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Goleta Abandons Gang Task Force
1 in 5 in Poverty Countywide Study Delivers Startling Results
Goleta’s decision to pull funding from the South Coast Youth Gang Task Force raised eyebrows at last week’s Board of Supervisors meeting. Supervisors Wolf and Carbajal — whose districts combined include Goleta, Santa Barbara, and Carpinteria — had not known about it. All three cities and the county chip in for the Task Force, whose goal it is to augment cooperation between agencies, service providers, and schools. “We were all shocked,” said Wolf upon learning from task force coordinator Saul Serrano that Goleta had pulled out prematurely. The city administrators had agreed to fund the effort for five years, said Serrano, but Goleta’s city manager Dan Singer said, “There was never any discussion that I was aware of about a long-term strategy.” Goleta Mayor Roger Aceves, who announced that he is running for Wolf’s supervisor seat on September 10, said, “I have explicitly asked for performance measures showing that the city of Goleta is benefiting from our contribution [which was $22,800 last year], and we couldn’t see it.” He also added that Goleta — through its revenue neutrality agreement — has contributed $82 million to the county over the past 20 years and that the county should pay for services. Supervisor Carbajal said of the decision, “This is another example of ineffective leadership coming from the mayor of Goleta.” The Task Force — based on a regional approach to juvenile crime — will continue to include Goleta, and Goleta will continue its (nonmonetary) participation. Santa Barbara Assistant City Administrator Marcelo Lopez said, “I’m hoping that we can engage with the — Brandon Fastman City [of Goleta] again, and they can be a funder.”
Santa Barbara Channelkeeper and the Environmental Defense Center have filed a federal lawsuit against the owner of Mosler Rock-Ojai Quarry, alleging he consistently failed to prevent pollutants, like sediment, from entering the Lower North Fork of Matilija Creek nearby, resulting in a damaged ecosystem for the endangered southern steelhead trout. Owner Larry Mosler’s water consultant maintains Mosler is in compliance with the law because he is working to remedy problems. Channelkeeper wants to settle, a request the financially strapped Mosler called “extortion.” Sheriff Bill Brown is sharing plans to apply for a $40 million grant available through Senate Bill 1022. The bill, passed last summer, authorizes bond sales to pay for jail upgrades to facilitate reentry services, treatment, and additional capacity. Brown plans on using the money — if obtained — to add transitional housing units to the proposed North County jail and to “replace antiquated housing” at the existing County Jail. Brown will present the application to county supervisors on 10/8.
CITY The Police Officers Association ratified a new three-year contract with the city on 9/10 that will require officers to pay more into their own retirement funds than they have in recent years, at an out-of-pocket cost of about $7,291 per offi-
cer spread out over three years. In that time, officers will receive a 5 percent pay raise, or a net jump of 2.25 percent, according to management. The POA insists it constitutes a pay cut. Three weeks ago, city administrators declared that negotiations had reached an impasse, a necessary first step before they could impose a contract on the union for one year. In years past, the POA has typically waged an aggressive war of words with City Hall, but this year, City Hall clearly took the initiative. Thousands of men and women dressed in everything pink trekked nearly 40 miles and raised more than $4.4 million during this year’s Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. About half of the money raised will fund prevention, treatment, and research organizations in Southern California, with the remaining dollars paying for projects that ensure access to care for those who cannot afford it. Participants started at Chase Palm Park Soccer Field on 9/7, spent the night in pink tents at Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club, and finished 9/8 at Carpinteria State Beach. PAU L WE LL M A N
A $27 million lawsuit filed against a Santa Barbara breast implant company by Johnson & Johnson was baseless, a jury ruled on 8/30. Sientra, Inc., headquartered on Hollister Avenue, was sued this June by Johnson & Johnson’s Mentor Worldwide, LLC — another Santa Barbara– based seller of breast implant devices — for contract interference and misappropriation of trade secrets after 15 Mentor sales representatives quit to work for Sientra. The win for Sientra was “momentous,” said Barry Cappello, one of the attorneys who defended the company. “It was a little start-up company here in Santa Barbara defending itself against Johnson & Johnson, one of the Dow 30 companies, one of the biggest companies in the world.”
