Bonnie-Thank you for sounding the alarm on this most important local issue-the city budget process is a slow-motion train wreck! I wrote my District Rep (Jordan) ahead of the meeting this week asking him to clearly state his opposition to raising taxes. He declined stating he wanted to let the voters decide. I reminded him the 60% of the electorate are renters, who do not feel the same pain as homeowners when these taxes are increased. Socialism is alive and growing in our community thanks to the progressive council.
We appreciate the time and effort in you put into these reports. I'm afraid too many of the voters considered issues like city budgets to be OPM....other people's money...and do not appreciate the referenced funds are pulled from their pocket one way or another...including the outrageous and egregious attack on landlords.
Great work Bonnie!
BTW....don't take the debate bait from the predictably verbose and polemic resident troller.
As a council member I never voted for a single rate increase noting, as a business owner, there were plenty of places in the City to cut wasteful spending and that residents couldn’t just go to their employers or customers and raise their prices.
I wasn’t in support of hiring consultants to back up every project staff wanted. You can find a consultant to argue for or against anything.
We elect city council members who are supposed to represent us, to make these hard community decisions based on their own knowledge and representative power. We pay them full time, so they can devote themselves to gaining deeper level knowledge and insights about city wide issues.
We expect for the money to have elected representatives offer regular community engagement with their constituents (not just during an election on year), so they will deliver community-based solutions. Not just farm these tasks out endlessly to out of town "consultants" or ad hoc committees of political favorites who ignore the consultants anyway.
Who else remembers Jack O'Connell and his infamous "card table" he would set up on the formerly busy State Street, to get the person on the street feedback from real people who make up this community. Union tool that O'Connell was, but at least he was willing to get out there and among them. With the loss of State Street, we no longer even have a community center.
I became involved in SB politics in 1980. I was impressed with the leadership of the city at the time that and it seemed to hold through the 90s, then city council members started to get salaries and things seemed to go downhill. My model for city council member was Lyle Reynolds, a UCSB administrator. He was very dedicated to Santa Barbara across the board; now these council members represent districts so what kind of solutions do we have? You’re looking at it: large budget deficits. A lack of quality leadership now inhabits city hall; our local politicians, even with term limits, become career politicians, they act like it at least and perform like it.
They have severed themselves from their Pearl Chase roots.
Finally, a hard-hitting specific dose of reality and cold water plunge into the most critical topic for all voters to consider this coming election -2026.
Voters take note, city council members it is time to stand and deliver. Thank you so much, Bonnie. You drew the lines voters need to consider with great clarity. The free ride is over.
Sneddon continues to preach more free stuff for everyone. From her own $750,000 taxpayer funded family income perch. (Transparent California)
Rowse, long time small business owner, continues to beat the drum for fiscal sanity, prudence and refusal to keep kicking this city red ink can down the road to another irresponsible, term-limited and city employee union-dominated city council.
Bonnie, you are spot on and thanks for calling this out. We've got to start asking the hard finance questions and diving deep into the budget. There is no magic dust you can sprinkle over the top on the budget to make it better. It is going to take line item by line item review, hard questions and deep discussions on expenses and perhaps a bottoms up review of the budget versus the top down that appears we do now. Yes, it's more painful and time consuming to do that but perhaps it's a good first step to getting it under control. I also believe there are additional ways to help the city make more money. The upcoming elections are vital that we get a functional City Council that has experience and can work in partnership with the Finance team to come up with a workable solution that does not involve raising taxes.
The pattern that can no longer be ignored finally betrayed itself. The city keeps coming back with increasing desperation , now nearly annually, with the exact same demands - we have no money to provide you with your necessary city services.
Give us more money or else you will suffer.
While in fact they use the money to make themselves whole - mandatory union-bargained city expense increases, increased city pension payments, increased city benefit premiums, increased skimming off who they deem as "the rich".
Increased give-aways to those they deem the "underserved", which are in fact their own private vote-getting pools needed for their own re-elections. Our one time responsive, non-partisan and remarkably efficient local community has become as ugly as any big city, partisan political machine can get.
Stop this in its tracks. voters. Just say no this time. We have a city to save, from its own excesses.
