The problem with the county and the city of SB is there is nothing in place to stop this ridiculous growth of expenses except the VOTERS.
Complain all you want, but the change has to come from the voter. And as we’ve seen with the democrats farm team approach, bringing up people through the ranks, building cultural identity and familiarity for years as their team progresses from city counsel member to county supervisor, then state wide positions, it may be a bridge too far!
For years we’ve all been talking about the unsustainable cost structures at the state, county and city level, but more and more fees come into play, more wage growth, more oversight, and the really nasty method of public input and consensus which puts the stamp of approval on the whole thing. Underlying all of this is the notion that affordability, and fairness can be provided to the less fortunate by raising fees on all others.
The key to changing this game: throw the bums out! Organize opposition to force the Democrat farm team to fail. Publish, publish, publish! Government and education employees may be only 3.5% of the states population, but they’re a key voting bloc: colas, retirement benefits vested in 6-8 years time in the job, compliance with their bosses (fealty) provides longevity assuring retirement benefits, guaranteed vacation and sick leave mentors and more. Visit transparentcalifornia.com to see the real cost of all these employees.
Thanks, Steve. The ice-jam is slowly getting broken. Publicizing Transparent California is a great way to change the public employee union control of this critical dialogue. Not only are we a one-employer town (government), we are a one party media town too. This becomes our task now to break through this information black-out.
Wait till Elon Musk arrives with Trump in DC and discuss with Elon the problems you are having in Santa Barbara with out-of-control spending. If anyone hasn't figure it out yet, Elon would probably love to place a noose around the neck of the local Democratic government: think Vandenberg.
Also tell Elon that a Bill Russell is sitting in Dalton, Georgia and wants to discuss about the criminal FBI working with the SB City/County to oust someone out of their home (me/wife) ... and gaining from property taxes of our original $400,000 home purchase to a renovated home selling for $4M. This is a theft of elderly people, no less ... gaining a huge property tax gain. And I continue to be harassed by the FBI by the local FBI office in GA that are spreading lies about me. The FBI should be going after terrorists and not innocent citizens, but they have been caught with their pants down because I figured out their scheme. Dems helping out other Dems to squash a Republican and take their money.
I had the pleasure of interacting with the previous director of public health Van Do-Reynoso. What a useless pile of excrement. If you have ever had the pleasure of hearing her speak you probably needed a barf bag. Spewing the racial disparity in health care outcomes, the health emergency due to climate change and the need for a Latinx and Indigenous Migrant COVID-19 Task Force she seems to hit all of the buzz words that Democrat voters like to hear. Beyond the progressive buzz word fluff, I was unable to extract any useful health care data relative to covid acquired immunity, and I beat my head against the wall trying. It was when school teachers were being threatened with termination if refusing to get the covid shit shot. A then just released study of public health data in Israel found that natural immunity from a previous infection was far superior to any benefit afforded by the injection. So I was arguing that as a minimum, teachers who had already recovered from covid need not get the shot. I asked for data on people who had tested positive, recovered and tested positive again. This would repeat what was done in Israel and confirm that many teachers would not benefit from the shot. Van Do-Do would not release the data no matter how many times I asked or how I framed the request. She like many of our government employees are not chosen for competence and serve to protect the government, their position and their ideology ultimately serving themselves rather than their constituents.
So well said Andy! I could only wish DOGE could have one day with our City ! Insane salaries and insane fees. The politics and the economic climate in SB is unsustainable.
Thank you Andy and SB Current for playing the role of “Watchdog “ and sounding the alarm. One fact is missing in this article and is the white elephant in the room. The local Democratic Party machine is driving this train. It is by way of their one party, out of control machine that justifies these bloated and OUTRAGEOUS salaries, which are not only obscene but unsustainable as well. This is like a bunch of hogs eating from the trough!
In the meantime, county and city LOS are impacted, which has become progressively much worse. Failing schools, failing roads, deferred maintenance and sky high fees.
