Thank you Bonnie, for alerting to these city matters.
Why are we paying these city employees their extravagant salaries, benefits and pensions for such incompetent work products? Who controls this continued municipal mismanagement?
Who is really in charge: The Mayor (one vote), the City Administrator, the City Council majority (four votes), the voters now splintered by district elections (six districts), the city employee unions and their union bosses? All of the above; none of the above. City appears to be floundering in a leadership vacuum, as badly as the current Biden White House.
Santa Barbara is fast becoming a microcosm for the bloat, unaccountability, fraud, partisan games-playing and corruption we now witness daily at the national level. Let a volunteer DOGE loose on the city as well. With the new city council pro-union, "progressive" majority things are going to get even worse.
Voters, stop being lazy. Do not let "term limits" do the work we still need to exercise ourselves, in order to save our once beautiful city.
(Visited downtown last night for dinner and theater to see the entire dead zone called State Street. How I wished to see the enlivening that used to come from regular car traffic on our former main street - now it is only a long, empty, dark and unwelcoming void.)
I find Elon Musk's presence to be manning DOGE and his semi-supported possible position as Speaker of the House an interesting topic. What has Elon's presence have the Speaker doesn't have? I'd say charisma, an aura about him, his obvious brilliance in the business world and a guy that has a lot of money. These are all mind-blowing characteristics found in one person which would make anyone in DC look like an idiot. Geez, wouldn't it be fun to be entertained by Elon Musk and Rosa DeLauro, the reincarnation of the "Wicked Witch of the East," debate each other. When we talk about DOGE, it's not so much about the DOGE concept than it is about the person running it. Wouldn't it be great if Elon could spend one day per week or month overseeing the City of Santa Barbara? Or even better, vote on Elon to purchase the City of Santa Barbara government as his play toy and let him grease the skids by giving big discounts of his Tesla's to local residents as compensation for his rocket noise. Elon could operate the city probably with one hundred people and eliminate taxes. He would operate on common sense, something you won't ever find in SB.
From Goleta, with love ❤️, I couldn’t decide which popular phrase to use here either 1. “Welcome to my Nightmare” by Alice Cooper….or 2. “Welcome to the party, pal!!” (Bruce Willis to the cop in the movie “Die Hard”
One more time for posterity: there is no housing crisis. These politicians are just servicing their donors that overwhelmingly got them reelected a few weeks ago.
The city and entire South Coast area will be trashed and congested and ugly and crime ridden. It’s what was voted for.
Agree 100%. There is no "housing crisis". That is pure political theater and partisan smokescreen for ill-gotten ends. Just like the "climate crisis". Both terms need to be eliminated. Stat.
My friend the wonderful political/architecture writer, James Kunstler, once said that Americans will spend thousands so they be in a beautifully preserved European village, then come home and allow their own small town to be wrecked.
Merry Christmas, Bonnie. Thanks for your watchdog efforts to point out the vagaries and foibles of the City's development approval process. Most notably, you mention the appointment of yet another "activist/newbie" to the P'Commission by the machine. In my 50 yrs paying attention to the jurisdictions of the South Coast, I have seen one newbie after another be elected to the council, or appointed to commissions and governing boards as if by some magic line-jumping power, generally without resume of civic service or pertinent zip code. It is a remarkable "dais ex machina" smoothly run by the local democratic central cmte and it's well funded cousin, the SEIU. Now as an observer from afar (we moved out of state 3 yrs ago), I sadly opine that while for many of us who arrived in the 1970s it was Paradise Found, the region--indeed the State-- too quickly became Paradise Lost-its-way under the misguided values now colliding with reality.
RL: Since 1962 is when government employees were allowed to unionize at the federal level, local governments played catch-up over time. Only after 2000 did they finally learn to really concentrate their political power until indeed they are now a very well-oiled, and well funded machine controlling politics up and down the food chain.
Aggressively, installing "election reform" measures along with a healthy dose of "covid hysteria" cemented in their super-majority powers. Few can go against the machine, and live to tell about it. Fewer even want to; which is crux of our current dilemma. We see their bodies strewn across our landscape.
