Bonnie, I've said this privately, but our readers should know that your columns – particularly this one – are consistently and deliciously subversive. We need more of you. Got a clone?
Bonnie, I’d like to see an article on Salud Carbajal. Note his voting record against women such as voting against the Laken Riley bill, supporting men participating in women’s sports, his lack of recognition (sitting) for those who have lost one’s at Trumps last congressional speech. The man only follows in lockstep and not man enough to stand up for moral and ethical values. He is a disgrace to his district. We need a free thinker, not a token voter who votes as he is told how to vote. Love your articles and the Current.
Ms. Donovan, thank you for your detailed article. I approve of this kind of questioning of the people in charge of our taxes. Please post any results you receive from your questioning
If monies directed to eliminate vagrancy have not been properly audited, taxpayers never learn what are the best practices needed to get their expected outcomes for tax dollars expended. This is so basic for any taxpayer-funded endeavor. This is a no-brainer.
With the volumes of collected data, along with AI analysis, we now have in our grasp well-grounded solutions. No more task forces promising to address these long standing, tax-dollar draining societal issues. No more maintenance of ineffectual neglect, accompanied by the endless growth of taxpayer-funded administrative overhead.
Audited data and demonstrated best practices. What is not to like? Investigative journalist Micheal Shallenberger dug into this very problem seeking best practices in his book "San Fransicko". Time to connect the dots.
Use AI to crunch data for human evaluation when making later decisions. When you have nothing but failure as the prior track record, and no audit of costs nor outcomes, it is time to re-evaluate what is already available. Team DOGE is proving data analysis has a lot more deep value, than continued reliance on deep state bureaucrats. You intentionally exaggerate for your own desired outcome. DB. Time has come to move off that tuffet .
Again, this is an ignorance versus stupidity situation.
Crunch data? HUH? Do you know what means? You do not use AI for that. That has been done for decades, well before AI was close to reality, just in science fiction books.
Your hyperbole about everything being a failure is a tired b.s. cliche. It shows that you have no clue, you just want to regurgitate things that you have heard, but not applied any brain cells to determine the validity of it.
There have been tons of audits. You just do not like the results because it does not support your belief.
DOGE has proven that they are a useless b.s. hyped thing to give red meat to the rabid fans, like yourself, who believe there is so much fraud. DOGE announced that they can't get 3 or 2tn, but are stuck at 150bn. AND that is not fraud, that is just those assholes cancelling contracts.
SO . . . after the departments have been audited 30000 times, at what point will you believe that your assumptions are WRONG?
And it is amazing that you think that somehow, someway, 30 dweebs under 30 have a monopoly on knowledge. Somehow those 30 dumbasses know more than the 350mm other people in the US. That is comical.
A few points David: you cannot audit data that is not there. That is the contemporary issue. DOD has not passed an audit in over 10 years. LA 'Homeless" money is currently unaccountable. No data, no data to audit no outcomes to crunch. What was the best ROI on tax dollars spent? That is now the only answer to solve for. Spigot of unaccountable money is shut off. You do want to solve this. don't you?
People can choose to live rough if they want (no roof over their head), but they cannot chose to do this any where they want. The can live rough in Trona on their own dime right now; but not mine and not in this community's public spaces. Health and safety regulations are for the protection of all society. This from the start limits where people can live rough.
The first deep dive into today's useless vagrant programs came only after the Shellenberger book "San Fransicko" was published. He reviewed all your claims and excuses. You ran out to steam. Then came Grant's Pass opening new doors to limit the unacceptable sprawl of the prior situation.
The wails of self-interest that high-jacked of this issue in order to maintain the former status have ended. The enrichment of Homeless Inc and their specious claims for their own benefit and not for their target population is over. Why? Because nothing solved the problem; only grew and perpetuated the problem. Free ride is over for Homeless Inc. If there were no prior solutions, money is no longer available to shovel into this bottomless pit .This is not rocket science.
Again, I ask you ..do you even want solutions or just protection of the former status quo - which is translated as demand endless funding in order for certain groups of individuals to continue doing whatever they want? Set aside homesteading spaces on selected public lands is reasonable to put on the table. Watch the PBS series "Frontier House" for survival tips as this option is part of our long American tradition.
"A few points David: you cannot audit data that is not there. That is the contemporary issue."
WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK AN AUDIT DOES?
Money is TRACKABLE. That is what a !@%%^ audit does. It follows money from point A to all the points it goes.
I take it you are now going down the stupidity path. I told you what to read. You can argue as much as you want, it does not mean you are right. In fact, if you keep ignoring what SCOTUS has ruled on and decided what is constitutional and what is not, it means you are not only stupid, but you are also stubborn. As I stated, I can help with the ignorance part, but not on your lack of actions or ability to read.
People are NOT required to live in housing. That is the LAW. Everything after that is just you whining. There are solutions and it will cost taxpayers money to solve it. It is just more welfare, like you and I already get. You are just whining that someone is getting more welfare than you are.
Yout solution sounds like you want to put people in camps. No where is it constitutional to tell someone where they have to live.
Tri-aged choices: (1) Trona - (2) MHSA-funded institutional care facilities, or (3) continued access to current federal/state welfare benefits, but no guarantee of any particular location of those services.
Everyone pretty much comes to Santa Barbara "homeless". Then they secure a means of support and compete for available housing. Or Option (4,) they move to a more amenable setting that better fits their own particular skill set.
Compensation of our public employees is offensive to taxpayers. Through my career I have worked for UCLA, USC and NASA/JPL. While I consider the universities "government adjacent" NASA/JPL is directly government funded and all share a culture of leisure, entitlement and corruption. Most employees rarely show up to work and when they can be found are usually in the cafeteria licking grease from their fingers and reading Obama's fifth autobiography. Another characteristic is that 99% are unapologetic Democrats. It must be in the DNA that explains how a person can be satisfied getting payed so much for doing so little. I only lasted three months at JPL. My boss explicitly told me that it was not necessary to show up for the hours I was paid for. I quit shortly thereafter not willing to accept pay derived from taxation for doing nothing. If we could only isolate and delete the gene responsible we could eliminate waste, fraud, abuse and the Democrat party.