When do the spending increases slow or stop??? This is a physical location where no amount of socialist demands and spending will "fix" I want to live here.
The City has spent close to $100 million on street designs they cannot defend based upon their own statistics in the past decade.
The government employee union demands increases. Reminder here that the average government employee prior to the 1960's was paid 10% less than the private sector. They are assured of wages and benefits because as a government they are assured of income unless a catastrophic economic collapse happens.
When does the expansion of "committees" stop and start elimination of many begin? The city hires workers to provide expertise and they are supposed to report to the council. Look at the number prior to 1960. Then realize both staff and Council did not want to be responsible when Joe Public said we don't want it.
E.g. Mayor Miller when faced with the narrowing of Cabrillo Blvd. faced a public rebellion. Her comment when it was cancelled "I don't want to see this come back."
E.g. The same Mayor Miller faced with both safety, emergency response issues at the Sycamore Roundabout, the majority of the residents in and around the location stated an emphatic NO. It was put in and is a recurring emergency nightmare. (does the Sycamore Canyon fire that burned over the Riviera come to mind?) The TCC magically was created to buffer both the Mayor and Council with a staff that often misrepresented or lied to get their wasteful street narrowing and failed alternative transportation planning.
The crushing of a 100+ year old transportation grid has made economic rebound of the city core difficult at best. This is just one sector, that the past decade of city management costing $millions that has failed.
There comes the costs of top level management. The comment we have to match other cities to get management.
Hummmmmmm. When the City Administrators office was asked the cost of closing State St. during COVID the answer was "Impossible to determine." HUH? Buying planters and paying for them placed on the street was and is impossible to determine? When the same office was asked in 2025 what the costs and accident rates outcomes of the Vision Zero, bulbouts, etc. are, the answer was "Don't have to answer it and will not answer." So what is the cost benefit ratio of paying top level city managers more money then the Gov. of the State?
As you might guess I can continue with proven issues of cost benefit ratios.
The taking of property rights, the confiscation of property that puts greater burden on taxpayers, the crushing of what has proven to work over decades, the folding to the unions who have proven to not exact excellence with their represented has to stop.
Replace K. Sneddon with a sane councilman. And Vote mayor Rouse back in.
Provide direction and pathways for business growth and housing solutions. I.E. "Leadership"
Business incentives work well: reduction of business taxes, speed up remodeling, make loans, provide a consistent city plan and enthusiastically promote it.
Begin by removing abundant irrational tenant rights laws and strengthen landlord laws making it all very understandable and rental units will increase over night; so will skilled labor income, et al. The new law suit against the City was avoidable; suing the too biased blind rulers at the dais was predictable. Building public housing and supporting non profits produces no revenue for the city. They don't pay their share of expenses and should be scrutinized and avoided. .
Ban penalizing success that promotes bad government.
B, I will parrot Mike: "TRAIN WRECK." When do the actions of elected officials rise to the level of "breach" re: their fiduciary duty to be competent stewards of our finances? Only government can spend $12M on State Street and make it look worse than it ever has before, with the lion's share going to a one block underpass! Also, as you know, they just announced that this year's short fall won't be $9M as budgeted it will be $14M and I would bet anything that this doesn't include a Litigation Reserve for the now pending Rent Freeze lawsuit. We have over 1,000 city workers yet not a single FTE (or better yet, department) is incentivized or focused on bringing BUSINESS into the city. There is zero imagination or vision re: how to get out of the tax and spend rut. Those in private business know once numbers trend down it's like trying to catch a falling knife--it rarely ever happens without bold moves. Incompetence +arrogance + lack of imagination = SB-land 2026.
The waste of money spent on unnecessary and unthought out "ideas" like this, can ONLY be blamed on those who voted these Council members into office.....so, if ALL that you have just read in the article..."A Call for Fiscal Responsibility" bothered you....in the next race, vote for a "horse" of a different color.....We ALL know the definition of "stupidity"....
Bonnie once again hits the nail on the head, on all subjects. "The City" cannot get a handle on it's spending spiral. We need more "Randy's" on Council if spending is ever going to meet budgets. Voters, wake up.
With all the new laws which are distroying property owners ability to rent fairly, many many rental owners are selling rental property including myself. This is what will put a big strain on the rental market.
