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California Bans Lead Ammo
PAU L WELLM AN
manager, Lindaman, represents a group of Montecitans — Commonsense — who are demanding that the left-hand battleground where hot-button issues like increased residential exit lanes onto Cabrillo Boulevard be retained despite Caldensities got hammered out — was unanimously passed. The trans’s vehement insistence such ramps are inherently unsafe. council unanimously put Cliff Drive on a “road diet”— always This group has the money and the juice to have arranged a a contentious matter among dueling transportation advocates meeting with the director of Caltrans, the head of the Depart— meaning Cliff was re-striped to create new bike lanes by ment of Transportation, and a representative from Governor reducing one lane of traffic. And last week, the council voted Jerry Brown this summer. Schneider went along and repeated to approve a plastic-bag ban — admittedly after seven years of her threat to withhold the necessary permits. In so doing, she bureaucratic trench warfare — with no dissenting votes. helped crowbar concessions on behalf of Commonsense : All sides are quick to credit Schneider’s leadership for this further meetings to explore whether the Cabrillo offramps are turnaround in tone. Schneider — who has hewed a more cen- as dangerous as Caltrans claims. trist course as mayor than as councilmember — has made Activists with Commonsense have been especially upset an effort to reach out to groups that previously “weren’t in with Gregg Hart, the public information officer for SBCAG, my Rolodex,” like the Milpas Community Association. Eight whom they consider both an impediment and a stooge for Calyears ago, Schneider said, the trans. Hart happens to be rungroup’s anti-homeless rhetoric ning for the City Council and is part of the slate endorsed by the and tactics would have elicited an “us/them” response. Today, Democratic Party. Schneider that’s changed. “There’s no has been outspoken in expresssuch thing as ‘us/them’ when ing her concerns that if elected, it comes to such a complex Hart would have a serious conproblem,” she said. As mayor, flict of interest. City Attorney Schneider said she’s shied away Steve Wiley says otherwise, but from enmeshing the council Schneider has argued that the state’s fair Political Practices in extraneous wedge issues. “If I can support gay marriage Commission will have to weigh as the mayor — which I have in. (Hart has declined to recuse — do I really need to bring a himself on the matter unless so resolution to the council?” she ordered, arguing his knowledge would be beneficial. He has cauasked,“knowing the bad blood could have repercussions on tioned that delays to the project issues more directly related to will drive up construction costs, eating into limited funds that city policy?” By the same logic, Schneider conspicuously did might be available to address not endorse any of the candiCity Hall’s concerns.) dates running for City CounIn the meantime, Schneicil two years ago, not even the der strongly encouraged forslate of three endorsed by the mer councilmember David DOUBLE DUTY: The council has gotten infinitely more Democratic Party who would Landecker to postpone his congenial with Mayor Helene Schneider at the helm, but she can still play a mean game of political hardball. have unseated three conservaannounced retirement from tive incumbents. This abstilocal politics earlier this year nence hurt Schneider’s relationships with some Democratic and enter the race for council. Much to the consternation of leaders, notably Daraka Larimore-Hall, with whom Schnei- the Democratic Party — which declined to endorse Landecker der’s longtime political consultant Jeremy Lindaman has so — he did so. In the calculus of campaign consultants, this famously feuded. year’s two incumbents — Bendy White and Frank Hotchkiss If Schneider takes pains to get along, she doesn’t always go — are likely to be reelected, leaving the third spot a toss-up along. About a year ago, she unveiled a complex package of between Hart and Landecker, both liberal Democrats. Schneithree ballot initiatives that would have raised or saved City Hall der rebuffed the suggestion she was trying to take Hart out. “I $12 million a year without first checking in with any of the usual don’t see my support for David as anti-Gregg,” she insisted.