerment Program to reduce crime by engaging teens in skilled trades and public-safety career paths.
“We must improve the public safety of our families because if you don't feel safe in your community, then you don't have anything.”
Source → - Taxes & Cost of Living
Opposed cutting social-worker positions amid a roughly $70 million county budget-reduction plan, criticized about $4 million in annual EV-charging-station spending as a lower priority, and proposed refinancing the county's roughly $160 million pension debt.
“We shouldn't be laying off social workers. They are the eyes and ears of our community.”
Source → - Agriculture & Rural Affairs
Commits to protecting North County's agricultural heritage as the backbone of the Fifth District's economy while pursuing sustainable development and environmental stewardship.
Source →
Profiles are compiled from the candidate’s own statements and public records. We never tell you how to vote.