Warner R. McGrew
Hello, I am Warner McGrew 5th District Candidate for Santa Barbara City Council. I came to Santa Barbara in 1966 and have four generations of my family embedded in our community. This city is very important to me and my family. Over the years, I have gained the knowledge, experience, and valued relationships that are needed to bring this city a positive vision and direction. I have 47 years of leadership experience in government to include City Fire Chief. Because of my leadership, I have an in-depth understanding of our local government and the importance of its role to serve our community. I will use experience, collaboration, and leadership to address the issues facing Santa Barbra today. I served on the Santa Barbara City Fire Department for 35 years in every position. 15 years as City Fire marshal and the last 7 years of my career as Fire Chief.
During my tenure as City Fire Marshall I was deeply involved in the development of the Fess Parker Red Lion Hotel (now the Double Tree), The Paseo Nuevo Mall, The La Entrada Hotel complex (now the Californian Hotel), La Cumbre Mall, the initial Desalination Plant, and many other large projects within the City. I helped write local adopting ordinances, state legislation and was responsible for the city wide enforcement of them.
As City Fire Chief, I was responsible for preparing and managing one of the largest budgets in the City General Fund. I was assigned to the position of the Acting City Administrator when needed and was responsible for running the City and carrying out the mission of the City Council. I have been successful in bringing council members and politicians from all levels of government together to serve our community.
My top priorities are Public Safety, Infrastructure and Sustainable Economic growth for the city. Public Safety is the most important function of government and we must continue to place it as a priority to ensure the quality of life our community deserves. I will allocate funds to ensure that our fire and police departments are well staffed and equipped to protect our community.
Infrastructure has fallen behind in our city and we must develop and fund a plan to stay in front of the required maintenance and needed improvements as a basic function of our community. Measure C will be extremely important in funding this priority.
Sustainable Economic Growth will bring revitalization to our business community and the revenue needed to achieve the goals of our city. By streamlining processes for small businesses and taking a collaborative approach to revitalizing our downtown and retail districts of our city, we can improve the experience of shopping to draw people into these districts. We can also look at innovative approaches to bring housing and other neighborhood support businesses into viable locations such as the downtown Macy’s building.
Again, I’m Warner McGrew 5th District Candidate for City Council. With leadership and experience, I will bring people together to make Santa Barbara a better place to live, work and visit.