All this, while more and more properties are coming off the tax roles, to include massive land grabs in the form of converting thousands of acres of Ag land into Land Trusts that only Environmentalists seem to benefit from. You simply can’t make this stuff up. Wait, what?… 1 in 7 properties are now somehow tax exempt?
Who’s left footing the bill?…property owners! You think Renters will ever vote down a bond measure or insist on DOGE?….oh hell NO!
I ask again, why has the UCSB Economic Development and Forecasting not released a comprehensive, doomsday report outlining the pending economic meltdown? Why are our elected officials not sounding the alarm? Oh that’s right, they’re the ones responsible and benefiting!
Interesting. The UCSB Economic Development and Forecasting Project does have an annual report - BUT its "Access is restricted to our community sponsors and partners." That's lame. https://efp.ucsb.edu/publications
This has to come to an end! Maybe they talked to NewScum, and he told them how to do this to make money off of us!! I'm so sick of California!!! I used to love it, when it wasn't corrupt, well, as much as it is now. We're expected to pay for this deficit, so Newscum does not have to pay the billions he's stole from us, figure that one out. Now, we have the county doing just about the same thing. I think we're just going to stop paying taxes. Let them throw an old lady in jail, I don't care, but it's time for someone to start somewhere, it has to start with one person. What are they going to do, throw us all in jail? We need to take a stand and put a stop to their stealing from us, then putting us in debt, only for them to raise taxes, again, and make us pay for them filling their pockets with OUR money! How much sense does that make?? We all need to stand together, rich or poor, Republicans or Democrats, we all foot the bill, and make a stand. We won't pay taxes anymore! It's time for Newscum and the other thieves to pay their own bills, past and future!!
Prop 13 arose as a populist movement when government one-sided over reach, finally reached the breaking point. Tax revolt is always in our hands. The statewide Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association remains alive and well, even if our local chapter became corrupted by self-serving special interests.
Kat. Why don't you move? I don't mean this with as a snotty remark, I enjoy the national politics of two battling parties and appreciate that they each add something. I'm a liberal - but I feel that our super-majority is only hurting CA. Just like I feel that the super majority of Red States is hiring them. But calling the elected governor a derogatory slur serves no purpose. Politics in CA is not going to change in your lifetime - even if your age is two decades younger than the average here on the SB current. I hope you can find some peace - but it seems like it might not be in a zip code that starts in a 9.
If I lived somewhere that I was that unhappy with the politics I probably would. California can change and become a better politically rounded place but it's not going to happen very fast. I hope Kat is just being dramatic and is only complaining about politics. You should work on your sorry ass attitude. Whoops, I meant to write "U". I forgot we were texting.
Very good observations, Andy. I tend to look at some things as complex designs based on my design of electronics involving large systems. Some complex system designs work very well and others not so well. The county "system design' is approaching self-annihilation in a "ticking time bomb" fashion. Often things take time to self-destruct. China does a good job with making U.S. consumer products to self-destruct so to keep on selling the same thing over and over again. Given time, the County of SB will implode/explode or whatever. My big concern would be "what happens afterwards?" Will the same thing simply happen again and again. Will the system design ever be fixed? We know Elon Musk would know the correction because he's an engineer very familiar with system failures. But will the public take heed, that's the big question.
The Current is performing the lost art of a “FREE PRESS”
The purpose of a free press in a country is to act as a "watchdog" by informing the public about government actions, holding officials accountable, and providing a platform for diverse viewpoints, essentially ensuring citizens can make informed decisions and participate actively in a democracy, all without undue government influence; it is considered a vital component of a healthy democracy.
Keep the lamp of TRUTH shining into the dysfunction of self serving local government and politicians, and set us free to pursue “Happiness” as our Constitution promises without the overwhelming burden of government intervention.