That is where we are today and why your own observations make sense about the loss of our local community since the 1970's into something darker, dysfunctional and more sinister. Can this be reversed - and how? Not until sufficient numbers of voters care enough. Not there yet.
It is sad, but it was so incremental and calculated to appear "well meaning", that we did not even notice when it still could have been reversed. All we can do now is warn others. Nationwide I would say others do get it. Elon Musk certainly got it, when he warned we were one election away from being California everywhere. Our job is to keep talking, keep reaching out, keep educating and not get dragged down into their very efficient mean machine tactics.
I suspect these voter-generated government pension reform actions were also behind the great 2010 Democrat coup at SBCC, when yours truly was also collateral damage, along with the six other long-serving SBCC board members whose historical stewardship of SBCC deserves full credit for the college's brief #1 community college status at that time.
This decade was also when divide and conquer "election reform" district elections also became the law of the land. An interesting decade of political ferment, that can now be measured today for impact and outcomes. The goal was to capture every elected decision-making body and hold on tight. This allowed government employee union interests to sit both sides of the bargaining table. Elections do have consequences.
Thank you, Bonnie, for another informative column. The headline says it all! Corruption from top to bottom in our beloved city. The legions of bureaucrats (city employees) get a two-week paid vacation on the backs of the taxpayers. I would like to see a "cohort group" of residents tackle a "DOGE" mission with the objective of eliminating 40% of the Environmental Studies majors who make up our city employees. I'll volunteer to sit on the committee.
Definitely dump the building department looking for code violations. It is used as a way of forcing people out of their homes. They were planting stuff all over my house to make me look like a hoodlum. Trust me, I know. Just "blow-up" the entire city government and start over again.
Another "blow-up" is those having anything to do with the water stuff, excluding the guys that walk around taking the meter readings, they actually work. I complained to the water department I wasn't always able to read my water meter because cars parked over the water and gas meters of several homeowners. Of course, earthquakes, fires and water leaks may require access to the utilities in order to shut them off. After going back and forth with different city workers, someone in the water department piped up and said, "The meter reader doesn't have a problem." What the hell does the meter reader have to do with access to shutoff valves of the utility meters! In fact, I setup a security camera to view the utility meters at the top of my driveway and there were times it was difficult for the meter reader. The gas company would leave monthly billings saying they estimated the amount of gas used because the gas meter was inaccessible because of the parked cars. What I recommended was to install bollards (metal posts) to prevent the cars parking over the utility meters. But that went in one ear and out the other. Definitely fire the gal that said the "meter reader doesn't have a problem."
For a year or so while investigating my water usage, each morning at 5AM I would take a meter reading, sometimes having to crawl under a car to take the reading. By the way, I even purchased on eBay water meters to study ... mainly I was wondering if a check valve was built-in to the water meters ... and discovered they are not. Rain or shine, I was sometimes pumping rainwater out of my meter vault at 5AM in the morning. Maybe I was a bit paranoid back then. There were a few early-morning walkers that probably wondered what I was doing.
For the Hollywood playwriters, someone could pump chemicals from their home to the water supply. A neighbor could pump water with chemicals, at a higher pressure via a pump, into another neighbor's city water supply. And the neighbor I suspected stealing my water did have a water tank later he removed on his property, claiming it was used for water purification purpose ... of course, with my water. There are several ways of being "screwed" by the city with regards to the water. I'll have to go back and research a lot of my findings. I created a lot of "tools" to determine water usage, etc. And I thought a lot of my 1st cousin Gordon Russell (deceased) that wrote hundreds of Dark Shadows soap episodes. Gordon would love my ideas for what you could do to water and how it could affect people. I had water on the brain back then. Amazon sells the Flume Home Water Monitor and Leak Detector for $249.00. I found the Flume to be a great product because it worked my 300-foot distance from the house to the water vault ... and you too can become a water detective like I did. I have always had to deal with a lot of water issues. Maybe it has something to do with being an Aquarian, The Water Bearer.
