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Goleta picks electoral districts map City council selects Plan 701, will hold one more hearing Feb. 24 before adoption vote in March
By KAITLYN SCHALLHORN NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
The Goleta City Council Thursday evening unanimously picked the city’s first electoral districts map. Up next is one more hearing this month, then a vote in March on whether to officially adopt the map. Approval would mark the first time in Goleta’s history that city council members are assigned to specific districts. The council Thursday selected Plan 701, drafted by the National Demographers Corp. The map has the northwest district minimally crossing Highway 101 up to Hollister
Avenue. It also puts Bishop Ranch into the northeast district, labeled District 3 on the map. This plan proposes the two eastern districts up for election in 2022 with the western districts up for election in 2024. Two city council members will continue to serve at large until 2024. The total population deviation for Plan 701 is 9.2%. Population deviation refers to the difference in population sizes among the districts. Mayor Paula Perotte said she preferred Plan 701 because of its “simplicity.” And Councilmember James
Kyriaco said he wanted to keep the business parks on either side of Hollister Avenue in one district, which the proposal does. “I like the idea of keeping Old Town with new tech,” Mr. Kyriaco said. “I like the continuity of that and the story it tells.” The council had also considered Plan 206 during the special hearing Thursday evening. That plan put Bishop Ranch into what has been labeled District 1 with North Los Carneros Road serving as the boundary. But it also expanded District 2 further east to include business parks, Target and the post office.
Mayor Pro Tempore Stuart Kasdin said he preferred Plan 206 because he thought Bishop Ranch belonged in what was labeled District 1. He also said it would make more sense to keep Target in the same district with the Camino Real Marketplace — which Plan 206 would accomplish. Mr. Kasdin conceded Plan 701 was “still a good map,” however, and voted for the proposal. The next public hearing is scheduled for Feb. 24 with a plan to return on March 1 to formally adopt the map and election sequencing. The effort to change how council members are elected began in 2017
with the city agreeing to draw a new district map in time for the November 2022 elections. “A lot of things will be the same as they were” after redistricting, Kristy Schmidt, the assistant city manager, told the News-Press earlier this week. “Certainly from a staff standpoint, we’ve always taken direction from a majority of the city council and will continue to do so.” “This is more of a political process than an operational process,” Ms. Schmidt said. “From the public’s point of view, it really is about representation and having perhaps a closer relationship with their representative on their
Students host TEDx talk
FAA presents prestigious award to longtime Santa Barbara pilot
BY KATHERINE ZEHNDER NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
Please see TEDX on A3
DAVE MASON/NEWS-PRESS
From left, Brian M. Ashton of the FAA, Christine Walsh and James Walsh gather in the aviation museum in the couple’s Santa Barbara home. That’s where Mr. Ashton presented Mr. Walsh with the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, which goes to pilots who have flown for 50 years or more since their first solo flight. COURTESY PHOTOS
During exhibits set up during the TEDx event at Laguna Blanca School, Explore Ecology representatives, right, discuss the environment with students.
At left, Tavis Boise gives a talk at Wednesday’s TEDx event. He serves on the board of the local nonprofit Friendship Paddle and chairs its youth arm, The Keiki Paddle. Mr. Boise’s talk was entitled “Kids Helping Kids: Building Community on the Water.” At right, Students at Laguna Blanca painted on blank, square canvases and placed them wherever they wanted on a wall as part of an interactive gallery.
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NEWS-PRESS EXCLUSIVE
High school students at Laguna Blanca present 18 speakers
High school students at Laguna Blanca hosted 18 speakers Wednesday during a TEDx talk event that dived “Beneath the Surface,” the theme for the private Santa Barbara school’s 16 talks. (A ceramics session had three speakers.) Students in charge of the event said the program was about the students challenging themselves to go “beneath the surface” of emotion, thought and understanding. The theme was embodied by the event’s logo: an iceberg. Popular speakers at TEDx talk included student Molly Morouse, who spoke on how she overcame her stuttering and how everyone has their own version of a stutter to overcome. Also popular with the audience was Maura Jaye, who performed two songs from her EP, which will be released in the upcoming months, and discussed different levels of music and music creation. Her talk was titled, ““Music Creation: Are We Really Listening?” And the audience enjoyed a performance by magician Danny
council.” According to a presentation given to the council Tuesday, districts must be drawn to include equal population — not to exceed a 10% adjustment — or the map could be declared unconstitutional. The presentation also noted that racial gerrymandering should be avoided. Goleta first adopted its resolution of intent in May 2017 to transition from an at-large system to bydistrict system by the November 2022 elections — ensuring the 2020 census data could be utilized to draw more up-to-date maps.
By DAVE MASON NEWS-PRESS MANAGING EDITOR
Longtime pilot James Walsh was on cloud nine Thursday, and he didn’t even need an airplane. The 85-year-old Santa Barbara resident was paid a visit by an FAA representative, who gave him the agency’s most prestigious award, one given to pilots with at least 50 years of flying time. Brian M. Ashton, the FAASTeam program manager from the FAA office in Van Nuys, presented him with the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award. The award was presented to Mr. Walsh in his home’s museum of World War I and II aviation memorabilia from the U.S., Germany, Italy, Soviet Union and Japan. Mr. Walsh has collected everything from pilots’ gear to the instrument panel of a P-51 Mustang, the fighter bomber used during World War II. He has everything from a parachute to figurines to magazines to a U.S. sector sign from the post World War II days of a divided Berlin.
He also has many model airplanes, and he held one as Mr. Ashton read him a letter recognizing his long service as a pilot. By the way, Mr. Walsh still likes to fly a single-engine plane around Southern California. On this day, Mr. Walsh was all smiles with the FAA’s recognition. The St. Louis native received the award as his wife, Christine Walsh, and a friend watched. The News-Press was the only media there during the informal ceremony, which was followed by a proud Mr. Walsh giving everyone a tour of his museum, which extends through several rooms and into his garage. “The FAA recognizes pilots who have been flying 50 or more years with the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award,” Mr. Ashton said during the ceremony, reading a letter from the FAA. He said the 50-year period begins with a pilot’s first solo flight. Mr. Ashton noted the award was the FAA’s prestigious award and is named after Orville and Please see PILOT on A4
INSIDE
L O T T E RY RESULTS
Classified................. B4 Life...................... B1-2 Obituaries............... A4
Wednesday’s SUPER LOTTO: 18-21-31-45-47 Meganumber: 1
Thursday’s DAILY 4: 8-6-5-7
Tuesday’s MEGA MILLIONS: 11-24-38-62-66 Meganumber: 1
Thursday’s FANTASY 5: 14-17-18-37-39
Thursday’s DAILY DERBY: 04-08-09 Time: 1:48.31
Wednesday’s POWERBALL: 18-29-33-62-63 Meganumber: 15
Sudoku................... B3 Sports . .................... A4 Weather................. A4
Thursday’s DAILY 3: 0-6-6 / Wednesday’s Midday 6-1-3