Santa Barbara should be helping people willing to rent . NOT making it harder . We all know there are great tenants but there are also horrible tenants which cost property owners lots of money in repairs and headache and heartache when they distroy the rental unit .
Many small landlords depend on this income to live . Now you are taking it away . How about we take away future pay raises for the people passing these laws !!!
I appreciate that you dig into things. If you want to act like a journalist, then remove all the bias.
You want to paint a picture that 'spending is out of control' and that the city should not elect Sneddon over Rowse. What is your reasoning?
1. Paying consultants for State Street Master Plan.
2. Sidewalk Extensions
3. Undercrossing
4. Miscellaneous improvements
5. Employee payouts
6. Immigrant services
7. Rent related
Hmm.
1. Expertise costs money. Hiring consultants is also a means of protecting against liability. Something needs to be done with State Street. When the mall was built, e-commerce did not exist. I am sure that they spent money on consultants to determine what to do. The mall, which was probably expected to last 50-70 years, lasted 30 years. The market spoke, and Macy's, Nordstroms, Bloomingdale's, Borders, and movie theaters all went away. It is time to plan for the next 30 years.
2. You are arguing against infrastructure buildout? HUH?
3. The undercrossing you want to complain about, but praise Rowse. Why not read what he has stated about it, “The Vision Zero State Street Undercrossing Project addresses the collision pattern history by providing wider, more comfortable sidewalks and protected bike lanes that will make it safer for all road users connecting to the City’s two most active transportation-oriented neighborhoods, Downtown and the Waterfront,” So your argument that he was against it is interesting. And if he was against it, he was against saving lives. Very interesting position to take Bonnie. The fact that it was a roughly 60/40 split with the Federal Government is also interesting. Hey . . . where is BOB? I wonder if Salud got money for that to come back to the community.
4. I am curious how you could write what you wrote with a straight face. You are proclaiming that spending money on improvements is bad. You even called them improvements!
5. The payouts, yeah, stupid. How avoidable they were, I am not sure. The city is run by humans; humans make mistakes. 1.3mm out of 700mm budget for mistakes, ok, I guess that is livable.
6. 500k in grants for immigration services. I noticed you left out all the other grants because, if it is for immigrants, that is evil, but for others, it is ok. Generally, grants are more for 'projects' that the government does not want to fund FTE and CapEx to support. They see a benefit, whether it is quantitative or qualitative, and act. Let's do some math. How many families did it support? What is the economic impact those families have on the city? I.e., what do those families bring to SB annually? Now figure out the ROI. If it is 1 year, are you ok with it? If it is 10 years, are you ok with it? If it is one month, are you ok with it?
7. When you quote the fox that is attacking the hen house, you are not quoting a good source. IMO, you should have quoted the cost that the city will have to defend it. But more than likely, some consultants were hired who told them about their legal exposure, and the city felt they would win. If I were them, I would feel confident.
So out of the 700mm budget (iirc), you find 2% that you believe is waste. Are you expecting perfection? Are you expecting the humans running the city to be clairvoyant and to tell the future and budget accordingly? Do you remember when the city's gas budget was blown because gas hit $5 a gallon, after it had been in the $3 range?
I am not saying the city is perfect. I am not saying that the city has no fault. I am saying that expecting perfection is a bad choice because it is unobtainable. I am saying that improvements are improvements. I am saying that the city is a 'victim' of price increases just like we are. Their costs are rising, creating a vicious cycle. Either the citizens get fewer services or pay more for what they are already getting, or pay even more for more services. That is the choice.
Start with the "consultants" hired to draw new city voting district lines. They know who pays them, long before they bother getting to know the community they were hired to neutrally represent.
Protection of the majority incumbency is job number one. One more reason, nothing changes - this is now a feature, not a flaw.
Bonnie-Thank you for sounding the alarm on this most important local issue-the city budget process is a slow-motion train wreck! I wrote my District Rep (Jordan) ahead of the meeting this week asking him to clearly state his opposition to raising taxes. He declined stating he wanted to let the voters decide. I reminded him the 60% of the electorate are renters, who do not feel the same pain as homeowners when these taxes are increased. Socialism is alive and growing in our community thanks to the progressive council.