You gotta love our city. The city in a Normal rain year: ‘we live in a desert! We must conserve water! We need to raise your rates to force conservation’. Also the city in a normal rain year: “ we approved 5,000 new housing units for 10,000 new water users oh, and your high water rates are staying in place because you need to conserve water so we can add even more taxable water using units’. What a joke.
When we were living at 3236 Laurel Canyon Road, our property touched seven other properties ... it was a former dumping ground for those seven other homes. We had at least one other home tapping into our water. I monitored our water usage and compared it to the meter readings. After finally locking all the spigots, a magic thing happened. Our water usage decreased in the month of December 2017. And our water usage calculated to be only what we were using, finally. Another neighbor on our street had a water theft problem, too. Can you imagine how much water theft will occur with more homeowners!
I determined our spigot water theft occurred during the evening hours and was probably used for others to shower and do their laundry and water their lawn. Clever, but we were screwed by others for decades in the process.
I bought my house here 26 years ago, back in the mythical time when you still could. I watched the inspectors overlook glaring errors in construction by my contractor, and then when I wanted to add one small additional change was required to pay as much for the new permit as for the entire house remodel. I have no doubt that the improvements I made then would not be allowed now, unless of course I knew how to play the game using the right PC words.
When my next door neighbor's house recently sold I held my breath, as did the rest of my neighborhood, waiting to see if a developer might have purchased it to replace it with a high density horror.
The "housing crisis" could easily be mitigated by two minor legislative changes: 1. No more Air-B-n-Bs, no short term rentals. You want to approve more hotels, fine, fill them up with people who instead are renting what used to be private homes rented out to people who live here. 2. Limit the number of international and out-of-area students at SBCC, and utilize the facility for the abandoned "life enhancement for the older adult" programs that used to be such a lively part of the community and where I taught art 40 years ago. We need to get people off their computer screens and back to gathering in real life and creating community. The City College could be the hub of that effort, focused on teaching skills, languages, and gathering together people with like enthusiasms.
As for the government employees now having an all expense paid two week shut down, I begrudge them their salaries. As I drive the city and run into blockaded streets and overloaded parking I see the evidence of their agendas, with worse to come, and mourn the destruction of the very quality of life and beauty that brought me here 50 years ago.
Basically, as a property owner, I want to control the use of my property and eliminate the government control.
I believe that the path for more housing must address rent control. By increasing the laws in favor of tenants, the government decreases the supply; restoring owner's rights (constitutional stuff) would re enforce property owner's ability to regain control of their property and decide whom they do business with increasing supply. The owner would become more confident that a tenant would never have more control of the property and open their business for more rental possibilities. More units available reduces rents.
How do we as voters and taxpayers assess value of services received from our city employees? What expectations, what measurements, what pressures support this current often dysfunctional status quo and eternal demands for even more money?
Sic the DOGEs on this government operation too. We simply can no longer just drift, when increasing city personnel compensation demands become the primary drivers for current city policy decisions.
Asked and answered. Term limits ensure no elected representative offers any sustained oversight of city operations.
One more stealth Democrat "election reform" that came back to bite us. And hand over more power to the unelected administrative state and their internal employee unions.
Beginning to see how far we have moved away from our original governing fundamentals - of the people, by the people and for the people? Happy 250th Anniversary America.
Interesting salary ranges. The Airport Director (small hub airport) is eye-popping generous. This position is generally called ‘operations manager’ and run by the Dept of Public Works at a far lower cost. There is zero international traffic, very few airport leases, and marginal income so why the enormous salary? Curious.
More of the same Bonnie, incompetence, activism and corruption at the city and county levels…what a surprise! In the meantime, Monique Limon is conspiring ways to put up roadblocks for the incoming Trump administration. That’s right, flood the zone with frivolous lawsuits, paid for by our tax dollars instead of addressing real problems affecting our communities. Oh well, this is what you get when your stupid enough to promote a radical, comunista to elected office!
https://www.justice.gov/ ... Somewhere on their website you can checkoff many newsletters. Be careful what you checkoff or you'll be undated with emails.
