Laura Capps is my supervisor. A couple of years ago she deigned to come out to our neighborhood where we had two serious problems we needed her to address. We neighbors all had to stand on the street because God forbid Laura might sit down with us and actually get to know us. I would have been happy to serve up some nibbles. But no. Miss Laura drove up in an expensive car, teetered out in high heels, a dress, hair coiffed like Ivanka Trump and scarves in Ukraine colors. She pretended to listen to us, giving her patented “I hear your pain” look. Took off after fifteen minutes. Did nothing. Because our problems were just not important to her career. We were undeserving of USAID. My problem with writing her is I get as far as “Dear Laura” and then my fingers start typing expletives.
I thought about your description of the Grand Laura Capps appearance of her short, sidewalk appearance as if she was royalty talking with the peasants. Wondering who does she think she is ... prepping to be the next mayor? Fortunately, it looks like the Dems are "going out of business" and Laura will not be going anywhere towards Washington, DC. And therefore, she will unfortunately remain at her present, humiliating level of "grand" mediocrity.
Great article, very informative Andy. It is outrageous that the BOS are seeking a 48% pay raise when many county residents are struggling to pay their rent and put food on the table! Are they tone deaf? One sector of our local communities remain in the chips….county and city employees! BTW, the 48% pay raise for the BOS obviously would carry over into the amount of their retirement jackpot that they have for life. When reviewing Transparent California I noticed the highest paid county employee made $750k annually and worked for the Probation Department. Do people realize his salary and benefits are more than the combined salaries of the President and Vice President of the United States?
As for the AMR confidence game, it would seem county officials took actions to conceal the purchase and storage of millions of dollars in equipment. Who, what, where and how is what the District Attorney should be asking! This has the optics of money laundering. Further, was there any influence or collaboration with the fire union in floating this expense goose egg?
DOGE is needed for ALL levels of California government now!
This is both embarrassing and maddening. The Board of Supervisors certainly has egg on it"s face over the AMR contract fiasco and ambulance purchases. Voters should understand that Roy Lee had nothing to do with the AMR contract scandal or ambulance purchases.
The County Grand Jury issued a Report last year suggesting that it's $25.00 per Diem pay rate should be bumped to $50 per Diem. (The Report and Supervisor's Response can be read at www.sbcgj.org/reports.) The irony here is that the Jury used Los Angeles County for comparison, and the Supervisors retorted that LA County was so much larger that it was not a valid comparison.
What's good for the goose is apparently not good for the gander.
Andy, I’m counting the days until our corrupt little City and County get D.O.G.E.D. Let them vote for themselves their fake and undeserved raises so that it may increase their treasonous time behind bars. May they rot in prison with their unconscionable crimes against this once beautiful community. For how long have we contested the salaries of these fat cat politicians who are both elected and unelected?! The City Administrator of Santa Barbara makes more than the President of the United States! They continue to vote for raises for themselves while our communities are severely degraded. How we got here can never be forgotten or repeated. May there be history books filled with these specific Socialist/Communist playbooks so that Americans never fall for this again.
Thank you, Andy, for the information, both on the ambulance debacle and the proposed salary increase. I have contacted my supervisor (Hartmann) and encouraged a NO vote.
I ended up actually reaching out to all the supervisors and did get a response from Roy Lee\ and Bob Nelson. It is a Sunday so perhaps the others will respond as well.
As long as they don't have opponents that can beat them, they will do exactly as they please. I'm also not sure why anyone thinks Santa Barbara voters care if they get an obscene raise in salary. These are the same voters who blithely voted for every tax increase on the ballot, including a 1/2 percent increase in the sales tax. Stupid is as stupid does.
D. O. G. E. will be kept very busy in our sleepy but filthy and corrupted little beach town. Thank you for sharing these links for review. It’s mind numbing to think of nearly the entire state of CA in similar condition.
At Bonnie Donovan's earlier request I sent my protest to all five county supervisors, including my own. Only Steve Lavagnino responded with an acknowledgement of receipt, who is not even my supervisor.