When government benefits start out as tax dollars, there is never a "multiplier" effect. This is nothing more than wealth redistribution, so call it what it is. Back to basics, please. If funding government policies are effective and well-accepted, they do not need to be disguised. Why hide this, using intentionally deceptive and ambiguous language?
"Multiplier effect" is just one more false term to drop from our civic vocabularies, along with the long over-used term that every item on a partisan social-engineering wish list is a "crisis".
What the county, and other government operations, are really trying to hide is their ever-expanding and ever-expansive employee full-employment operations they are running off our tax dollars. This is not social-engineering for the greater public good; this is wealth confiscation for their own personal gain.
I'm curious, how will this be impacted when all the government employees who willingly lined up for the plague vaxx start keeling over from turbo cancers and blood clots? Does the pension liability they represent stop with them, or are we on the hook for widows and orphans?
I read this article by Mr. Caldwell titled "Santa Barbara County Receives an “F” on DOGE Report Card" and I propose a new title "Santa Barbara County Receives an "F" for Concealment of
Major Problems beside their "Bloated Salaries" and I quote from same "Today, I would like to share with you a glimpse into the waste and virtue-signaling in an echo chamber that passes as government service. This piece details three components of failure. First, unsustainable salary and benefit packages for county employees that is absorbing more than half the county’s $1.6 billion budget."
Over the last six years there has been a large number of SB Directors, Dept. Heads, and employees forced out by Retiring, Resigning or flat-out-terminated. Now why would all of these
SB "Bloated Salary" Heads of the County/City and their accomplishes leave? Whats going on?
No-One-Walks-Away from a 250k to 300K Salary! For Example>>>
"This is just the latest high-profile law enforcement vacancy in our area. Santa Maria's police chief announced his retirement in November and San Luis Obispo's police chief took a new position in Fairfield. Oxnard's chief of police will retire in December, Atascadero and Arroyo Grande police chiefs retired this past summer. Additionally, fire chiefs for Santa Maria, Santa Barbara and Cal Fire San Luis Obispo have also announced retirements in the last several weeks."
The mass retirements might be in face of the ever-increasing public pension underfunding realities. Get out while the getting is still good? Then move to a lower tax state.
No, me think not. Please carefully read above link and I quote from same >
"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."
I’ll ya what’s needed - a loud, nasty local DoGE Squad ! A small group of smart, experienced people like some of the folks on this forum who would study, take apart and scrutinize every city policy, every city official and every city expenditure.
A relentless Watchdog Task Force that inspects the city’s business, exposes flaws, and DEMANDS accountability.
Threre’s only one thing the hustlers who run the city will respond to - a smart, public Pain in the Ass like our local DoGE Squad !
Great article, Andy, with some of the most disgusting abuse of power by our local bureaucrats and politicians. It's obviously been going on for years but has become more "in your face" and blatant. Where to start? Voting seems obvious but at the city level a good portion of us cannot vote. The County Board of Supervisors seems to be the next in order but.... Getting the word out like you, Andy, and the other writers of The Current is valuable in that more and more residents can see why the county is failing. Thank you.
The problem with the county and the city of SB is there is nothing in place to stop this ridiculous growth of expenses except the VOTERS.
Complain all you want, but the change has to come from the voter. And as we’ve seen with the democrats farm team approach, bringing up people through the ranks, building cultural identity and familiarity for years as their team progresses from city counsel member to county supervisor, then state wide positions, it may be a bridge too far!
For years we’ve all been talking about the unsustainable cost structures at the state, county and city level, but more and more fees come into play, more wage growth, more oversight, and the really nasty method of public input and consensus which puts the stamp of approval on the whole thing. Underlying all of this is the notion that affordability, and fairness can be provided to the less fortunate by raising fees on all others.
