Fiscal Disaster Looms For Santa Barbara and Its Schools

By Denice Spangler Adams

Both Santa Barbara County and City are fiscally doomed unless we each choose to get involved to have impact. Unincorporated Santa Barbara — Montecito, Hope Ranch, Mission Canyon, Noleta — tend to ignore local governance. In the City of Santa Barbara there are three upcoming open seats in Districts 4,5, and 6, from termed-out representatives: D4 Kristen Sneddon, D5 Eric Friedman, D6 Meagan Harmon. We must identify and actively support financially literate, math proficient representatives.

Effectively we are one community that needs to be heard. Those of us in unincorporated contiguous areas have reason to act, to care what happens in the City of Santa Barbara despite not having a vote.

Thousands of us are SB City Water District customers, subjected to the recent 40% fee increase; we pay increased City sales tax intended to cover Council’s endless deficit spending; we are dependent on City streets daily and many other City services in times of disaster. Montecito’s neighborhood secondary schools are in the City.

Students from our unincorporated communities attend SBUSD’s failing three public high schools and four junior highs, unless their parents can afford $45-50K per child for a high quality private school or become full-time SBUSD activists which is how some parents, like me, got SBUSD to respond to our student’s academic instructional needs. We cringe each year at the shared Council/School Board meeting when the City repeatedly fails its youth. SBHigh is now 12%/88% majority-minority with all three high schools proficiency deficient.

Working, middle and professional class residents are in panic as academic standards are diluted or abandoned.

CITY DISTRICT 4

D4 is important because it has the highest number of voters in owner-occupied homes that pay property taxes, and who also benefit from government pay, pensions or other taxpaid benefits; it has resident-abandoned SBUSD Cleveland Elementary School. D4 is currently represented by local rent control activist and 2026 likely Mayor Candidate Kristen Sneddon.

Beyond the Riviera, D4 includes what many think is Montecito, but is part of the City: Coast Village Rd Businesses and residences, lower Hot Springs Rd, most all homes along Alston Road, plus Eucalyptus Hill. Some City homes near Westmont College were annexed into the Cold Spring School Elementary District in West Montecito where I live.

Why Was Sneddon Elected?

Was D4’s Sneddon elected by these homeowners to pursue local rent control at 60% CPI, more public housing exempt from property taxation essential to fund municipal services, plus our failing SBUSD K-12 schools?

Please closely review recent test scores: the 2026 SBUSD graduating class is only 18% math proficient! We are not producing financial literates. Unlike our two local highest revenue elementary schools in Montecito, SBUSD revenues approximate $19,000 per student. All five school districts — MUS, CSS, Hope, Goleta, and SBUSD — are basic-aid-funded schools funded by local property taxes. In 2011***, to infuse $6M into the cash-strapped SB Elementary District, SB K-6 elementary was unified with 7-12 secondary high schools.

Unification has proven a mistake for academically proficient and superior students particularly from the Hope, MUS, CSS, and Goleta districts.

Was D4’s Sneddon elected to protect and represent the interests of her homeowner constituents to maintain a fiscally sustainable City, and/or to limit growth? After all, the anticipated positive of rent control is limiting growth. D4 Sneddon was and is mentored by former ‘no growth’ Mayor Sheila Lodge.

City Finances: We’re Broke!

Disasters know no boundaries. SB City’s Reserves for disasters and the unexpected are near depletion.

Broke, but Council cannot stop spending. It gifts money it doesn’t have to protect and provide for illegals; to create a dysfunction maze and narrowing of streets; and to waste money on staff time pursuing regulations and projects like Sneddon’s rent control that it can’t afford to enforce. Until recently, its reserve fund has been sustained by a supplemental $20M from the federal government in 2021.

At last week’s meeting, Mesa’s D2 Rep Michael Jordan stated, the City’s Housing policies are Economic Ordinances. A public commenter remarked, “Compassion is not sustainable” by government.

In response, D4 Rep Sneddon says, “Property owners are our partners.” Sneddon – the richest person on that dais in the district least impacted by Council edicts – adds: “Increase revenues. We need to increase fees, create new fees.” Sneddon wants “no people, pay, or positions cut! Rather cut capital projects.”

Note: Kristen and her County public works husband are compensated approximately $750,000 annually by County taxpayers with guaranteed lifetime pensions.

Check it out: county, City, SBCC

Rent stabilization was paused to the end of the year; it did not “Fail” as per Noozhawk’s headline and article written by blue visioned SBCC opinion journalist instructor Josh Molina.

Rent control will be pushed by wealthy Sneddon in the coming weeks.

Water & Growth

Lack of water previously justified limiting growth in South County, which I quickly learned when moving here in February 1980 from NorCal. Water taxation was used to fund the City’s financial reserves which are about depleted.

About 7000 SB Water District Customers are in unincorporated Santa Barbara. We depend on and are taxed for water by the City, but we cannot be represented even at the Water Committee level as per the SB City Charter. It’s taxation without representation.

For decades, we were subjected to an unlawful 30% surcharge tax on water use by the City. It took me from 1998 to 2016 to finally pause this illegal surcharge that cost me personally over $104,000 unlawfully billed water taxes as a SBWD Customer in Montecito, one home outside the City.

In 2016, after my 20 year effort, Council finally agreed to pause its 30% surcharge to determine the financial cost to the City of legal compliance for all customers with Proposition 218, the 1996 voter approved ‘cost to serve legislation.’ Make note that its 2017-18 lawful compliance cost SB City most of its reserves. Watchdog activists needed.

Those of us in unincorporated South County need to help find fiscally competent, prepared leaders, to govern. We are impacted in many ways.

Local rent control, a rent registry, and then an ordinance mandating spare bedroom rentals are real possible mandates. Additionally, the County and/or City may add a supplemental tax to ‘non-owner occupied’ homes which comprise a noteworthy portion of housing inventory: five of seven homes on my street are non-owner occupied with three unoccupied.

Aspiring Mayor Sneddon said property owners are our partners, but we are local government’s source of revenues to fund what we don’t want or need. Santa Barbara became known as “paradise” because of the incredible generosity of philanthropists.

We each must get involved or accept the consequences.

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