That speaks volumes - to be grateful for even a perfunctory response, compared to the typical total silence and disregard. Such is the state today of our elected representative's campaign promise to always "listen to the people". Kudos to Steve Lavagnino, because even something is better than a total nothing.
Surely by now the county has the capacity to offer at least an automated response to any direct email contact. Even Salud Carbajal's totally off topic pre-printed nonsense selling his own tone-deaf campaign agendas ranks up there as inspired prose, compared to these other four county supervisor's sounds of total silence.
Agree or disagree is not even the issue - the total disregard to any county resident's contact speaks volumes.
UPDATE: Bob Nelson also responded, along with Steve Lavangino. So the two North County supervisors have been responsive. The three South County supervisors remain unresponsive.
Only to Make Matters Worse, More Money Will Be Spent to Oversee Medical Services (KEYT):
"All emergency calls will go through the new Regional Fire Communications Center when the new agreement takes effect and County Fire will continue to provide ambulance services where it already serves such as Vandenberg Village, Cuyama, and UC Santa Barbara's campus detailed the County of Santa Barbara."
"There is an option to expand ambulance services from Santa Barbara County Fire Department into Zone 4 in Lompoc as well as Zone 6 which includes Carpinteria, Summerland, and Montecito noted Santa Barbara County."
"The contract will expand oversight by creating a 16-member Emergency Medical Care Committee and adding a clinical scorecard for patients to provide feedback."
The taxpayers of U.S. Cities and Counties should promote a KISS Government or Keep It Simple Stupid Government. No doubt the city and county governments are no better than the Feds.
The group that "managed" the Ambulance Fiasco should resign in shame.
My supervisor (Capps), I call her Carpetbagger Capps, is the gold standard for local career politicians.
Don't these Sups see what Trump is doing to get the waste and fraud out of government?
I guess our County Sups want to toe the Liberal line, and keep push us over the ledge into bankruptcy.
Looks like things are going to get a lot more ugly from the Federal level to the Local level as corruption is rooted out.
Let's use the salary raise to pay off the debt the Sups created with that illegal ambulance contract fraud case!!
Where’s the County Fire Chief in this fraudulent case?
That person is the “Leader “ of our first responders.
I bet the union is up to their neck in this corruption too.
🎯
Which Santa Barbara County "fire chief" ?
https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?a=santa-barbara&q=fire+chief&y=2023
Laura Capps is my supervisor. A couple of years ago she deigned to come out to our neighborhood where we had two serious problems we needed her to address. We neighbors all had to stand on the street because God forbid Laura might sit down with us and actually get to know us. I would have been happy to serve up some nibbles. But no. Miss Laura drove up in an expensive car, teetered out in high heels, a dress, hair coiffed like Ivanka Trump and scarves in Ukraine colors. She pretended to listen to us, giving her patented “I hear your pain” look. Took off after fifteen minutes. Did nothing. Because our problems were just not important to her career. We were undeserving of USAID. My problem with writing her is I get as far as “Dear Laura” and then my fingers start typing expletives.
I thought about your description of the Grand Laura Capps appearance of her short, sidewalk appearance as if she was royalty talking with the peasants. Wondering who does she think she is ... prepping to be the next mayor? Fortunately, it looks like the Dems are "going out of business" and Laura will not be going anywhere towards Washington, DC. And therefore, she will unfortunately remain at her present, humiliating level of "grand" mediocrity.
Thank you so much for keeping us informed and a watchful eye on government waste. I have emailed my supervisor.
Great article, very informative Andy. It is outrageous that the BOS are seeking a 48% pay raise when many county residents are struggling to pay their rent and put food on the table! Are they tone deaf? One sector of our local communities remain in the chips….county and city employees! BTW, the 48% pay raise for the BOS obviously would carry over into the amount of their retirement jackpot that they have for life. When reviewing Transparent California I noticed the highest paid county employee made $750k annually and worked for the Probation Department. Do people realize his salary and benefits are more than the combined salaries of the President and Vice President of the United States?
