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PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER

Keep on

‘Save our jobs!’: Furloughs and job losses were on the minds of many government employees in 2009.

Members of the Service Employees International Union Local 620 voiced their frustrations over layoffs in June at the Betteravia Government Center.

They protested Santa Barbara County’s plans for an expansion to the complex, carrying signs and shouting slogans such as “services, not buildings!”

“Frankly, at a time when they’re talking about laying off employees and the county workforce has already dropped by approximately eight-and-a-half percent over the last two years, we think the county needs to get its fiscal house in order and prioritize appropriately in terms of keeping services to the community that people need,” said union member Darryl Scheck. “The county needs to make employees the priority during a recession.” The union, which represents about 1,800 county employees, rejected a furlough proposal from the county in December and continues to negotiate a new contract.

PHOTO BY JEREMY THOMAS

BY AMY ASMAN

keepin’ on It was a year of forward motion, despite setbacks

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anta Barbara County residents were subject to a rollercoaster of emotional events throughout 2009. People clung together during the lows, supporting each other in times of loss. They also cheered together during the highs, celebrating important milestones and victories.

People of all walks of life came together in support of numerous causes, from veterans’, teachers’, and laborers’ rights to the right to marry. For some, 2009 signified a year of victory. For others, it’s back to the drawing board for 2010. But one thing’s for sure: Everyone put up one heck of a fight.

So sit back for a moment and take a break from fighting the good fight to look back at the year that was with the Sun. ❍ Contact News Editor Amy Asman at aasman@santamariasun.com. Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas helped compile this review.

PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER

Spotlight on gangs: A season of gang-related shootings, stabbings, and police chases brought concerned Santa Maria residents to City Council meetings, demanding a civil injunction to keep known gang members from gathering in public. Police Chief Danny Macagni responded to the calls, saying an injunction wouldn’t work in a city where gang membership isn’t determined by territorial boundaries. “People don’t understand what an injunction is,” Macagni said in December. “It’s just a civil restraining order. Once they’re served, once they violate the terms and conditions of it, then we can arrest on a misdemeanor. It’s more symbolic than it is true enforcement, or a deterrent, to a very serious issue.” Santa Maria Mayor Larry Lavagnino has urged Macagni to focus his department’s efforts primarily on gangs, and Macagni has announced he’s adding three officers to the department’s gang suppression team.

State parks send out an SOS: The summer season is usually a busy time for California state parks, when thousands of campers pitch their tents and hundreds of surfers hit the waves. Summer 2009, however, was anything but relaxing, following the California Legislature’s call to close more than 220 parks in an effort to counteract the state’s $26 billion deficit. Legislators estimated closing the parks—including the Central Coast’s Painted Cave, La Purisima Mission, Refugio and El Capitan beaches, and Gaviota Coast (pictured)—would save the state approximately $213 million over a two-year period. Californians rallied together in response, signing dozens upon dozens of petitions and mailing thousands upon thousands of letters to their representatives.

The Sun even got in on the “save our state parks” action by running a three-part summer cover series featuring parks slated for closure. In September, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed a plan that would keep the parks PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER open by reducing funding for maintenance, machinery, and other items.

PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER

Where there’s smoke: 2009 saw a series of futile attempts to open what would have been the North County’s first medicinal marijuana dispensary.

Former Guadalupe Planning commissioner George Alvarez, shown here in May, claimed Guadalupe had no law on the books to prevent him from starting up a dispensary there. However, city officials disagreed, denying Alvarez’s permit application. The Guadalupe City Council subsequently adopted an urgent 45-day moratorium on new dispensaries and later extended the ban until July of 2010. Two other potential dispensaries fizzled out in Orcutt. Wishing You Wellness quietly moved into the Evergreen Terrace shopping center, reportedly operating briefly before shutting down in April due to permit snags. Another proposed dispensary in Old Town Orcutt fell through in the summer after the owner of Orcutt’s Trade Center canceled a lease agreement with the shop’s permit holders. The county Board of Supervisors responded to the confusion in December, considering an ordinance that would temporarily ban any dispensaries from opening in the county’s unincorporated areas. County Counsel Dennis Marshall is scheduled to present the measure to the board in January. “The county needs to have some type of definition of where this particular type of business can be located,” said Fourth District Supervisor Joni Gray. “That’s really the long and short of this.”

PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER

He’ll be back: The first half of 2009 didn’t bode well for Republican Sen. Abel Maldonado (pictured here in San Luis Obispo).

After he crossed party lines to pass the state budget in February, Maldonado was virtually shunned by his fellow party members. “This [vote] could very well be the end for me [politically], but it won’t be the end for the great state of California,” Maldonado told the Sun. Things started looking up for the senator at the end of the year when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger nominated the Santa Marian for lieutenant governor. “This is like a marriage. The senator and I have been soulmates since the beginning,” Schwarzenegger gushed during a press conference webcast. “I compare it to a marriage because we all have differences with our spouses. It’s never perfect all the time.” As of press time, the nomination had yet to be confirmed by the Legislature.

Mayor search: The passing of longtime mayor and community advocate Dick Dewees in late July stunned the city of Lompoc. But City Council members didn’t have much time to mourn the loss of their colleague and friend because they had to go about finding a replacement as soon as possible. In an unexpected move, the city held a public application session that led to the vetting of nine candidates, including City Council member Mike Siminski. In the end, the council voted to appoint Siminski (pictured) as mayor, and selected retired California Highway Patrol officer Tony Durham to fill his vacated council seat.

We’re No. 1! Dozens of cars fill an impound lot operated by Four Corners Towing, one of four local tow-truck companies that house vehicles confiscated by the Santa Maria Police Department. Most of the cars were taken from unlicensed drivers who were caught during sobriety checkpoints, a tactic police employed to combat the city’s growing hit-and-run problem. For its size, Santa Maria is the state’s worst city for hit and run offenses and is also ranked No. 1 in overall alcohol-involved casualties on roadways and for traffic accidents involving 21-to34 year old drunk drivers. “If you look at the statistics where our hit-and-runs have gone down after picking up those cars, I think you can see what a big problem it is,” City Councilwoman Alice Patino said in March. “Our policemen have other things to do besides picking up after irresponsible people.” Two-thirds of impounded cars will never be reclaimed and instead end up sold at auction, often to the same unlicensed drivers who have previously lost a vehicle. To get those cars off the road, the city formulated plans for its own impound lot but scrapped them after striking a cooperative agreement with the tow companies in June. Tow-truck operators had feared a city-run lot would have cost them 80 percent of their revenue.

PHOTO BY CRAIG SCHAFER

PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER

2009

FILE PHOTO

Year in

Review

Who can marry? During the first part of 2009, many Santa Marians’ front yards were a blur of blue or yellow, depending on which side of the Proposition 8 debate the homeowners fell. The controversial argument over whether or not gay men and women should be able to marry in California culminated with an onslaught of marches, candlelight vigils, and other protests all over the Central Coast. And many gay rights organizations encouraged their members to boycott businesses whose owners were in favor of the measure and made campaign donations, such as local health food store Lassen’s. Those efforts ultimately failed, however, and Proposition 8 passed in March, 52 to 47 percent.

PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER

In the pink: More than $4 billion in cuts to education at the state level this year sent a flurry of pink slips raining down on California’s schools, including those on the Central Coast.

Officials with the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District reported having to give notices to 40 teachers and staff members, including social science teacher Caren Ray (pictured). The outlook was just as dismal, if not more so, at other districts throughout the area—the Lucia Mar Unified School District put 229 teachers on notice. In a scramble for funding, education interest groups got three measures—propositions A, B, and C—onto the May ballot. But none of those proposals fared well with California voters, and districts were left waiting for limited funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. That money, mixed with a small amount of funds returned to schools by the state, allowed some schools to rehire teachers and staff members. Still, many schools are struggling to stay afloat financially.

Seriously, Irene, come on! In 2008, PXP proposed to slant drill from Platform Irene (pictured) into the Tranquillon Ridge Oil and Gas Range in state waters three miles off the coast near Lompoc. Supported by several local environmental agencies, the agreement would have allowed PXP to drill in exchange for the company’s word that it would shut down its four platforms off Santa Barbara County’s coastline by 2022. The project was a hot-button topic in 2009 that ended up going before the California State Lands Commission, where it was ultimately rejected. But that didn’t stop Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee from authoring an assembly bill attempting to create a new body that could override the commission’s decision and still allow the lease to go through. While that bill didn’t come to fruition, some PXP project experts believe the recent departure of Lt. Gov. John Garamendi could open up a door for drilling.