“It’s — or affected — stakeholders. For this, Schneider was roundly pro-David.” blistered and ultimately forced to beat a strategic retreat. In Many political observers — some associated with Hart’s hindsight, Schnieder insists she accomplished her objective — campaign — have been quick to suggest Schneider is attemptto spark community discussion on issues like pension reform ing to curry favor with wealthy Montecito donors for when and the need for new income streams — and takes comfort she runs for st District Supervisor, a seat now occupied by in the adage, “You never hit a home run if you don’t go up to Salud Carbajal. Carbajal has all but announced he plans to run bat.” Likewise, Schneider took considerable heat for City Hall’s for Congress the moment Democratic Congressmember Lois decision to initiate a gang injunction without first holding any Capps indicates she’s done, and in political circles, it’s a given public meetings. Schneider is more vexed that the injunction that Schneider will seek his post. If so, it’s worth noting that has been held up in court for nearly three years and that it’s the city’s Planning Commission unanimously expressed simibeen the subject of so much confusion and what she terms lar concerns as Schneider’s with Caltrans’s freeway-widening “misinformation and disinformation.” She said she took pains plans. And at a recent forum, all but one council candidate to meet first with people she knew would be critical to better — Hart — expressed reservations, as well. As for her plans for higher office, Schneider said,“Last time I checked, that seat was take their concerns into consideration. For the past year, Schneider has been waging a full-body- occupied,” adding with a smile,“Right now I’m just running for contact showdown with Caltrans and the Santa Barbara a second term as mayor.” County Association of Governments (SBCAG) over the latest installment of the freeway-widening project, slated to cost SCOLES’S $500 million and take 15 years to build. Unless the railroad SHORELINE SPEEDWAY undercrossing by the Andrée Clark Bird Refuge is widened to By contrast, Wayne Scoles’s campaign is simplicity itself. “I’m accommodate more cars, bicycles, and pedestrians, Schneider sick and tired of the police not enforcing the laws,” he said. It has threatened to withhold approval of the necessary city per- started, he said, with drivers speeding along the Mesa’s Shoremits for the project to move forward. She has rebuffed entreat- line Drive, where Scoles lives and can be seen walking his dog. ies from Caltrans and SBCAG to trust that the work will get Scoles cited an elderly neighbor who fought in the Philippines done and the funding eventually provided, citing their failure during World War II but who is afraid to cross Shoreline Drive. to deliver on the exact same promise made in connection with a “He’s never felt more afraid than when trying to cross the previous freeway project in 1996.“Fool me once, shame on you,” street,” said Scoles. City traffic engineers installed a sign declarSchneider has repeatedly said. “Fool me twice, shame on me.” ing pedestrians have the right-of-way, and that, Scoles said, cont’d page 23 Naturally, it’s not quite that simple. Schneider’s campaign helped. But motorists repeatedly crashed
M AGALI GAUTH I ER FI LE PHOTO
Mayor
CONT’D
THE NEW NORM? Though California is the first state in the country to ban lead ammunition (below), other states are considering their own restrictions.
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BY M AT T K E T T M A N N
PAU L WELLM AN F I LE PHOTO
News of theWeek
overnor Jerry Brown signed landmark legislation on Friday to ban the use of lead-based ammunition throughout the State of California, with the prohibition going into full effect by the middle of 2019. The bill — authored by Anthony Rendon, a Democrat from South Gate, and cosponsored by Santa Barbara’s Democrat Assemblymember Das Williams — was introduced due to lead’s impact on the health of wildlife, particularly the endangered California condor, whose populations are still suffering from lead poisoning despite the ammo being banned in its range since 2008. There are concerns about its eventual impact on human health, as well. “The risks to California’s incredibly diverse wildlife are many,” Brown wrote upon signing the law. “We must manage our state’s wildlife for the use and enjoyment of all Californians. It is time to begin this transition and provide hunters with ammunition that will allow them to continue the conservation heritage of California.” Brown also included language that if the federal government ever bans other forms of ammo — like copper — the state ban could be lifted. Many hunters — 247,000 were registered in California last year — were wary of the bill because non-lead ammo is more expensive to buy. With a statewide ban, however, there is a possibility that non-lead ammo will eventually decrease in price. Almost all popular ammo was lead until 1991, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service banned lead ammunition in the hunting of waterfowl, making way for more than a dozen lead-free ammunition types available across 35 calibers and 51 rifle cartridge designations. Earlier this year, a team of scientists, doctors, and public health experts released a statement through the University of California’s online publication system decrying lead’s toxic effects on humans and wildlife and wondering why lead ammunition — in their estimation, the biggest source of lead added to the environment — is still legal when products like paint, gasoline, and kids’ toys have become lead-free. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, lead is hazardous to people and animals at any level, as poisoning can impair growth, inflict neurological damage, and cause death. october 17, 2013
THE INDEPENDENt
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