Jeff, I never would have thought working at JPL would be so corrupt. Wasn't that way at Raytheon. Whether Republican or Democrat, we all were productive to design and manufacture large defense systems. Building large systems requires a lot of organization because all the pieces have to come together to make the whole. I did have to put management "in check" for one component on a system and I became a whistleblower. Not much fun when both the company and the government combined ignore a whistleblower's complaint. The company and the government make deals, such as the government getting a freebee product(s) when a company is caught being on the sly. The employee is completely left out of the loop which was no surprise to me. Neither the company nor the government want underlings knowing how the operate. I'm assuming JPL has a lot of "fat" when it comes to employees, more than they really need.
Probably all defense contractors play the same game of underbidding and then getting well on the cost of changes which inevitably come. Plus the culture of spending every cent three fourths of the way through the project knowing that you will get :"plussed up" even when the project can be completed under budget. These flaws were invisible to me until I moved from a government adjacent work environment to a true private enterprise. The work ethic and the accomplishments and the work satisfaction is night and day. Profitability is dependent only on your product in private enterprise. At Raytheon and surely all government contractors success is a twisted web of lies, false promises inside connections vu-graphs with Wile Coyote physics and maybe 10% how well the product performs for the amount it cost to build it. This is why Musk has surpassed NASA in 10 years with a fraction of the budget.
Well my experience at Raytheon was perhaps slightly better than at JPL but very low work ethic in my opinion. I lasted for about 3 months at Raytheon former Santa Barbara Research Center as principal scientist which is about as high as you can get on the technical ladder. I quit and started my own business. I felt that I was actually discouraged from being productive. Lazy group if you ask me, very inefficient and biased by a not invented here attitude. No focused responsibility, a lot of meetings and discussions over stupid shit with obvious solutions. A real clown show. There were some good people there in the 1980's R Thom and B Parrish come to mind but not when I did my 3 months stint in 2000. I can only imagine it is worse today. I think today they have a lot of foreigners. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
I was at Raytheon ESD from '83 to '96 when designs were created in-house. I understand Raytheon now outsources more hardware after I left the company. By '96, the original core Chicago engineers starting the company back in the 1950's had all retired. During the period I worked at Raytheon, it was one of the more "professional" places to work and provided a lot of design challenges for me. I never worked at SBRC (former Hughes).
Ya, Hughes was always pushing the envelope in everything they did. I did some consulting work at Hughes in Culver City and when working on highspeed digital computing hardware. Taking digital ICs and operating them to their limits.
Thank you for taking the time to research this. The Gov. spent 1 billion dollars on defective Covid masks from China and no accountability. Carl DeMaio is trying to stand up to the fraud, waste and corruption in Ca and could be a good source of information regarding other individuals. I hope they can be charged and found guilty.
Thanks, Ron. There are only two people who haven't returned my call: Joe Holland and the past director of DRI. Before we bought the defective Covid mask from China, DRI sent China their supply of mask....
Hello Bonnie, what I find really peculiar about the greed, theft, corruption, deceit from the politicians is that some are Christian. I don't personally think they would go to hell for this but you would think they might wonder if GOD would judge them.
I don't know if you are Christian and GOD is not about repent or go to hell as too many claim and I don't judge people as too many Christians ignore judge not or you will be judged.
I've heard many bad church stories including three different people saying a pastor and priest told them a loved one would go to hell.
GOD doesn't believe all the Bible. HE said their worship is a farce, they teach man-made ideas as commands from GOD Mark 7:7.
We wonder about GOD because of all the evil. A verse says satan is the god of this world.
Richard met GOD (YouTube) and cried talking about GOD'S unconditional love. It happened at Cottage several years ago.
Ken Johnson (YouTube) heard GOD say I LOVE YOU MORE THAN YOU WILL EVER KNOW.
I'm not Catholic but I've had more signs from GOD than the Pope (we all get signs).
A couple of years ago I had a dream of being handed flowers. It was several months later I found the exact picture and it became the cover for a book.
I didn't promote the book like I should have but the cover is the dream and a beautiful picture. So GOD knew about this picture and who would even think to take a picture like that.
Seek Me and you will find ME: I did and I DID: Ziegler, Ron: 9798640058413: Amazon.com: Books.
Good luck on your efforts to bring down the corruption from politicians.
Thank you. It wasn't written to make money but help others. If you get something out of it and want to tell friends I will get some author copies.
One of the best reviews was from a non Christian. "I suppose from a non-Christian perspective, it is easy to dismiss this book as religious claptrap. However, it is hard to believe that any reader wouldn't be affected by Ziegler's honest and powerful telling of his story. I'm sure Christians will find the power within these pages, and those curious about faith will also discover a truth they may not have realized existed before."
Sure. My daughter and granddaughter are coming Monday but anytime after April 20. Sometime when you are going to be near the Elks Lodge on Kellogg in Goleta I could meet you there. My time is pretty flexible and I am only 5 mins away. Right now my phone is out and my other daughter was going to add me to their plan but they are out of the country until the 24th.
Bonnie, I'm writing these comments to your column, so others here won't have to:
From Fancy Kneejerker: Ok, Ms. Donovan, go ahead and excuse your felon-in-command and his second-in-infamy. How about all the money they've made, huh? Like from Teslas? Hotels and golf courses?
From Harvey Wallbanger: F@sk you, Nazi sympathizer! Go back to Ireland!
From Botweiler2: DOGE must be stopped before the homelessness increases by 200% in this county from economic persecution! Meet at Crushcakes and join the Ganache Resistance!