Please elaborate Bill. It’s my understanding that City authorized time off at Christmas is paid bonus time in addition to their paid vacation, sick leave, and regular national/ state holiday time. SB City apparently can run without non-essential workers so why not eliminate their positions all together? Much work is already contracted out. The police headquarters closes because why? —- police must be considered non-essential also by City Council (with reps on vacation too). Seems only private sector is open year round. Thank you Marborg and the hundreds of local businesses for not closing! City has much tax money to waste with voters again recently approving tax increases. The downward spiral continues in paradise lost.
Perhaps Elon Musk will provide a discount for his ugly, angular Tesla trucks for those additional 42 parking spaces that don't exist. I saw one of these trucks for the first time last week ... yuk!. I hear they are all over Santa Barbara. The city is taking the tact of not looking down the road. First build the ADUs and then figure out the parking which doesn't exist. It's obvious the city wants those ADUs no matter what. The City of SB government needs to be swept out like the Federal government needs to be. Follow the money trail.
The irrational and and self serving destruction of cities and counties up and down the coast from San Diego to Frisco.
The infill projects are backed by elected people who don't give a darn. It is about radical political philosophy that states high density will overcome any failure and destruction of the urban and once (now gone) rural ag. communities.
CAB tried to warn the voters that backing the current majorities in all south county cities and the BOS would end in destruction. It is like hearing from the supposed guardians of fact that the national Washington based administration has not had a rational head of government for 4 years. Now you see infill projects without parking. Anyone seen the long term slums and failed pride of ownership on the east coast and midwest?
Millions have been repeatedly spent on the failed MTD, that at one time resulted in criminal and un-ethical actions by employees and oversight board member. Millions have been spent just in the City of Santa Barbara to blockade streets, build now almost 100 miles of interconnected bike paths, using greasy palms for Developer Types who could give a darn about quality of life.
YOU who voted for the incumbents know what was happening. YOU are responsible for this DAMAGE to both the physical and social outcomes.
The Democrat Central Committee is responsible and the deep pockets of gated communities in Montecito, Hope Ranch, own this destruction. Every day the lies of quality of life and transportation reality are there. When will the Left take responsibility? I know when they cannot believe formation numbers that were and are false.
Handing the soap box back to Bonnie.
Do you think when you see these types in public they will avoid you hello?
Thank you Bonnie, for alerting to these city matters.
Why are we paying these city employees their extravagant salaries, benefits and pensions for such incompetent work products? Who controls this continued municipal mismanagement?
Who is really in charge: The Mayor (one vote), the City Administrator, the City Council majority (four votes), the voters now splintered by district elections (six districts), the city employee unions and their union bosses? All of the above; none of the above. City appears to be floundering in a leadership vacuum, as badly as the current Biden White House.
Santa Barbara is fast becoming a microcosm for the bloat, unaccountability, fraud, partisan games-playing and corruption we now witness daily at the national level. Let a volunteer DOGE loose on the city as well. With the new city council pro-union, "progressive" majority things are going to get even worse.
Voters, stop being lazy. Do not let "term limits" do the work we still need to exercise ourselves, in order to save our once beautiful city.
(Visited downtown last night for dinner and theater to see the entire dead zone called State Street. How I wished to see the enlivening that used to come from regular car traffic on our former main street - now it is only a long, empty, dark and unwelcoming void.)
I find Elon Musk's presence to be manning DOGE and his semi-supported possible position as Speaker of the House an interesting topic. What has Elon's presence have the Speaker doesn't have? I'd say charisma, an aura about him, his obvious brilliance in the business world and a guy that has a lot of money. These are all mind-blowing characteristics found in one person which would make anyone in DC look like an idiot. Geez, wouldn't it be fun to be entertained by Elon Musk and Rosa DeLauro, the reincarnation of the "Wicked Witch of the East," debate each other. When we talk about DOGE, it's not so much about the DOGE concept than it is about the person running it. Wouldn't it be great if Elon could spend one day per week or month overseeing the City of Santa Barbara? Or even better, vote on Elon to purchase the City of Santa Barbara government as his play toy and let him grease the skids by giving big discounts of his Tesla's to local residents as compensation for his rocket noise. Elon could operate the city probably with one hundred people and eliminate taxes. He would operate on common sense, something you won't ever find in SB.