The key to changing this game: throw the bums out! Organize opposition to force the Democrat farm team to fail. Publish, publish, publish! Government and education employees may be only 3.5% of the states population, but they’re a key voting bloc: colas, retirement benefits vested in 6-8 years time in the job, compliance with their bosses (fealty) provides longevity assuring retirement benefits, guaranteed vacation and sick leave mentors and more. Visit transparentcalifornia.com to see the real cost of all these employees.
We have found the enemy and he is us- Pogo.
Thanks, Steve. The ice-jam is slowly getting broken. Publicizing Transparent California is a great way to change the public employee union control of this critical dialogue. Not only are we a one-employer town (government), we are a one party media town too. This becomes our task now to break through this information black-out.
Wait till Elon Musk arrives with Trump in DC and discuss with Elon the problems you are having in Santa Barbara with out-of-control spending. If anyone hasn't figure it out yet, Elon would probably love to place a noose around the neck of the local Democratic government: think Vandenberg.
Also tell Elon that a Bill Russell is sitting in Dalton, Georgia and wants to discuss about the criminal FBI working with the SB City/County to oust someone out of their home (me/wife) ... and gaining from property taxes of our original $400,000 home purchase to a renovated home selling for $4M. This is a theft of elderly people, no less ... gaining a huge property tax gain. And I continue to be harassed by the FBI by the local FBI office in GA that are spreading lies about me. The FBI should be going after terrorists and not innocent citizens, but they have been caught with their pants down because I figured out their scheme. Dems helping out other Dems to squash a Republican and take their money.
Mr. Cook, there are other people addressing the very serious problems in
SB County. See my post below and weblink.
I had the pleasure of interacting with the previous director of public health Van Do-Reynoso. What a useless pile of excrement. If you have ever had the pleasure of hearing her speak you probably needed a barf bag. Spewing the racial disparity in health care outcomes, the health emergency due to climate change and the need for a Latinx and Indigenous Migrant COVID-19 Task Force she seems to hit all of the buzz words that Democrat voters like to hear. Beyond the progressive buzz word fluff, I was unable to extract any useful health care data relative to covid acquired immunity, and I beat my head against the wall trying. It was when school teachers were being threatened with termination if refusing to get the covid shit shot. A then just released study of public health data in Israel found that natural immunity from a previous infection was far superior to any benefit afforded by the injection. So I was arguing that as a minimum, teachers who had already recovered from covid need not get the shot. I asked for data on people who had tested positive, recovered and tested positive again. This would repeat what was done in Israel and confirm that many teachers would not benefit from the shot. Van Do-Do would not release the data no matter how many times I asked or how I framed the request. She like many of our government employees are not chosen for competence and serve to protect the government, their position and their ideology ultimately serving themselves rather than their constituents.
You are witnessing the biggest scams that have invaded our country and that is: Greed, Ignorance and Stupidity.
"Covid" unmasked a critical mass of government incompetency. We must build on this exposure.
So well said Andy! I could only wish DOGE could have one day with our City ! Insane salaries and insane fees. The politics and the economic climate in SB is unsustainable.
Thank you Andy and SB Current for playing the role of “Watchdog “ and sounding the alarm. One fact is missing in this article and is the white elephant in the room. The local Democratic Party machine is driving this train. It is by way of their one party, out of control machine that justifies these bloated and OUTRAGEOUS salaries, which are not only obscene but unsustainable as well. This is like a bunch of hogs eating from the trough!
In the meantime, county and city LOS are impacted, which has become progressively much worse. Failing schools, failing roads, deferred maintenance and sky high fees.
All this, while more and more properties are coming off the tax roles, to include massive land grabs in the form of converting thousands of acres of Ag land into Land Trusts that only Environmentalists seem to benefit from. You simply can’t make this stuff up. Wait, what?… 1 in 7 properties are now somehow tax exempt?
Who’s left footing the bill?…property owners! You think Renters will ever vote down a bond measure or insist on DOGE?….oh hell NO!