As always, thank you for the both disturbing and informative article. I imagine there are a good number of county and city employees that are honest and hard working people and would benefit from removing the fraudsters from the system. I would like yo think that some (hopefully many) would come forward if they know firsthand of any fraud going on around their departments.
MB- nice thought “come forward” … to where exactly? Those aware of abuse, fraud, etc have no consumer or taxpayer protection funded organization to turn to. The civil Grand Jury is pointless. Any findings turned over to D.A. Office hit a brick wall. There’s collusion and major corruption at every turn in CA, including Santa Barbara. Look at how school bond funding isn’t spent as presented on ballots.
We’re under single party control, with no where to go.
I guess it was a naive comment on my part but hopefully if the word gets out more and more to the residents (taxpayers) of the county of the gross amount of fraud and corruption there will , at some point, have to be some sort of accountability.
Budgets out of balance unfortunately require accountability or a disgruntled electorate who refuse to keep taxing themselves for municipal profligacy. The failure of development projects due to over-reach regulations is another form of accountability.
Local elections suffer more from lack of participation and easily harvested required "districts", than lack of local interest. A few hundred votes still make or break many a final choice. Incrementalism is how we get from A to B. Giving up puts us instantly back to square Z.
Should it be unheard of that we don't walk the precincts for a favored candidate outside our own districts? I walked precincts for Randy Rowse who was running city wide for mayor, which took me well outside my own city council voting district.
It was heartening to listen F2F to the full support he was getting from those who actually did want to take about local politics. They were actually happy we knocked on their doors. Our outreach must find a way to meet this latent voter interest. And not to worry when a few doors got slammed in our faces. 99% were very cordial, even when they disagreed.
When was the last time a biz was allowed to open and continue operating without approved permits? Never! Of course you could have a permit and still get shut down ie the case of the Cookie Plug in the theatre.
E-bikes is the current green darling of the enviros and those who want to see cars take a hike. So they get a pass
They should be charged rent immediately or shut down u til the have approved permits.
I’m so sick of how the city and county are being run into the ground by those in power not serving the best interests of all citizens .
Keep writing
Ps where do I apply for city/county job that will be pay me a full salary and benefits for not working? I’m all in.
Taxpayers need a ROI for monies we’ve paid for sidewalks and streets used by ALL electric vehicles, and street vendors. Aren’t others tired of subsidizing the businesses and choices of others? A pet peeve:
2x Heavier electric vehicles contribute to potholed damaged roads. Why not charge triple annual registration fees on electric vehicles who don’t pay gas taxes to accelerate street maintenance to every 5 years versus 15-20 year cycle?
My new tire warranty of 45,000 miles/ 3 year warranty was NOT honored by dealer at 16,000 miles.
Read fine print: if local road conditions determined a contributing causation, dealer can prorate some or all cost to replace damaged tire.
Thank you for your insight and information on our "Election Official". It's emblematic of the larger problem...a diseased, corrupted and fraudulent culture in California governance and politics. Mr. Holland could be the government fat cat in an Ayn Rand novel. He has long surpassed his effectiveness for the people of Santa Barbara County. He has become a cog in the bureaucratic machinery collecting a hefty paycheck, benefitting from weighty "benefits" and "other pay" from unknown entities (in a position where it is typically scrutinized and frowned upon...and often illegal) while becoming a scarce figure in the hallways at the elections office and in the public realm. It's long past time he be replaced and investigated for his actions over the past several years. The integrity of our elections are vital to maintaining the public trust and the citizen's of the county deserve better.
Ayn Rand? Bleh. She's a disgrace and the perfect embodiment of the immoral nature of libertarianism. (But she hated libertarians!) Well she's still disgusting like one, and an egoist like them.
Thanks for the information, Bonnie ... funny to think the State is going to investigate the cities. To me, it's like the fox guarding the henhouse. They are all crooked. If working for the city for ten years, you'll have a nice retirement income as the mysterious Joe Holland has shown. It's all very sickening the level of corruption that exists.
Totals for Joe Holland’s entire pay package from2011 to 2023 are:
Was the recent ‘HANDS OFF’ gathering a call to stop auditing the country’s bureaucrats? As the AI audits expose grossly excessive corruption, Is a ‘HANDS ON’ revolution sure to follow?
$24 billion divided by 200,000 vagrants should have at least bought as many mobile homes with permanent hook-ups in the now abandoned town of Trona, CA..
Compare and contrast this one time expenditure to 24/7 Homeless Inc maintennance of life on an LA sidewalk, a Santa Barbara creekside or encouraging more cooking fires in the Malibu tinder dry foothills. Problem needs to be isolated and contained; not attempted to be mainstreamed into local communities.
Honor the choices people make for themselves. Either they are helpless and need state care facilities, or there are intentional grifters. Current social safety net covers those inbetween. Revive the former practical triage of this situation: The Have-nots; the Can-nots: the Will-nots. The Will-nots get Trona. The Can-nots get state care institutions. The Have nots- already have access to the heavily funded social welfare system.
How easy it will be to write new laws, and have them pass constitutional muster. There is no law anyone is required to fund those who refuse to help themselves.
Nor that public land is subject to zero restrictions. Where did you pull that one out of? Drill, baby, drill on all public lands. I am good.
Drill baby drill is converting public land to private.
Is that is what you want? To convert public land to commercial land for oil companies to enrich themselves?
It is amazing how clueless people are about the oil industry. They scream DRILL BABY DRILL because they believe that will lower the costs of gasoline because their will be a glut of oil. UHH, HEY YOU! Look out into the ocean. See all of those oil wells? You know the ones that are not pumping anything? That is what happens when supply outstrips demand. They TURN the wells off because they know that excess will LOWER the price and impact their profits.
I can help with ignorance, I can not help with stupidity. Ignorance is NOT knowing something. Stupidity is not wanting to know something.