From Goleta, with love ❤️, I couldn’t decide which popular phrase to use here either 1. “Welcome to my Nightmare” by Alice Cooper….or 2. “Welcome to the party, pal!!” (Bruce Willis to the cop in the movie “Die Hard”
One more time for posterity: there is no housing crisis. These politicians are just servicing their donors that overwhelmingly got them reelected a few weeks ago.
The city and entire South Coast area will be trashed and congested and ugly and crime ridden. It’s what was voted for.
Agree 100%. There is no "housing crisis". That is pure political theater and partisan smokescreen for ill-gotten ends. Just like the "climate crisis". Both terms need to be eliminated. Stat.
My friend the wonderful political/architecture writer, James Kunstler, once said that Americans will spend thousands so they be in a beautifully preserved European village, then come home and allow their own small town to be wrecked.
Merry Christmas, Bonnie. Thanks for your watchdog efforts to point out the vagaries and foibles of the City's development approval process. Most notably, you mention the appointment of yet another "activist/newbie" to the P'Commission by the machine. In my 50 yrs paying attention to the jurisdictions of the South Coast, I have seen one newbie after another be elected to the council, or appointed to commissions and governing boards as if by some magic line-jumping power, generally without resume of civic service or pertinent zip code. It is a remarkable "dais ex machina" smoothly run by the local democratic central cmte and it's well funded cousin, the SEIU. Now as an observer from afar (we moved out of state 3 yrs ago), I sadly opine that while for many of us who arrived in the 1970s it was Paradise Found, the region--indeed the State-- too quickly became Paradise Lost-its-way under the misguided values now colliding with reality.
RL: Since 1962 is when government employees were allowed to unionize at the federal level, local governments played catch-up over time. Only after 2000 did they finally learn to really concentrate their political power until indeed they are now a very well-oiled, and well funded machine controlling politics up and down the food chain.
Aggressively, installing "election reform" measures along with a healthy dose of "covid hysteria" cemented in their super-majority powers. Few can go against the machine, and live to tell about it. Fewer even want to; which is crux of our current dilemma. We see their bodies strewn across our landscape.
That is where we are today and why your own observations make sense about the loss of our local community since the 1970's into something darker, dysfunctional and more sinister. Can this be reversed - and how? Not until sufficient numbers of voters care enough. Not there yet.
It is sad, but it was so incremental and calculated to appear "well meaning", that we did not even notice when it still could have been reversed. All we can do now is warn others. Nationwide I would say others do get it. Elon Musk certainly got it, when he warned we were one election away from being California everywhere. Our job is to keep talking, keep reaching out, keep educating and not get dragged down into their very efficient mean machine tactics.
The state employee unions really increased their political action at the state level after government employee pension reform measures started showing up as voter generated ballot initiatives in 2012: https://ballotpedia.org/California_Government_Employee_Pension_Reform_Act_Initiative_(2012)
I suspect these voter-generated government pension reform actions were also behind the great 2010 Democrat coup at SBCC, when yours truly was also collateral damage, along with the six other long-serving SBCC board members whose historical stewardship of SBCC deserves full credit for the college's brief #1 community college status at that time.
This decade was also when divide and conquer "election reform" district elections also became the law of the land. An interesting decade of political ferment, that can now be measured today for impact and outcomes. The goal was to capture every elected decision-making body and hold on tight. This allowed government employee union interests to sit both sides of the bargaining table. Elections do have consequences.
Thank you, Bonnie, for another informative column. The headline says it all! Corruption from top to bottom in our beloved city. The legions of bureaucrats (city employees) get a two-week paid vacation on the backs of the taxpayers. I would like to see a "cohort group" of residents tackle a "DOGE" mission with the objective of eliminating 40% of the Environmental Studies majors who make up our city employees. I'll volunteer to sit on the committee.
Merry Christmas.
This would be great!!! Send me your email address and we'll start our list for this "DOGE" commission!
Definitely dump the building department looking for code violations. It is used as a way of forcing people out of their homes. They were planting stuff all over my house to make me look like a hoodlum. Trust me, I know. Just "blow-up" the entire city government and start over again.