Mike, also remember the out-of-town/state students vote in our elections.................
Putty in the hands of the highly disciplined Democrat GOTV operatives.
you are so correct thank
you for stating
Well done Bonnie.
We appreciate the time and effort in you put into these reports. I'm afraid too many of the voters considered issues like city budgets to be OPM....other people's money...and do not appreciate the referenced funds are pulled from their pocket one way or another...including the outrageous and egregious attack on landlords.
Great work Bonnie!
BTW....don't take the debate bait from the predictably verbose and polemic resident troller.
TVW, I don't!!!
Thank you Bonnie for keeping us informed.
As a council member I never voted for a single rate increase noting, as a business owner, there were plenty of places in the City to cut wasteful spending and that residents couldn’t just go to their employers or customers and raise their prices.
I wasn’t in support of hiring consultants to back up every project staff wanted. You can find a consultant to argue for or against anything.
We elect city council members who are supposed to represent us, to make these hard community decisions based on their own knowledge and representative power. We pay them full time, so they can devote themselves to gaining deeper level knowledge and insights about city wide issues.
We expect for the money to have elected representatives offer regular community engagement with their constituents (not just during an election on year), so they will deliver community-based solutions. Not just farm these tasks out endlessly to out of town "consultants" or ad hoc committees of political favorites who ignore the consultants anyway.
Who else remembers Jack O'Connell and his infamous "card table" he would set up on the formerly busy State Street, to get the person on the street feedback from real people who make up this community. Union tool that O'Connell was, but at least he was willing to get out there and among them. With the loss of State Street, we no longer even have a community center.
I became involved in SB politics in 1980. I was impressed with the leadership of the city at the time that and it seemed to hold through the 90s, then city council members started to get salaries and things seemed to go downhill. My model for city council member was Lyle Reynolds, a UCSB administrator. He was very dedicated to Santa Barbara across the board; now these council members represent districts so what kind of solutions do we have? You’re looking at it: large budget deficits. A lack of quality leadership now inhabits city hall; our local politicians, even with term limits, become career politicians, they act like it at least and perform like it.
They have severed themselves from their Pearl Chase roots.
Finally, a hard-hitting specific dose of reality and cold water plunge into the most critical topic for all voters to consider this coming election -2026.
Voters take note, city council members it is time to stand and deliver. Thank you so much, Bonnie. You drew the lines voters need to consider with great clarity. The free ride is over.
Sneddon continues to preach more free stuff for everyone. From her own $750,000 taxpayer funded family income perch. (Transparent California)
Rowse, long time small business owner, continues to beat the drum for fiscal sanity, prudence and refusal to keep kicking this city red ink can down the road to another irresponsible, term-limited and city employee union-dominated city council.
Bonnie, you are spot on and thanks for calling this out. We've got to start asking the hard finance questions and diving deep into the budget. There is no magic dust you can sprinkle over the top on the budget to make it better. It is going to take line item by line item review, hard questions and deep discussions on expenses and perhaps a bottoms up review of the budget versus the top down that appears we do now. Yes, it's more painful and time consuming to do that but perhaps it's a good first step to getting it under control. I also believe there are additional ways to help the city make more money. The upcoming elections are vital that we get a functional City Council that has experience and can work in partnership with the Finance team to come up with a workable solution that does not involve raising taxes.
The pattern that can no longer be ignored finally betrayed itself. The city keeps coming back with increasing desperation , now nearly annually, with the exact same demands - we have no money to provide you with your necessary city services.
Give us more money or else you will suffer.
While in fact they use the money to make themselves whole - mandatory union-bargained city expense increases, increased city pension payments, increased city benefit premiums, increased skimming off who they deem as "the rich".
Increased give-aways to those they deem the "underserved", which are in fact their own private vote-getting pools needed for their own re-elections. Our one time responsive, non-partisan and remarkably efficient local community has become as ugly as any big city, partisan political machine can get.
Stop this in its tracks. voters. Just say no this time. We have a city to save, from its own excesses.
Monte today is the last day to pull/turn in papers. May some qualified people step up for district 5 and 6, you have district 4!
When do the spending increases slow or stop??? This is a physical location where no amount of socialist demands and spending will "fix" I want to live here.