It is NOT easy to write new laws to CHANGE/AMEND/ADD to the constitution. So until the constitution is amended, the laws can not be written to be constitutional. This was tried in Idaho and established that having to have housing is unconstitutional. Then SCOTUS had the Grant's Pass case. This case changed things as well, it allowed the states/muni's to do a LITTLE, but kept the premise that a person does NOT have to have a house. You can look up and read the SCOTUS case regarding Grant's pass. This is your way to show if you are ignorant or just being stupid regarding this matter.
Aha, a Prop 13 low basis cross-ruff. But don't you need to purchase something of similar or lesser value to keep your $60,000 tax basis? Plus hold the Trona property first for a period of time as your primary residence.
I read this article titled "It’s All Our Money, Ask for it Back!
by Bonnie Donovan". I have another more disturbing supporting title
"Santa Barbara Embezzlement of Citizens Money" I quote from Ms. Donovan article
"If state and local officials cannot provide proper oversight and accountability, we will do it for them," said U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli. "If we discover any federal laws were violated, we will make arrests." AND “If state and local officials cannot provide proper oversight and accountability, we will do it for them. If we discover any federal laws were violated, we will make arrests.” RIGTH!!
As I have repeatedly stated here to SB Currentor's there have been Millions of Dollars embezzled
right here in our Lil Ole Beach Town of Santa Barbara where alleged violation of "Federal Crimes"
and "Civil Rights" have been committed against SB Community and it's Citizens.
Ms. Donovan also stated "Yep, Santa Barbara is on the List:"
The FBI has been here, IN FORCE, since 2015 SO WHERE ARE THE ARRESTS?
Has the Director of the FBI been to SB?
Has the Deputy Director been to SB?
Do We Need to Have Kash Patel Come to SB?
I think the answer will have to be YES TO ALL THREE.
THREE STRIKES AND YOU ARE OUT Santa Barbara. GAME OVER!
Ms. Dovovan's Article is DEAD ON ADDRESSING THE CORRUPTION HERE IN SB!
Howard Walther, Member of a Military Family
PS1 - There was a recent SB Court Hearing where the Attorney requested to take "Judicial Notice" on TRANSPARENT CALIFORNIA published PUBLIC RECORDs and the SB Judge Refused
to Follow CA Evidence Code 450 & 460 & CRC 3.106 (c). It is apparent that SB County
even the SB Courts DO NOT WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE these PUBLIC RECORDS!!!!!!!!!!
The FBI partners with the city of SB, especially with the Dem city/state governments of recent. I can confirm that from my own experience. And the FBI harassment has carried over to Dalton, GA without missing a beat. Both the FBI and the city are as tight as a knot.
When someone says to someone they are "dead wrong," why go any further? I think there's a hint of bias and someone that's incapable of thinking out of the box. You've made your opinion very clear before, so I'm not going over this again.
Yes, why go further Bill, it is a fact the FBI addresses Police Misconduct,
I use that word broadly. I would suggest you read former FBI Executive
Tom Parker's article in the Independent on February 22, 2020 titled "Perceptions of Political Corruption Too Often the Harbingers of Stark Reality" Was SOMETHING going on in Santa Barbara significant during this timeframe in 2020 that would involve local law enforcement and as Mr. Parker states " This is especially true when it comes to questioning the ethics or illicit acts of local government officials. While spending nearly 25 years in the FBI and convicting a number of local, state, and federal officials on corruption charges, it did not take long for my colleagues and I to learn how to spot those who had crossed the bright line into unethical, and sometimes corrupt, behavior." Memorize these statements because this is EXACTLY what was going down in Santa Barbara Bill and it is a FACT.
"Or are the ones involved not talking because they have been told, you’re next in line for his job? Or, of course, everyone at the higher levels countywide is in on the game, so no one speaks up."
I believe you hit the nail on the head! During my younger days doing business with LA County, I observed how the top position in different departments was a revolving chair, saved for the person closest to retirement so they could retire with the highest pay level that affects their retirement pay. Probably still going on....!
Bonnie, I've said this privately, but our readers should know that your columns – particularly this one – are consistently and deliciously subversive. We need more of you. Got a clone?
Bonnie should take an apprentice.
Amen!
Bonnie, I’d like to see an article on Salud Carbajal. Note his voting record against women such as voting against the Laken Riley bill, supporting men participating in women’s sports, his lack of recognition (sitting) for those who have lost one’s at Trumps last congressional speech. The man only follows in lockstep and not man enough to stand up for moral and ethical values. He is a disgrace to his district. We need a free thinker, not a token voter who votes as he is told how to vote. Love your articles and the Current.
You are 100% correct. Salud, Limon, Hart, etc bow to the Democrat endorsement and campaign money, sad.
I will add this to my list.
Ms. Donovan, thank you for your detailed article. I approve of this kind of questioning of the people in charge of our taxes. Please post any results you receive from your questioning
Nancy, thanks!!
I will share anything I receive when I receive it.
If monies directed to eliminate vagrancy have not been properly audited, taxpayers never learn what are the best practices needed to get their expected outcomes for tax dollars expended. This is so basic for any taxpayer-funded endeavor. This is a no-brainer.
With the volumes of collected data, along with AI analysis, we now have in our grasp well-grounded solutions. No more task forces promising to address these long standing, tax-dollar draining societal issues. No more maintenance of ineffectual neglect, accompanied by the endless growth of taxpayer-funded administrative overhead.
Audited data and demonstrated best practices. What is not to like? Investigative journalist Micheal Shallenberger dug into this very problem seeking best practices in his book "San Fransicko". Time to connect the dots.
Homeless Inc, is alive and well in Santa Barbara!!
I don’t think the goal is to eliminate homelessness. It’s to big a cash cow for government and NGOs
We’re the suckers
Remove the AI analysis crap.
AI is FALLABLE.
You are sounding like a 'boomer,' like Linda McMahon and her every school needs A.1.