Another "blow-up" is those having anything to do with the water stuff, excluding the guys that walk around taking the meter readings, they actually work. I complained to the water department I wasn't always able to read my water meter because cars parked over the water and gas meters of several homeowners. Of course, earthquakes, fires and water leaks may require access to the utilities in order to shut them off. After going back and forth with different city workers, someone in the water department piped up and said, "The meter reader doesn't have a problem." What the hell does the meter reader have to do with access to shutoff valves of the utility meters! In fact, I setup a security camera to view the utility meters at the top of my driveway and there were times it was difficult for the meter reader. The gas company would leave monthly billings saying they estimated the amount of gas used because the gas meter was inaccessible because of the parked cars. What I recommended was to install bollards (metal posts) to prevent the cars parking over the utility meters. But that went in one ear and out the other. Definitely fire the gal that said the "meter reader doesn't have a problem."
For a year or so while investigating my water usage, each morning at 5AM I would take a meter reading, sometimes having to crawl under a car to take the reading. By the way, I even purchased on eBay water meters to study ... mainly I was wondering if a check valve was built-in to the water meters ... and discovered they are not. Rain or shine, I was sometimes pumping rainwater out of my meter vault at 5AM in the morning. Maybe I was a bit paranoid back then. There were a few early-morning walkers that probably wondered what I was doing.
For the Hollywood playwriters, someone could pump chemicals from their home to the water supply. A neighbor could pump water with chemicals, at a higher pressure via a pump, into another neighbor's city water supply. And the neighbor I suspected stealing my water did have a water tank later he removed on his property, claiming it was used for water purification purpose ... of course, with my water. There are several ways of being "screwed" by the city with regards to the water. I'll have to go back and research a lot of my findings. I created a lot of "tools" to determine water usage, etc. And I thought a lot of my 1st cousin Gordon Russell (deceased) that wrote hundreds of Dark Shadows soap episodes. Gordon would love my ideas for what you could do to water and how it could affect people. I had water on the brain back then. Amazon sells the Flume Home Water Monitor and Leak Detector for $249.00. I found the Flume to be a great product because it worked my 300-foot distance from the house to the water vault ... and you too can become a water detective like I did. I have always had to deal with a lot of water issues. Maybe it has something to do with being an Aquarian, The Water Bearer.
You gotta love our city. The city in a Normal rain year: ‘we live in a desert! We must conserve water! We need to raise your rates to force conservation’. Also the city in a normal rain year: “ we approved 5,000 new housing units for 10,000 new water users oh, and your high water rates are staying in place because you need to conserve water so we can add even more taxable water using units’. What a joke.
When we were living at 3236 Laurel Canyon Road, our property touched seven other properties ... it was a former dumping ground for those seven other homes. We had at least one other home tapping into our water. I monitored our water usage and compared it to the meter readings. After finally locking all the spigots, a magic thing happened. Our water usage decreased in the month of December 2017. And our water usage calculated to be only what we were using, finally. Another neighbor on our street had a water theft problem, too. Can you imagine how much water theft will occur with more homeowners!
I determined our spigot water theft occurred during the evening hours and was probably used for others to shower and do their laundry and water their lawn. Clever, but we were screwed by others for decades in the process.
I bought my house here 26 years ago, back in the mythical time when you still could. I watched the inspectors overlook glaring errors in construction by my contractor, and then when I wanted to add one small additional change was required to pay as much for the new permit as for the entire house remodel. I have no doubt that the improvements I made then would not be allowed now, unless of course I knew how to play the game using the right PC words.
When my next door neighbor's house recently sold I held my breath, as did the rest of my neighborhood, waiting to see if a developer might have purchased it to replace it with a high density horror.
The "housing crisis" could easily be mitigated by two minor legislative changes: 1. No more Air-B-n-Bs, no short term rentals. You want to approve more hotels, fine, fill them up with people who instead are renting what used to be private homes rented out to people who live here. 2. Limit the number of international and out-of-area students at SBCC, and utilize the facility for the abandoned "life enhancement for the older adult" programs that used to be such a lively part of the community and where I taught art 40 years ago. We need to get people off their computer screens and back to gathering in real life and creating community. The City College could be the hub of that effort, focused on teaching skills, languages, and gathering together people with like enthusiasms.