The City has spent close to $100 million on street designs they cannot defend based upon their own statistics in the past decade.
The government employee union demands increases. Reminder here that the average government employee prior to the 1960's was paid 10% less than the private sector. They are assured of wages and benefits because as a government they are assured of income unless a catastrophic economic collapse happens.
When does the expansion of "committees" stop and start elimination of many begin? The city hires workers to provide expertise and they are supposed to report to the council. Look at the number prior to 1960. Then realize both staff and Council did not want to be responsible when Joe Public said we don't want it.
E.g. Mayor Miller when faced with the narrowing of Cabrillo Blvd. faced a public rebellion. Her comment when it was cancelled "I don't want to see this come back."
E.g. The same Mayor Miller faced with both safety, emergency response issues at the Sycamore Roundabout, the majority of the residents in and around the location stated an emphatic NO. It was put in and is a recurring emergency nightmare. (does the Sycamore Canyon fire that burned over the Riviera come to mind?) The TCC magically was created to buffer both the Mayor and Council with a staff that often misrepresented or lied to get their wasteful street narrowing and failed alternative transportation planning.
The crushing of a 100+ year old transportation grid has made economic rebound of the city core difficult at best. This is just one sector, that the past decade of city management costing $millions that has failed.
There comes the costs of top level management. The comment we have to match other cities to get management.
Hummmmmmm. When the City Administrators office was asked the cost of closing State St. during COVID the answer was "Impossible to determine." HUH? Buying planters and paying for them placed on the street was and is impossible to determine? When the same office was asked in 2025 what the costs and accident rates outcomes of the Vision Zero, bulbouts, etc. are, the answer was "Don't have to answer it and will not answer." So what is the cost benefit ratio of paying top level city managers more money then the Gov. of the State?
As you might guess I can continue with proven issues of cost benefit ratios.
The taking of property rights, the confiscation of property that puts greater burden on taxpayers, the crushing of what has proven to work over decades, the folding to the unions who have proven to not exact excellence with their represented has to stop.
Again Bonnie a good one.
Thank you for writing.
"Never let your expenses exceed your income"
Replace K. Sneddon with a sane councilman. And Vote mayor Rouse back in.
Provide direction and pathways for business growth and housing solutions. I.E. "Leadership"
Business incentives work well: reduction of business taxes, speed up remodeling, make loans, provide a consistent city plan and enthusiastically promote it.
Begin by removing abundant irrational tenant rights laws and strengthen landlord laws making it all very understandable and rental units will increase over night; so will skilled labor income, et al. The new law suit against the City was avoidable; suing the too biased blind rulers at the dais was predictable. Building public housing and supporting non profits produces no revenue for the city. They don't pay their share of expenses and should be scrutinized and avoided. .
Ban penalizing success that promotes bad government.
B, I will parrot Mike: "TRAIN WRECK." When do the actions of elected officials rise to the level of "breach" re: their fiduciary duty to be competent stewards of our finances? Only government can spend $12M on State Street and make it look worse than it ever has before, with the lion's share going to a one block underpass! Also, as you know, they just announced that this year's short fall won't be $9M as budgeted it will be $14M and I would bet anything that this doesn't include a Litigation Reserve for the now pending Rent Freeze lawsuit. We have over 1,000 city workers yet not a single FTE (or better yet, department) is incentivized or focused on bringing BUSINESS into the city. There is zero imagination or vision re: how to get out of the tax and spend rut. Those in private business know once numbers trend down it's like trying to catch a falling knife--it rarely ever happens without bold moves. Incompetence +arrogance + lack of imagination = SB-land 2026.
The waste of money spent on unnecessary and unthought out "ideas" like this, can ONLY be blamed on those who voted these Council members into office.....so, if ALL that you have just read in the article..."A Call for Fiscal Responsibility" bothered you....in the next race, vote for a "horse" of a different color.....We ALL know the definition of "stupidity"....
Bonnie once again hits the nail on the head, on all subjects. "The City" cannot get a handle on it's spending spiral. We need more "Randy's" on Council if spending is ever going to meet budgets. Voters, wake up.
With all the new laws which are distroying property owners ability to rent fairly, many many rental owners are selling rental property including myself. This is what will put a big strain on the rental market.