You have no idea how AI works. NONE. Here is the simplest of things to ponder:
AI took all the information from the web as its basis. For it to be accurate, everything on the internet has to be factual. ROFL. That is not true.
Try asking grok a few things. It’s not like you say here.
Ask an AI if it is fallible? ROFL.
Use AI to crunch data for human evaluation when making later decisions. When you have nothing but failure as the prior track record, and no audit of costs nor outcomes, it is time to re-evaluate what is already available. Team DOGE is proving data analysis has a lot more deep value, than continued reliance on deep state bureaucrats. You intentionally exaggerate for your own desired outcome. DB. Time has come to move off that tuffet .
Again, this is an ignorance versus stupidity situation.
Crunch data? HUH? Do you know what means? You do not use AI for that. That has been done for decades, well before AI was close to reality, just in science fiction books.
Your hyperbole about everything being a failure is a tired b.s. cliche. It shows that you have no clue, you just want to regurgitate things that you have heard, but not applied any brain cells to determine the validity of it.
There have been tons of audits. You just do not like the results because it does not support your belief.
DOGE has proven that they are a useless b.s. hyped thing to give red meat to the rabid fans, like yourself, who believe there is so much fraud. DOGE announced that they can't get 3 or 2tn, but are stuck at 150bn. AND that is not fraud, that is just those assholes cancelling contracts.
SO . . . after the departments have been audited 30000 times, at what point will you believe that your assumptions are WRONG?
And it is amazing that you think that somehow, someway, 30 dweebs under 30 have a monopoly on knowledge. Somehow those 30 dumbasses know more than the 350mm other people in the US. That is comical.
Track DOGE - savings and efficiencies in real time: https://doge-tracker.com
You like to add words that embellish and change the narrative.
No @#$T that shows what they claim are savings. Musk stated that they are DONE.
Again . . . how does it feel to be a sucker to believe that there were 2 or 3 trillion to be saved when all the dipshits did was cancel contracts?
Penny saved is a penny earned. Improved government efficiencies. Priceless. Go Team Doge.
A few points David: you cannot audit data that is not there. That is the contemporary issue. DOD has not passed an audit in over 10 years. LA 'Homeless" money is currently unaccountable. No data, no data to audit no outcomes to crunch. What was the best ROI on tax dollars spent? That is now the only answer to solve for. Spigot of unaccountable money is shut off. You do want to solve this. don't you?
People can choose to live rough if they want (no roof over their head), but they cannot chose to do this any where they want. The can live rough in Trona on their own dime right now; but not mine and not in this community's public spaces. Health and safety regulations are for the protection of all society. This from the start limits where people can live rough.
The first deep dive into today's useless vagrant programs came only after the Shellenberger book "San Fransicko" was published. He reviewed all your claims and excuses. You ran out to steam. Then came Grant's Pass opening new doors to limit the unacceptable sprawl of the prior situation.
The wails of self-interest that high-jacked of this issue in order to maintain the former status have ended. The enrichment of Homeless Inc and their specious claims for their own benefit and not for their target population is over. Why? Because nothing solved the problem; only grew and perpetuated the problem. Free ride is over for Homeless Inc. If there were no prior solutions, money is no longer available to shovel into this bottomless pit .This is not rocket science.
Again, I ask you ..do you even want solutions or just protection of the former status quo - which is translated as demand endless funding in order for certain groups of individuals to continue doing whatever they want? Set aside homesteading spaces on selected public lands is reasonable to put on the table. Watch the PBS series "Frontier House" for survival tips as this option is part of our long American tradition.
Seriously . . . are you mentally ok?
"A few points David: you cannot audit data that is not there. That is the contemporary issue."
WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK AN AUDIT DOES?
Money is TRACKABLE. That is what a !@%%^ audit does. It follows money from point A to all the points it goes.
I take it you are now going down the stupidity path. I told you what to read. You can argue as much as you want, it does not mean you are right. In fact, if you keep ignoring what SCOTUS has ruled on and decided what is constitutional and what is not, it means you are not only stupid, but you are also stubborn. As I stated, I can help with the ignorance part, but not on your lack of actions or ability to read.
People are NOT required to live in housing. That is the LAW. Everything after that is just you whining. There are solutions and it will cost taxpayers money to solve it. It is just more welfare, like you and I already get. You are just whining that someone is getting more welfare than you are.
Yout solution sounds like you want to put people in camps. No where is it constitutional to tell someone where they have to live.
JL: dots connected. Then what?
Tri-aged choices: (1) Trona - (2) MHSA-funded institutional care facilities, or (3) continued access to current federal/state welfare benefits, but no guarantee of any particular location of those services.
Everyone pretty much comes to Santa Barbara "homeless". Then they secure a means of support and compete for available housing. Or Option (4,) they move to a more amenable setting that better fits their own particular skill set.
Compensation of our public employees is offensive to taxpayers. Through my career I have worked for UCLA, USC and NASA/JPL. While I consider the universities "government adjacent" NASA/JPL is directly government funded and all share a culture of leisure, entitlement and corruption. Most employees rarely show up to work and when they can be found are usually in the cafeteria licking grease from their fingers and reading Obama's fifth autobiography. Another characteristic is that 99% are unapologetic Democrats. It must be in the DNA that explains how a person can be satisfied getting payed so much for doing so little. I only lasted three months at JPL. My boss explicitly told me that it was not necessary to show up for the hours I was paid for. I quit shortly thereafter not willing to accept pay derived from taxation for doing nothing. If we could only isolate and delete the gene responsible we could eliminate waste, fraud, abuse and the Democrat party.
Jeff, I have another story just like yours!