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The city welcomed its new Type 3 fire engine (pictured) during a ceremony last week at Station 7 on Stanwood Drive. The slightly smaller, 4-wheel drive rig, which cost just under $400,000, is specially made to fight fires in wildland-urban areas as it can hold 500 gallons of water but also connect to additional water supplies to serve as a pumping base for other engines or hose lines. “With the increase in the cont’d page 12
PAU L WELLM AN F I LE PHOTO
BY LY Z H O F F M A N
he struggles of those who live in poverty reach far and wide, from what they’re able to eat and where they’re able to live, to whether they can care for their health and their kids and transport themselves to work (often multiple) minimumwage jobs. Such is life for thousands of Santa Barbara County residents, according to a study on poverty commissioned by the Board of Supervisors in January 2012, the findings of which were presented Tuesday. The fact that there are poor people in Santa Barbara County is not a revelation. But the study’s hard numbers and its presentation of the PINPOINTING THE POOR: First District Supervisor discrepancy between what federal Salud Carbajal led the charge for the study, which cost standards say poverty means and $60,000. what other metrics say is necessary for basic survival point to room for change in how the county’s poor are served. First District Supervisor Salud Carbajal, • In high-poverty areas, the child poverty rate is 40 percent, adults 30 percent, who proposed the study in 2011, said that for seniors 10 percent. all of the study’s gloom, there is not necessarily doom. “The silver lining is that this provides us • Only about 16 percent of residents have a a tool to be more strategic in better serving that bachelor’s degree in high-poverty areas. population in future years,” he said, explaining • High-poverty areas are home to 40 perthat he wants the statistics to help the county cent of the county’s residents using alterfind ways to better align services with the people native transportation. who need them and keep track of this data in • About 34 percent of families in poverty the future. live in South County, but they receive The study, conducted by the Oakland-based about half of the county’s public housInsight Center for Community Economic ing units and Section 8 vouchers. Development, focused on areas according to Census tracts and zip codes, and culled its data • Nearly 72 percent of the unmet child-care from the 2006-2010 American Community Surneeds are in the high-poverty areas, with vey, historical records, and primary input from a huge portion in Santa Maria. more than 100 area service providers and 16 • In high-poverty areas, the average age of leaders of nonprofit and private organizations. death is three years younger. It also took into account the dueling metrics used to measure poverty. For example, the federal guidelines — the thresholds of which are The study also found startling comparisons based on 1950s spending patterns and don’t vary between how average wages for full-time jobs by location — classify a single person as living in have changed between 2000 and 2010. While poverty if they make just under $11,000 a year. residents countywide only suffered an average For a family of three, that number increases to yearly loss of about $21, those living in the highabout $18,000. The Self-Sufficiency Standard is poverty areas saw cuts of more than $2,000 a another metric, which is used by the majority year. The most popular types of jobs in highof states and can vary by county. Santa Barbara poverty areas were in agriculture, retail, and County’s Self-Sufficiency Standard says that a accommodation and food services — with all single adult needs at least about $27,000 a year three sectors averaging only about $12 per hour. to pay for basic needs, while a single parent with Food stamp use also varied greatly between two young children needs close to $60,000 per the county overall and the high-poverty areas, year — an amount not covered by even three with about 15 percent of county households verfull-time, minimum-wage jobs. sus 32 percent of high-poverty area households To find the county’s most-suffering pock- using the program. The high-poverty areas in ets, the report designated high-poverty areas Santa Maria and Lompoc were the greatest as those whose Census tracts exceeded 20 per- participants. Out of the 71,000 people countywide lacking cent of its residents living in poverty. And after crunching the numbers, the researchers found health insurance, more than 20,000 are living the county’s poorest areas concentrated in Santa in the high-poverty areas. Dr. Takashi Wada, Maria, Santa Barbara, Lompoc, and Isla Vista. the director and health officer for the county’s Out of the county’s 400,000-plus residents, Public Health Department, said the Affordable nearly 74,000 — almost a fifth of the population Care Act (otherwise known as Obamacare) is — are living in poverty. Some other staggering projected to lower those figures over the next cont’d page 17 several years. findings include: september 12, 2013
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