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THE INDEPENDENT
DEcEmbEr 19, 2013
CONT’D
One Last Whack at the Pini Piñata Council Allocates Cash for Tenant Protection
I
BY N I C K W E L S H ing, job training, and tutoring that might keep n his last City Council meeting before them from joining gangs. Since 2009, Lopez retiring as Santa Barbara city attorney, has served as City Hall’s de facto point perSteve Wiley took one last crack at his son on gang prevention, and to that end, he’s longtime nemesis, landlord Dario Pini, proven successful in securing $2.8 million in whose name has become synonymous with state grants for gang prevention and intervenslum-like housing in Santa Barbara. Speak- tion efforts. ing of Pini, Wiley told councilmembers, “For Countywide, the state has funneled $5.5 milwhatever reason, he is a scofflaw.” Pini, Wiley lion into Santa Barbara since that time. While said, has amassed an empire of 400-500 rental City Hall has served as a conduit for many of units over the past 30 years and has never seen these funds, most of it has been spent at the fit to devote enough time or money to keep- direction of Fran Forman and Saul Serrano ing them up. Pini properties, Wiley said, are with the Community Action Commission. The readily apparent to the casual observer by their overflowing trash, peeling paint, lack of landscaping, and missing screens on doors and windows. “Either he doesn’t get it or he doesn’t care,” Wiley said. Last October, Wiley brought to a close the 30-year game of cat and mouse he’s been playing with Pini for pretty much his entire career at City Hall. In the 1980s, Wiley SWAN SONG: After 30 years of legal combat, the retiring but never shy City Attorney Steve Wiley (right) will finally disengage from Dario famously prosecuted Pini (left). Pini for wholesale building-code violations. As his sentence, Pini opted for jail time issue of the city’s proposed gang injunction also — also famously — rather than live in one of came up later in the council meeting as Branhis rental units as the judge recommended. don Morse, president of the Santa Barbara Free Wiley won the most recent court battle as well, Thinking Patriots, argued that even without an exacting a $35,000 fine from Pini and secur- injunction, major crime was dropping in most ing a commitment from the landlord to con- categories. He used Police Chief Cam Sanchez’s duct a top-to-bottom cleanup of his properties monthly report to the council as the basis for under the supervision of former District Attor- this claim. Morse also spoke critically of the ney Stan Roden, the court-appointed special recent police killing of Brian Tacadena, shot master. while walking toward an officer while branThis Tuesday, the council voted to set aside dishing a nine-inch knife. Morse said Tacadena $25,000 for the Legal Aid Foundation to rep- was mentally ill, and nonlethal means should resent any Pini tenants who might find them- have been tried first. On the other hand, Morse selves forced out by repairs mandated in the faulted the officer for hitting Tacadena only court order. Pini, Assistant City Administrator once after firing five times. Paul Casey reminded the council, was obligated Sanchez and Mayor Helene Schneider to pay the relocation costs of any tenants forced praised Sergeant Ed Olsen for spearheading to move. Since Pini’s tenants are predominantly the city’s “restorative policing” program in dealpoor immigrants, they can’t hire attorneys of ing with street people and the homeless the their own. And since City Hall set in motion past three years. Olsen is stepping down to take the chain of events that might create disloca- an assignment with Internal Affairs, but in the tions, Casey argued, “It would be good form past two years, his program has reunited 73 for us.” Only Councilmember Dale Francisco homeless with their families, got 218 placed, balked, expressing discomfort that a govern- and worked with thousands. In the last year, ment entity would set aside funds to facilitate the Restorative Court program processed 171 litigation against a private individual. Wiley, people, graduating 52 — meaning they manwho worked for 30 years for City Hall, spent aged to avoid arrest or citation for six months. the last 10 as city attorney. Those 171, Sanchez highlighted, accounted for a Also retiring after the Tuesday meeting was cumulative 6,000 calls for service during their Marcelo Lopez, a longtime fixture in the City time in Santa Barbara. By diverting those indiAdministrator’s Office. A sharp dresser noted viduals, the department’s street cops have more for his even sharper wit, Lopez likewise went time, he said, to focus on more pressing issues. out on a high note, having secured a $500,000 Restorative policing, he intimated, was more grant from the California Department of Jus- than feel-good do-gooderism.“It’s police work,” tice targeting 120 at-risk teens for the counsel- he said.
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