Jeff, I never would have thought working at JPL would be so corrupt. Wasn't that way at Raytheon. Whether Republican or Democrat, we all were productive to design and manufacture large defense systems. Building large systems requires a lot of organization because all the pieces have to come together to make the whole. I did have to put management "in check" for one component on a system and I became a whistleblower. Not much fun when both the company and the government combined ignore a whistleblower's complaint. The company and the government make deals, such as the government getting a freebee product(s) when a company is caught being on the sly. The employee is completely left out of the loop which was no surprise to me. Neither the company nor the government want underlings knowing how the operate. I'm assuming JPL has a lot of "fat" when it comes to employees, more than they really need.
Probably all defense contractors play the same game of underbidding and then getting well on the cost of changes which inevitably come. Plus the culture of spending every cent three fourths of the way through the project knowing that you will get :"plussed up" even when the project can be completed under budget. These flaws were invisible to me until I moved from a government adjacent work environment to a true private enterprise. The work ethic and the accomplishments and the work satisfaction is night and day. Profitability is dependent only on your product in private enterprise. At Raytheon and surely all government contractors success is a twisted web of lies, false promises inside connections vu-graphs with Wile Coyote physics and maybe 10% how well the product performs for the amount it cost to build it. This is why Musk has surpassed NASA in 10 years with a fraction of the budget.
Well my experience at Raytheon was perhaps slightly better than at JPL but very low work ethic in my opinion. I lasted for about 3 months at Raytheon former Santa Barbara Research Center as principal scientist which is about as high as you can get on the technical ladder. I quit and started my own business. I felt that I was actually discouraged from being productive. Lazy group if you ask me, very inefficient and biased by a not invented here attitude. No focused responsibility, a lot of meetings and discussions over stupid shit with obvious solutions. A real clown show. There were some good people there in the 1980's R Thom and B Parrish come to mind but not when I did my 3 months stint in 2000. I can only imagine it is worse today. I think today they have a lot of foreigners. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
I was at Raytheon ESD from '83 to '96 when designs were created in-house. I understand Raytheon now outsources more hardware after I left the company. By '96, the original core Chicago engineers starting the company back in the 1950's had all retired. During the period I worked at Raytheon, it was one of the more "professional" places to work and provided a lot of design challenges for me. I never worked at SBRC (former Hughes).
In my experience if you were in the engineering career track, Hughes was the best place to work.
Ya, Hughes was always pushing the envelope in everything they did. I did some consulting work at Hughes in Culver City and when working on highspeed digital computing hardware. Taking digital ICs and operating them to their limits.
Thank you for taking the time to research this. The Gov. spent 1 billion dollars on defective Covid masks from China and no accountability. Carl DeMaio is trying to stand up to the fraud, waste and corruption in Ca and could be a good source of information regarding other individuals. I hope they can be charged and found guilty.
Carl DeMaio
Chairman – Reform California
Candidate, State Assembly
Proponent, CA Voter ID Initiative
Thanks, Ron. There are only two people who haven't returned my call: Joe Holland and the past director of DRI. Before we bought the defective Covid mask from China, DRI sent China their supply of mask....
Hello Bonnie, what I find really peculiar about the greed, theft, corruption, deceit from the politicians is that some are Christian. I don't personally think they would go to hell for this but you would think they might wonder if GOD would judge them.
I don't know if you are Christian and GOD is not about repent or go to hell as too many claim and I don't judge people as too many Christians ignore judge not or you will be judged.
I've heard many bad church stories including three different people saying a pastor and priest told them a loved one would go to hell.
GOD doesn't believe all the Bible. HE said their worship is a farce, they teach man-made ideas as commands from GOD Mark 7:7.
We wonder about GOD because of all the evil. A verse says satan is the god of this world.
Richard met GOD (YouTube) and cried talking about GOD'S unconditional love. It happened at Cottage several years ago.
Ken Johnson (YouTube) heard GOD say I LOVE YOU MORE THAN YOU WILL EVER KNOW.
I'm not Catholic but I've had more signs from GOD than the Pope (we all get signs).
A couple of years ago I had a dream of being handed flowers. It was several months later I found the exact picture and it became the cover for a book.
I didn't promote the book like I should have but the cover is the dream and a beautiful picture. So GOD knew about this picture and who would even think to take a picture like that.
Seek Me and you will find ME: I did and I DID: Ziegler, Ron: 9798640058413: Amazon.com: Books.
Good luck on your efforts to bring down the corruption from politicians.
Just ordered your book on Amazon, thanks
Hello Bonnie, I just replied to you email about meeting but couldn't tell if it went through so let me know if you did not get it, thank you
No, it didn't.
Thank you. It wasn't written to make money but help others. If you get something out of it and want to tell friends I will get some author copies.
One of the best reviews was from a non Christian. "I suppose from a non-Christian perspective, it is easy to dismiss this book as religious claptrap. However, it is hard to believe that any reader wouldn't be affected by Ziegler's honest and powerful telling of his story. I'm sure Christians will find the power within these pages, and those curious about faith will also discover a truth they may not have realized existed before."
I was going to ask if you would sign my book after it arrived. We will have to get together :)
Sure. My daughter and granddaughter are coming Monday but anytime after April 20. Sometime when you are going to be near the Elks Lodge on Kellogg in Goleta I could meet you there. My time is pretty flexible and I am only 5 mins away. Right now my phone is out and my other daughter was going to add me to their plan but they are out of the country until the 24th.
use rzieglersb@gmail.com when you know when.
Thank you,
Ron
Bonnie, I'm writing these comments to your column, so others here won't have to:
From Fancy Kneejerker: Ok, Ms. Donovan, go ahead and excuse your felon-in-command and his second-in-infamy. How about all the money they've made, huh? Like from Teslas? Hotels and golf courses?
From Harvey Wallbanger: F@sk you, Nazi sympathizer! Go back to Ireland!
From Botweiler2: DOGE must be stopped before the homelessness increases by 200% in this county from economic persecution! Meet at Crushcakes and join the Ganache Resistance!
