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Joe Armendariz .......................................... .................... ............Karla Armendariz
Director, Business Development ........... . ...............................Director, Business Administration

A respected leader in business, government and politics, Joe Armendariz has been active on these fronts since 1992.  In 2006, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors unanimously nominated Joe for appointment to the California Coastal Commission.  In 2004, he was elected to a 4-year term on the Carpinteria City Council. In 2003 and 2004, the Pacific Coast Business Times listed him as one of the 50 most influential business leaders in the Tri-Counties and in 2006; Latino Today Newspaper recognized him for being one of the 50 most influential Latinos on the Central Coast.

In 2007, before forming Armendariz Partners, Joe was the Director of Paladin Institutions, a local public affairs startup headquartered in Oxnard. In his role with Paladin, Joe was responsible for public affairs and government relations for the Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association, Santa Barbara Industrial Association, World Affairs Council of America and the newly formed California Industry and Trade Council. Joe also provided strategic support to the firms other clients including the Gold Coast Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Clearwater Port, Zona Seca and the Chumash Casino Resort.

In addition to currently serving on the Carpinteria City Council, Joe is an appointed member of the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG), the Santa Barbara County Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCO) and the Cities-County Joint Affordable Housing Task Group. He also Chairs the South Coast Subregional Committee for SBCAG and is also the Chair of the SBCAG executive committee.

Joe is a past Chair of the Santa Barbara County Economic Vitality Committee and a past Chair of the Santa Barbara County Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy and a founding member of the Santa Barbara County Broadband Task Force, which was established to make telecommunications policy recommendations to the County Board of Supervisors. Joe has worked closely with the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors for over ten years and was instrumental in their decision to form a blue ribbon commission to study the county budget. The commission identified 76 recommendations of which over 50 have been implemented.

Joe has served on various boards and committees including the Coalition of Labor, Agriculture and Business, Carpinteria Chamber of Commerce, Zona Seca and most recently the Santa Barbara County Education Office’s special fundraising team for Computers for Families. His commentaries on local and state politics, business and economics appear regularly on CaliforniaRepublic.org, HispanicVista.com, RealClearPolitics.com, Articlesbase.com and American Daughter. Joe resides in Carpinteria with his wife and best friend Karla and their four children.

Before forming Armendariz Partners with her husband Joe, Karla Armendariz founded KDA Business Solutions to fill a service gap many local companies and nonprofits have for a variety of administrative support needs. Karla’s experience includes working with local chambers of commerce as well as taxpayers, business, industry and trade associations as well as providing tactical support to a local education foundation.

Karla is accomplished at web design and is proficient at Adobe Dreamweaver CS3, Illustrator, and Photoshop as well as Microsoft Publisher, Power Point, Outlook and Excel. Karla’s real passion though is for her German shepherds Maggie, Jonah and Delilah.