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cont...
Meanwhile, Isla Vistans were developing an agenda of
their own. Although Water Board campaign rhetoric always focused
on the polarity between developers and environmentalists, land-use
planning questions remained somewhat outside the scope of campaign
debate, as the Water Board could do little other than issue blanket
denials of new water hookups. With planning decisions still in
the hands of the County Board of Supervisors, citizens of the
Goleta Valley felt they could expect little from the county but
the type of haphazard, poorly planned growth characteristic of
Isla Vista.
The election of 1983 found Isla Vista fielding its own environmentalist candidate as dissention developed over the long-range options for growth control .in the Goleta Valley. I had a front row seat for the events of that election, because I was the Isla Vista environmentalist candidate.
Isla Vistans had been pushing for separate cityhood for a number
of years. Proposals to hold an election on I.V. cityhood had been
rejected by LAFCO in 1973 and 1975. But in 1983, another attempt
was gathering steam as the result of an IVCC advisory election
in November 1982 that found 2-1 support for independent cityhood
over joining with Goleta. 
With its unique demographics and dense, urbanized population,
Isla Vista seemed a natural for cityhood. Ironically, this became
a point of contention between many Isla Vistans and their environmentalist
allies in Goleta. These Goletans were afraid to be isolated in
a separate city, where environmental concerns might lose out without
the voting support of Isla Vista.
As the Isla Vista Community Council mounted another incorporation
attempt in 1983, the issue came to a head as it was rumored that
John Buttny, IVCC Executive Director, who was under fire from
a majority of his board of directors for his competing efforts
on a joint IV/Goleta cityhood proposal, was to be the "Isla
Vista" candidate on the environmentalist's slate with Donna
Hone (up for re-election with three seats vacant) for the Water
Board. More than one Isla Vistan felt that after courting Isla
Vista's support through so many years of Water Board campaigns,
the Goletans should be more supportive of Isla Vista's long-cherished
desire for self-government. Buttny was seen as a candidate many
Isla Vistans could not support.
That's where I came in. An eight-year resident of Isla Vista,
I had been successfully elected to the Isla Vista Park Board in
1980, and had many contacts in town from my numerous civic involvements.
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