As for the AMR confidence game, it would seem county officials took actions to conceal the purchase and storage of millions of dollars in equipment. Who, what, where and how is what the District Attorney should be asking! This has the optics of money laundering. Further, was there any influence or collaboration with the fire union in floating this expense goose egg?
DOGE is needed for ALL levels of California government now!
This is both embarrassing and maddening. The Board of Supervisors certainly has egg on it"s face over the AMR contract fiasco and ambulance purchases. Voters should understand that Roy Lee had nothing to do with the AMR contract scandal or ambulance purchases.
The County Grand Jury issued a Report last year suggesting that it's $25.00 per Diem pay rate should be bumped to $50 per Diem. (The Report and Supervisor's Response can be read at www.sbcgj.org/reports.) The irony here is that the Jury used Los Angeles County for comparison, and the Supervisors retorted that LA County was so much larger that it was not a valid comparison.
What's good for the goose is apparently not good for the gander.
Andy, I’m counting the days until our corrupt little City and County get D.O.G.E.D. Let them vote for themselves their fake and undeserved raises so that it may increase their treasonous time behind bars. May they rot in prison with their unconscionable crimes against this once beautiful community. For how long have we contested the salaries of these fat cat politicians who are both elected and unelected?! The City Administrator of Santa Barbara makes more than the President of the United States! They continue to vote for raises for themselves while our communities are severely degraded. How we got here can never be forgotten or repeated. May there be history books filled with these specific Socialist/Communist playbooks so that Americans never fall for this again.
OMG what a beautiful and accurate comment 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Thank you, Andy, for the information, both on the ambulance debacle and the proposed salary increase. I have contacted my supervisor (Hartmann) and encouraged a NO vote.
I ended up actually reaching out to all the supervisors and did get a response from Roy Lee\ and Bob Nelson. It is a Sunday so perhaps the others will respond as well.
What did they say?
It was just recognition of receiving my email and thanking me. No indication of which way they would vote.
As long as they don't have opponents that can beat them, they will do exactly as they please. I'm also not sure why anyone thinks Santa Barbara voters care if they get an obscene raise in salary. These are the same voters who blithely voted for every tax increase on the ballot, including a 1/2 percent increase in the sales tax. Stupid is as stupid does.
When automatic COLA is part of the government employee compensation package, you do get a lot of.... "What, me worry?"..... voters in this town.
COLA causes inflation!!!
I read this very disturbing article titled "Stop County Supervisors From Giving
Themselves a 48% Raise!" by Andy Caldwell
I propose a new Title "SB County Dereliction of Duty"
Military Def. - A service member who is derelict has willfully refused
to perform his duties (or follow a given order) or has incapacitated
himself in such a way that he cannot perform his duties..."
As a broken record I have repeatedly stated to SB Currentor's there
are very serious problems with SB City and County Entire Government.
You all want Documents for same OK Buckle-Up and for you attorneys here.
Get yourselves a PACER Account to review the Federal Court Dockets in CALI.
Go to the US District Court - Central District of California weblink >>
https://www.cacd.uscourts.gov/
Look at the entire Court Docket Case by Case by Case and this is what you will find.
Thousands and Thousands of Criminal Sealed Motions >> STILL SEALED.
I provide just the Monthly Breakdown count, starting on Dec 2024 going back>>
Dec-465, Nov-494, Oct-820, Sept-658, Aug-692, Jun-786, Jul-686,
May-758, April-662, March-687, Feb-587, Jan-694
This goes back year after year in the Central District Court of CALI
All these Sealed Criminal Motions would be tied to a few Criminal Indictments
just like the Huizar LA County Counsel Corruption Case I have provided to you.
Our Brave Women and Men of the FBI have been very very busy.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/press-release/file/1287936/dl
See paragraph Two of FBI Agent Andrew Cevitti RICO Aff. provided below>
"I am currently one of the agents assigned to an
investigation of alleged public corruption throughout the City
of Los Angeles (the “City”), California related to a suspected
“pay-to-play” scheme (the “Federal Investigation”). The Federal
Investigation involves multiple City officials, developers,
investors, consultants, lobbyists, and other close associates
working in furtherance of the potentially illegal schemes."