I ask again, why has the UCSB Economic Development and Forecasting not released a comprehensive, doomsday report outlining the pending economic meltdown? Why are our elected officials not sounding the alarm? Oh that’s right, they’re the ones responsible and benefiting!
Interesting. The UCSB Economic Development and Forecasting Project does have an annual report - BUT its "Access is restricted to our community sponsors and partners." That's lame. https://efp.ucsb.edu/publications
This has to come to an end! Maybe they talked to NewScum, and he told them how to do this to make money off of us!! I'm so sick of California!!! I used to love it, when it wasn't corrupt, well, as much as it is now. We're expected to pay for this deficit, so Newscum does not have to pay the billions he's stole from us, figure that one out. Now, we have the county doing just about the same thing. I think we're just going to stop paying taxes. Let them throw an old lady in jail, I don't care, but it's time for someone to start somewhere, it has to start with one person. What are they going to do, throw us all in jail? We need to take a stand and put a stop to their stealing from us, then putting us in debt, only for them to raise taxes, again, and make us pay for them filling their pockets with OUR money! How much sense does that make?? We all need to stand together, rich or poor, Republicans or Democrats, we all foot the bill, and make a stand. We won't pay taxes anymore! It's time for Newscum and the other thieves to pay their own bills, past and future!!
DOGE!! We need you!!!
Prop 13 arose as a populist movement when government one-sided over reach, finally reached the breaking point. Tax revolt is always in our hands. The statewide Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association remains alive and well, even if our local chapter became corrupted by self-serving special interests.
Kat. Why don't you move? I don't mean this with as a snotty remark, I enjoy the national politics of two battling parties and appreciate that they each add something. I'm a liberal - but I feel that our super-majority is only hurting CA. Just like I feel that the super majority of Red States is hiring them. But calling the elected governor a derogatory slur serves no purpose. Politics in CA is not going to change in your lifetime - even if your age is two decades younger than the average here on the SB current. I hope you can find some peace - but it seems like it might not be in a zip code that starts in a 9.
Thomas
I appreciate you reaching back to me and I wanted to apologize for the language I used.
I appreciate your comment and I hope that you can forgive me for.
It’s probably out of frustration to see what has happened to our once great state.
Steve - even though I am probably on the other side of the red/blue fence as you I also see lots of problems here.
U are the problem.
Why don’t you move and take your sorry ass attitude with u?
If I lived somewhere that I was that unhappy with the politics I probably would. California can change and become a better politically rounded place but it's not going to happen very fast. I hope Kat is just being dramatic and is only complaining about politics. You should work on your sorry ass attitude. Whoops, I meant to write "U". I forgot we were texting.
Andy, I always appreciate reading your summaries, even though I know they will be painful to digest!
The entire cast of Supervisors equals Clown Show.
Very good observations, Andy. I tend to look at some things as complex designs based on my design of electronics involving large systems. Some complex system designs work very well and others not so well. The county "system design' is approaching self-annihilation in a "ticking time bomb" fashion. Often things take time to self-destruct. China does a good job with making U.S. consumer products to self-destruct so to keep on selling the same thing over and over again. Given time, the County of SB will implode/explode or whatever. My big concern would be "what happens afterwards?" Will the same thing simply happen again and again. Will the system design ever be fixed? We know Elon Musk would know the correction because he's an engineer very familiar with system failures. But will the public take heed, that's the big question.
The Current is performing the lost art of a “FREE PRESS”
The purpose of a free press in a country is to act as a "watchdog" by informing the public about government actions, holding officials accountable, and providing a platform for diverse viewpoints, essentially ensuring citizens can make informed decisions and participate actively in a democracy, all without undue government influence; it is considered a vital component of a healthy democracy.
Keep the lamp of TRUTH shining into the dysfunction of self serving local government and politicians, and set us free to pursue “Happiness” as our Constitution promises without the overwhelming burden of government intervention.
Good call, Gary. Indeed, we are doing what the "Angry Poodle" abdicated doing decades ago.
