News of theWeek
CONT’D
Gang Injunction cont’d from p. 10
Santa Barbara City College also took offense to Francisco’s lack of attention, stating,“It’s insulting,” adding “I took time out of work to be here.” In sharp contrast, no one from the public had anything at all to say about City Hall’s plans to officially declare the beginning of a drought this March, assuming predictions for a dryer-than-average winter hold true. With Lake Cachuma at only 42 percent capacity — and rainfall 65 percent below normal — the first stage of a drought declaration would trigger only voluntary reductions in water consumption. About half the city’s water use is attributed to outdoor irrigation. If that doesn’t yield results, a Stage II drought will be declared about six months later, meaning higher water rates will be charged for higher rates of water consumption. Only with the declaration of a Stage III alert would City Hall impose water use restrictions as happened during the late 1980s. While the City of Santa Barbara has adequate water supplies to meet normal demand through the rest of the year, Councilmember White — who served on the Water Commission during the last drought — said he had “the hair-on-the back-of-the-neck sense that something’s not right.” He expressed alarm that the natural variations in Santa Barbara’s weather patterns could be “accelerating” and asked city water planners to move with urgency to ensure the city’s long-mothballed desalination plant still had the necessary permits needed to pass muster with the Coastal Commission. PAU L WELLM AN
that targets only “the baddest of the bad.” Fueling the opponents’ ire is the fact that the council approved the injunction without ever having held any public hearings. Matters involving litigation are exempt from the state’s open-government laws and allow closeddoor government deliberations. Although the council did hold one after-the-fact hearing — another vent-fest — that did little to assuage critics. The only councilmember to go on record against the injunction thus far has been Cathy Murillo, but she was elected after the plan was hatched. During the recent election campaign, candidate Gregg Hart spoke out against the injunction. His election presumably gives Murillo at least one ally. While that’s not enough for the council to rescind the injunction, it achieves the two-vote threshold needed for any councilmember to place an issue of public interest on the agenda. Hart did not speak during Tuesday’s discussion. No councilmember did. By law, if councilmembers were to engage with those who spoke during public comment, they’d be violating state open-government codes limiting such back-and-forth to agendized items. Perhaps loudest in his silence was Councilmember Dale Francisco, who made little effort to disguise the fact he was reading a book — on how to save the United States from economic collapse — during long stretches of the public commentary. Even when he was blistered by one speaker for doing so, Francisco did not look up, nor did he stop reading. A student advisor from
Road Maintenance Proposal Punted The fate of the deferred-maintenance ordinance proposed by 4th District Supervisor Peter Adam (pictured) was unanimously delayed to February, as the supervisors on Tuesday requested that county staff further analyze the proposal and compare what it would mean for the county’s finances if it becomes law versus if it doesn’t. The supervisors could have adopted the ordinance or placed it on the June ballot, but instead decided they needed more information before choosing between those two options. Adam, who moved forward with his plan after he failed to garner enough support to tackle the county’s deferred-maintenance backlog — estimated at $250 million for county roads, $30 million for county buildings, and $20 million for parks — at the June budget talks, said, “We have to do our annual maintenance. We have to stop ignoring the maintenance.” If Adam’s ordinance were to be either adopted by the county or approved by the voters, it would require the department heads of Public Works, Parks, and General Services to inform the CEO every year on how best to maintain the infrastructure’s current conditions. The CEO would have to likewise inform the supervisors, who would have to make sure those conditions are upheld or improved. The board would be prohibited from incurring debt to ease the backlog. Although Adam’s colleagues congratulated him on getting nearly 16,000 valid signatures for the proposal to be eligible for consideration — 13,201 were required — they also said they needed some questions answered before making a decision. Third District Supervisor Doreen Farr expressed concerns with how the baseline quality will be measured and whether the no-debt stipulation would simply shift debt to other services. Several supervisors have previously argued against prioritizing deferred maintenance, stressing the need to balance that with other services and hesitating to eat into the county’s $29 million rainy-day fund to help solve the problem. The board will receive the analysis, and also consider possible ballot language, at its February 4 — Lyz Hoffman meeting.
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jaNuary 9, 2014
THE INDEPENDENT
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