Any SIMILIAR INVESTIGATIONS IN OUR LIL OLE BEACH TOWN?
Howard Walther Member of a Military Family
PS1 - Paragraph 3 In RICO Aff. "The Federal Investigation has revealed that HUIZAR operated a
pay-to-play scheme in the City..." SOUND FAMILIAR MAYBE?
PS2 - Paragraph 5 in the RICO Aff. "This affidavit is made in support of a criminal
complaint against and arrest warrant for JOSE LUIS HUIZAR for a
violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1962(d)
(Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Conspiracy).
D. O. G. E. will be kept very busy in our sleepy but filthy and corrupted little beach town. Thank you for sharing these links for review. It’s mind numbing to think of nearly the entire state of CA in similar condition.
We need to Doge SB, then Sacramento !
Where is Big Balls when we need him?
Figuring out how to use the data he's had access to to make more money?
Thomas John, Keep Your Eye On-The-Ball
Think DATA and INFO in "Santa Barbara"
There are very serious problems in this
Lil Ole Beach Town because DOGE BEEN HERE.
You know that Ole Saying ........................
What Comes Around Goes Around.
Mr. Paul Aijiian MD. You had DOGE in Santa Barbara
who was quickly uncovering everything like now DOGE
in Washington. But the SB So-Called-Leaders
did not like the SB DOGE uncovering EVERYTHING.
So what happened you may ask>?
Think Donald J. Trump and what happened to him.
We now have a new lexicon in our language.
"Being TRUMPED" AKA LAWFARED TO DESTRUCTION.
At Bonnie Donovan's earlier request I sent my protest to all five county supervisors, including my own. Only Steve Lavagnino responded with an acknowledgement of receipt, who is not even my supervisor.
That speaks volumes - to be grateful for even a perfunctory response, compared to the typical total silence and disregard. Such is the state today of our elected representative's campaign promise to always "listen to the people". Kudos to Steve Lavagnino, because even something is better than a total nothing.
Surely by now the county has the capacity to offer at least an automated response to any direct email contact. Even Salud Carbajal's totally off topic pre-printed nonsense selling his own tone-deaf campaign agendas ranks up there as inspired prose, compared to these other four county supervisor's sounds of total silence.
Agree or disagree is not even the issue - the total disregard to any county resident's contact speaks volumes.
UPDATE: Bob Nelson also responded, along with Steve Lavangino. So the two North County supervisors have been responsive. The three South County supervisors remain unresponsive.
The tip of the iceberg.... pay and expenses.
The real iceberg... retirement and benefits
As Supervisors pay goes up want to bet chief of staff, and staff get more pay? with the retirement/benefits.
As Supervisors pay go up so too County manager pay goes up.
Now this is a casino game, and the "house" that gets most of the money is? re-read the above.
Only to Make Matters Worse, More Money Will Be Spent to Oversee Medical Services (KEYT):
"All emergency calls will go through the new Regional Fire Communications Center when the new agreement takes effect and County Fire will continue to provide ambulance services where it already serves such as Vandenberg Village, Cuyama, and UC Santa Barbara's campus detailed the County of Santa Barbara."
"There is an option to expand ambulance services from Santa Barbara County Fire Department into Zone 4 in Lompoc as well as Zone 6 which includes Carpinteria, Summerland, and Montecito noted Santa Barbara County."
"The contract will expand oversight by creating a 16-member Emergency Medical Care Committee and adding a clinical scorecard for patients to provide feedback."
The taxpayers of U.S. Cities and Counties should promote a KISS Government or Keep It Simple Stupid Government. No doubt the city and county governments are no better than the Feds.
Money Laundering 101
Thank you Andy for the reporting.
p.s. What about all the ambulances that the County purchased and the monthly space rental fee?
What has become of them?
We believe they are going to try and sell them