Excellent information that the county Sups and department heads will ignore or even say are lies.
All levels of government are corrupted beyond repair.
President Trump has a crap pile to eliminate.
When government benefits start out as tax dollars, there is never a "multiplier" effect. This is nothing more than wealth redistribution, so call it what it is. Back to basics, please. If funding government policies are effective and well-accepted, they do not need to be disguised. Why hide this, using intentionally deceptive and ambiguous language?
"Multiplier effect" is just one more false term to drop from our civic vocabularies, along with the long over-used term that every item on a partisan social-engineering wish list is a "crisis".
What the county, and other government operations, are really trying to hide is their ever-expanding and ever-expansive employee full-employment operations they are running off our tax dollars. This is not social-engineering for the greater public good; this is wealth confiscation for their own personal gain.
Actually, they get an "A" for managing the county into economic oblivion.
I'm curious, how will this be impacted when all the government employees who willingly lined up for the plague vaxx start keeling over from turbo cancers and blood clots? Does the pension liability they represent stop with them, or are we on the hook for widows and orphans?
I read this article by Mr. Caldwell titled "Santa Barbara County Receives an “F” on DOGE Report Card" and I propose a new title "Santa Barbara County Receives an "F" for Concealment of
Major Problems beside their "Bloated Salaries" and I quote from same "Today, I would like to share with you a glimpse into the waste and virtue-signaling in an echo chamber that passes as government service. This piece details three components of failure. First, unsustainable salary and benefit packages for county employees that is absorbing more than half the county’s $1.6 billion budget."
Over the last six years there has been a large number of SB Directors, Dept. Heads, and employees forced out by Retiring, Resigning or flat-out-terminated. Now why would all of these
SB "Bloated Salary" Heads of the County/City and their accomplishes leave? Whats going on?
No-One-Walks-Away from a 250k to 300K Salary! For Example>>>
https://da.countyofsb.org/documents/JoyceDudleyRetirement.pdf
"Public Corruption to Often the Harbingers of Stark Realty" >>>
https://www.independent.com/2020/02/22/perceptions-of-political-corruption/
Howard Walther, member of a Military Family
PS1 - Chief Lori Luhnow Retires? 5 Other Chiefs Retire/Resign?
https://keyt.com/news/santa-barbara-s-county/2020/12/14/santa-barbara-police-chief-announces-retirement/
"This is just the latest high-profile law enforcement vacancy in our area. Santa Maria's police chief announced his retirement in November and San Luis Obispo's police chief took a new position in Fairfield. Oxnard's chief of police will retire in December, Atascadero and Arroyo Grande police chiefs retired this past summer. Additionally, fire chiefs for Santa Maria, Santa Barbara and Cal Fire San Luis Obispo have also announced retirements in the last several weeks."
The mass retirements might be in face of the ever-increasing public pension underfunding realities. Get out while the getting is still good? Then move to a lower tax state.
No, me think not. Please carefully read above link and I quote from same >
"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."
Looks like a muddy road ahead better detour!
I’ll ya what’s needed - a loud, nasty local DoGE Squad ! A small group of smart, experienced people like some of the folks on this forum who would study, take apart and scrutinize every city policy, every city official and every city expenditure.
A relentless Watchdog Task Force that inspects the city’s business, exposes flaws, and DEMANDS accountability.
Threre’s only one thing the hustlers who run the city will respond to - a smart, public Pain in the Ass like our local DoGE Squad !
Great article, Andy, with some of the most disgusting abuse of power by our local bureaucrats and politicians. It's obviously been going on for years but has become more "in your face" and blatant. Where to start? Voting seems obvious but at the city level a good portion of us cannot vote. The County Board of Supervisors seems to be the next in order but.... Getting the word out like you, Andy, and the other writers of The Current is valuable in that more and more residents can see why the county is failing. Thank you.