Santa Barbara should be helping people willing to rent . NOT making it harder . We all know there are great tenants but there are also horrible tenants which cost property owners lots of money in repairs and headache and heartache when they distroy the rental unit .
Many small landlords depend on this income to live . Now you are taking it away . How about we take away future pay raises for the people passing these laws !!!
Bonnie,
I appreciate that you dig into things. If you want to act like a journalist, then remove all the bias.
You want to paint a picture that 'spending is out of control' and that the city should not elect Sneddon over Rowse. What is your reasoning?
1. Paying consultants for State Street Master Plan.
2. Sidewalk Extensions
3. Undercrossing
4. Miscellaneous improvements
5. Employee payouts
6. Immigrant services
7. Rent related
Hmm.
1. Expertise costs money. Hiring consultants is also a means of protecting against liability. Something needs to be done with State Street. When the mall was built, e-commerce did not exist. I am sure that they spent money on consultants to determine what to do. The mall, which was probably expected to last 50-70 years, lasted 30 years. The market spoke, and Macy's, Nordstroms, Bloomingdale's, Borders, and movie theaters all went away. It is time to plan for the next 30 years.
2. You are arguing against infrastructure buildout? HUH?
3. The undercrossing you want to complain about, but praise Rowse. Why not read what he has stated about it, “The Vision Zero State Street Undercrossing Project addresses the collision pattern history by providing wider, more comfortable sidewalks and protected bike lanes that will make it safer for all road users connecting to the City’s two most active transportation-oriented neighborhoods, Downtown and the Waterfront,” So your argument that he was against it is interesting. And if he was against it, he was against saving lives. Very interesting position to take Bonnie. The fact that it was a roughly 60/40 split with the Federal Government is also interesting. Hey . . . where is BOB? I wonder if Salud got money for that to come back to the community.
4. I am curious how you could write what you wrote with a straight face. You are proclaiming that spending money on improvements is bad. You even called them improvements!
5. The payouts, yeah, stupid. How avoidable they were, I am not sure. The city is run by humans; humans make mistakes. 1.3mm out of 700mm budget for mistakes, ok, I guess that is livable.
6. 500k in grants for immigration services. I noticed you left out all the other grants because, if it is for immigrants, that is evil, but for others, it is ok. Generally, grants are more for 'projects' that the government does not want to fund FTE and CapEx to support. They see a benefit, whether it is quantitative or qualitative, and act. Let's do some math. How many families did it support? What is the economic impact those families have on the city? I.e., what do those families bring to SB annually? Now figure out the ROI. If it is 1 year, are you ok with it? If it is 10 years, are you ok with it? If it is one month, are you ok with it?
7. When you quote the fox that is attacking the hen house, you are not quoting a good source. IMO, you should have quoted the cost that the city will have to defend it. But more than likely, some consultants were hired who told them about their legal exposure, and the city felt they would win. If I were them, I would feel confident.
So out of the 700mm budget (iirc), you find 2% that you believe is waste. Are you expecting perfection? Are you expecting the humans running the city to be clairvoyant and to tell the future and budget accordingly? Do you remember when the city's gas budget was blown because gas hit $5 a gallon, after it had been in the $3 range?
I am not saying the city is perfect. I am not saying that the city has no fault. I am saying that expecting perfection is a bad choice because it is unobtainable. I am saying that improvements are improvements. I am saying that the city is a 'victim' of price increases just like we are. Their costs are rising, creating a vicious cycle. Either the citizens get fewer services or pay more for what they are already getting, or pay even more for more services. That is the choice.
Journalism? You spew about know your audience, Bonnie knows the audience and it isn’t you. What a pile of bullshit. Apologist for government waste.
It's time to start Tar and Feathering these people for the abuse of our tax dollars.
Where are all the tax dollars,Bids and Fees and Sales Tax and other monies that are laundered to our leaders?????????
I seldom met a 'consultant' who didn't lack common sense.
Like an attorney they can present whatever they’re being paid to represent
Start with the "consultants" hired to draw new city voting district lines. They know who pays them, long before they bother getting to know the community they were hired to neutrally represent.
Protection of the majority incumbency is job number one. One more reason, nothing changes - this is now a feature, not a flaw.