Delightfully Frosty. My Democrat neighbor gave me a thank-you gift for having some tree trimming done on our lot line. Crushcakes!
Did you get a Crushcake with a penis?
Well it was graced with a phallus, but identified as female with she/her pronouns.
Written by a Communist who was never taught the difference between hard work/entrepreneurship and leaching off of tax payers money. Bless your heart.
As always, thank you for the both disturbing and informative article. I imagine there are a good number of county and city employees that are honest and hard working people and would benefit from removing the fraudsters from the system. I would like yo think that some (hopefully many) would come forward if they know firsthand of any fraud going on around their departments.
MB- nice thought “come forward” … to where exactly? Those aware of abuse, fraud, etc have no consumer or taxpayer protection funded organization to turn to. The civil Grand Jury is pointless. Any findings turned over to D.A. Office hit a brick wall. There’s collusion and major corruption at every turn in CA, including Santa Barbara. Look at how school bond funding isn’t spent as presented on ballots.
We’re under single party control, with no where to go.
I guess it was a naive comment on my part but hopefully if the word gets out more and more to the residents (taxpayers) of the county of the gross amount of fraud and corruption there will , at some point, have to be some sort of accountability.
Budgets out of balance unfortunately require accountability or a disgruntled electorate who refuse to keep taxing themselves for municipal profligacy. The failure of development projects due to over-reach regulations is another form of accountability.
Local elections suffer more from lack of participation and easily harvested required "districts", than lack of local interest. A few hundred votes still make or break many a final choice. Incrementalism is how we get from A to B. Giving up puts us instantly back to square Z.
Should it be unheard of that we don't walk the precincts for a favored candidate outside our own districts? I walked precincts for Randy Rowse who was running city wide for mayor, which took me well outside my own city council voting district.
It was heartening to listen F2F to the full support he was getting from those who actually did want to take about local politics. They were actually happy we knocked on their doors. Our outreach must find a way to meet this latent voter interest. And not to worry when a few doors got slammed in our faces. 99% were very cordial, even when they disagreed.
We now at least have a medium (here) again for wider public discussion. May it continue build its reach, and guard its credibility.
Re: e. Bike stations
When was the last time a biz was allowed to open and continue operating without approved permits? Never! Of course you could have a permit and still get shut down ie the case of the Cookie Plug in the theatre.
E-bikes is the current green darling of the enviros and those who want to see cars take a hike. So they get a pass
They should be charged rent immediately or shut down u til the have approved permits.
I’m so sick of how the city and county are being run into the ground by those in power not serving the best interests of all citizens .
Keep writing
Ps where do I apply for city/county job that will be pay me a full salary and benefits for not working? I’m all in.
I agree with you regarding BCycle! They need to start paying rent immediately!
Something on the next ballot?Council doesn’t really care about us peons
Taxpayers need a ROI for monies we’ve paid for sidewalks and streets used by ALL electric vehicles, and street vendors. Aren’t others tired of subsidizing the businesses and choices of others? A pet peeve:
2x Heavier electric vehicles contribute to potholed damaged roads. Why not charge triple annual registration fees on electric vehicles who don’t pay gas taxes to accelerate street maintenance to every 5 years versus 15-20 year cycle?
My new tire warranty of 45,000 miles/ 3 year warranty was NOT honored by dealer at 16,000 miles.
Read fine print: if local road conditions determined a contributing causation, dealer can prorate some or all cost to replace damaged tire.
Thank you for your insight and information on our "Election Official". It's emblematic of the larger problem...a diseased, corrupted and fraudulent culture in California governance and politics. Mr. Holland could be the government fat cat in an Ayn Rand novel. He has long surpassed his effectiveness for the people of Santa Barbara County. He has become a cog in the bureaucratic machinery collecting a hefty paycheck, benefitting from weighty "benefits" and "other pay" from unknown entities (in a position where it is typically scrutinized and frowned upon...and often illegal) while becoming a scarce figure in the hallways at the elections office and in the public realm. It's long past time he be replaced and investigated for his actions over the past several years. The integrity of our elections are vital to maintaining the public trust and the citizen's of the county deserve better.
Ayn Rand? Bleh. She's a disgrace and the perfect embodiment of the immoral nature of libertarianism. (But she hated libertarians!) Well she's still disgusting like one, and an egoist like them.
Thanks for the information, Bonnie ... funny to think the State is going to investigate the cities. To me, it's like the fox guarding the henhouse. They are all crooked. If working for the city for ten years, you'll have a nice retirement income as the mysterious Joe Holland has shown. It's all very sickening the level of corruption that exists.
Totals for Joe Holland’s entire pay package from2011 to 2023 are:
Regular pay$2,610,693.00
Overtime pay$0
Other pay$205,708.35
Benefits$1,107,179.97
Excellent article. So much corruption, where do we start? Joe Holland is an excellent place. The heart of election fraud
You’ve got to have a fake elections employee to run fake elections.
Was the recent ‘HANDS OFF’ gathering a call to stop auditing the country’s bureaucrats? As the AI audits expose grossly excessive corruption, Is a ‘HANDS ON’ revolution sure to follow?
$24 billion divided by 200,000 vagrants should have at least bought as many mobile homes with permanent hook-ups in the now abandoned town of Trona, CA..
24 billion divided by 200,000 = $120,000.00 for each homeless, if it went towards each homeless... Not Homeless Inc.
BUT, now get the total of each "the system" they signed them up for.
Trona, CA - For sale: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/13331-Aster-St-Trona-CA-93562/17483869_zpid/
Compare and contrast this one time expenditure to 24/7 Homeless Inc maintennance of life on an LA sidewalk, a Santa Barbara creekside or encouraging more cooking fires in the Malibu tinder dry foothills. Problem needs to be isolated and contained; not attempted to be mainstreamed into local communities.
Honor the choices people make for themselves. Either they are helpless and need state care facilities, or there are intentional grifters. Current social safety net covers those inbetween. Revive the former practical triage of this situation: The Have-nots; the Can-nots: the Will-nots. The Will-nots get Trona. The Can-nots get state care institutions. The Have nots- already have access to the heavily funded social welfare system.
The issue is the constitution. There is no law mandating that you have to have a roof over your head. Public land is public land.
How easy it will be to write new laws, and have them pass constitutional muster. There is no law anyone is required to fund those who refuse to help themselves.
Nor that public land is subject to zero restrictions. Where did you pull that one out of? Drill, baby, drill on all public lands. I am good.
One other thing.
Drill baby drill is converting public land to private.
Is that is what you want? To convert public land to commercial land for oil companies to enrich themselves?
It is amazing how clueless people are about the oil industry. They scream DRILL BABY DRILL because they believe that will lower the costs of gasoline because their will be a glut of oil. UHH, HEY YOU! Look out into the ocean. See all of those oil wells? You know the ones that are not pumping anything? That is what happens when supply outstrips demand. They TURN the wells off because they know that excess will LOWER the price and impact their profits.
I can help with ignorance, I can not help with stupidity. Ignorance is NOT knowing something. Stupidity is not wanting to know something.
It is NOT easy to write new laws to CHANGE/AMEND/ADD to the constitution. So until the constitution is amended, the laws can not be written to be constitutional. This was tried in Idaho and established that having to have housing is unconstitutional. Then SCOTUS had the Grant's Pass case. This case changed things as well, it allowed the states/muni's to do a LITTLE, but kept the premise that a person does NOT have to have a house. You can look up and read the SCOTUS case regarding Grant's pass. This is your way to show if you are ignorant or just being stupid regarding this matter.
Snap it up. Hold for 2 years. Transfer tax base to Santa Barbara where Joe Holland will never know.
Aha, a Prop 13 low basis cross-ruff. But don't you need to purchase something of similar or lesser value to keep your $60,000 tax basis? Plus hold the Trona property first for a period of time as your primary residence.
I read this article titled "It’s All Our Money, Ask for it Back!
by Bonnie Donovan". I have another more disturbing supporting title
"Santa Barbara Embezzlement of Citizens Money" I quote from Ms. Donovan article
"If state and local officials cannot provide proper oversight and accountability, we will do it for them," said U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli. "If we discover any federal laws were violated, we will make arrests." AND “If state and local officials cannot provide proper oversight and accountability, we will do it for them. If we discover any federal laws were violated, we will make arrests.” RIGTH!!
As I have repeatedly stated here to SB Currentor's there have been Millions of Dollars embezzled
right here in our Lil Ole Beach Town of Santa Barbara where alleged violation of "Federal Crimes"
and "Civil Rights" have been committed against SB Community and it's Citizens.
Ms. Donovan also stated "Yep, Santa Barbara is on the List:"
The FBI has been here, IN FORCE, since 2015 SO WHERE ARE THE ARRESTS?
Has the Director of the FBI been to SB?
Has the Deputy Director been to SB?
Do We Need to Have Kash Patel Come to SB?
I think the answer will have to be YES TO ALL THREE.
THREE STRIKES AND YOU ARE OUT Santa Barbara. GAME OVER!
Ms. Dovovan's Article is DEAD ON ADDRESSING THE CORRUPTION HERE IN SB!
Howard Walther, Member of a Military Family
PS1 - There was a recent SB Court Hearing where the Attorney requested to take "Judicial Notice" on TRANSPARENT CALIFORNIA published PUBLIC RECORDs and the SB Judge Refused
to Follow CA Evidence Code 450 & 460 & CRC 3.106 (c). It is apparent that SB County
even the SB Courts DO NOT WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE these PUBLIC RECORDS!!!!!!!!!!
https://transparentcalifornia.com/ AND https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/all/
PS2 - As Ms. Donovan stated "Has someone known all about this and hasn’t reported it?"
Oh you can bet you last penny in your SB Piggy Bank that "Somone has Reported It"
The FBI partners with the city of SB, especially with the Dem city/state governments of recent. I can confirm that from my own experience. And the FBI harassment has carried over to Dalton, GA without missing a beat. Both the FBI and the city are as tight as a knot.
Bill, you are DEAD WRONG about " Both the FBI and the city are as tight as a knot"
but I need to get down to what has happened to you. You know at least some of this.
When someone says to someone they are "dead wrong," why go any further? I think there's a hint of bias and someone that's incapable of thinking out of the box. You've made your opinion very clear before, so I'm not going over this again.
Yes, why go further Bill, it is a fact the FBI addresses Police Misconduct,
I use that word broadly. I would suggest you read former FBI Executive
Tom Parker's article in the Independent on February 22, 2020 titled "Perceptions of Political Corruption Too Often the Harbingers of Stark Reality" Was SOMETHING going on in Santa Barbara significant during this timeframe in 2020 that would involve local law enforcement and as Mr. Parker states " This is especially true when it comes to questioning the ethics or illicit acts of local government officials. While spending nearly 25 years in the FBI and convicting a number of local, state, and federal officials on corruption charges, it did not take long for my colleagues and I to learn how to spot those who had crossed the bright line into unethical, and sometimes corrupt, behavior." Memorize these statements because this is EXACTLY what was going down in Santa Barbara Bill and it is a FACT.
There is NO PLACE FOR DIRTY COPS IN THE US>>
https://www.justice.gov/crt/conduct-law-enforcement-agencies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkgaymYnunw&ab_channel=FDCrime
"Or are the ones involved not talking because they have been told, you’re next in line for his job? Or, of course, everyone at the higher levels countywide is in on the game, so no one speaks up."
I believe you hit the nail on the head! During my younger days doing business with LA County, I observed how the top position in different departments was a revolving chair, saved for the person closest to retirement so they could retire with the highest pay level that affects their retirement pay. Probably still going on....!