As for the government employees now having an all expense paid two week shut down, I begrudge them their salaries. As I drive the city and run into blockaded streets and overloaded parking I see the evidence of their agendas, with worse to come, and mourn the destruction of the very quality of life and beauty that brought me here 50 years ago.
Basically, as a property owner, I want to control the use of my property and eliminate the government control.
I believe that the path for more housing must address rent control. By increasing the laws in favor of tenants, the government decreases the supply; restoring owner's rights (constitutional stuff) would re enforce property owner's ability to regain control of their property and decide whom they do business with increasing supply. The owner would become more confident that a tenant would never have more control of the property and open their business for more rental possibilities. More units available reduces rents.
The government is not worried about parking because they don’t want us to have cars anymore. More bikes, more walking, more 15 min cities.
I would vote for Bonnie for sure.
Her integrity and honesty are solid!
Reminder. City of Santa Barbara full compensation packages, by name and job title:
https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2023/santa-barbara/
How do we as voters and taxpayers assess value of services received from our city employees? What expectations, what measurements, what pressures support this current often dysfunctional status quo and eternal demands for even more money?
Sic the DOGEs on this government operation too. We simply can no longer just drift, when increasing city personnel compensation demands become the primary drivers for current city policy decisions.
Asked and answered. Term limits ensure no elected representative offers any sustained oversight of city operations.
One more stealth Democrat "election reform" that came back to bite us. And hand over more power to the unelected administrative state and their internal employee unions.
Beginning to see how far we have moved away from our original governing fundamentals - of the people, by the people and for the people? Happy 250th Anniversary America.
Interesting salary ranges. The Airport Director (small hub airport) is eye-popping generous. This position is generally called ‘operations manager’ and run by the Dept of Public Works at a far lower cost. There is zero international traffic, very few airport leases, and marginal income so why the enormous salary? Curious.
Great column! I should add “as usual”. Ho! Ho! Ho!🌸
Thank you Bonnie for your article. As always, very informative - and head shaking.
More of the same Bonnie, incompetence, activism and corruption at the city and county levels…what a surprise! In the meantime, Monique Limon is conspiring ways to put up roadblocks for the incoming Trump administration. That’s right, flood the zone with frivolous lawsuits, paid for by our tax dollars instead of addressing real problems affecting our communities. Oh well, this is what you get when your stupid enough to promote a radical, comunista to elected office!
Bonnie, is there any chance you'll apply for one (or better yet - all!) of these positions?
I second the nomination!
I wish I had more time.......
Do what the politicians do … get some interns!
I'm on the DOJ list to receive all their stuff. They are packing the government with lawyer interns.
Bill - what is the "DOJ list"?
https://www.justice.gov/ ... Somewhere on their website you can checkoff many newsletters. Be careful what you checkoff or you'll be undated with emails.
Thanks!
Maybe the City is closed for two weeks because they believe it's their last hoorah ... their walls will come tumbling down.
They get this vacation every year.
The “Vacation” time is deducted from the employees accrued (earned) vacation time. Any time taken is logged as vacation time and paid accordingly.
Please elaborate Bill. It’s my understanding that City authorized time off at Christmas is paid bonus time in addition to their paid vacation, sick leave, and regular national/ state holiday time. SB City apparently can run without non-essential workers so why not eliminate their positions all together? Much work is already contracted out. The police headquarters closes because why? —- police must be considered non-essential also by City Council (with reps on vacation too). Seems only private sector is open year round. Thank you Marborg and the hundreds of local businesses for not closing! City has much tax money to waste with voters again recently approving tax increases. The downward spiral continues in paradise lost.
Two weeks is the City's "official" Holiday time off, and the remaining time of the year is the "unofficial" All Year Holiday time off <g>.
Perhaps Elon Musk will provide a discount for his ugly, angular Tesla trucks for those additional 42 parking spaces that don't exist. I saw one of these trucks for the first time last week ... yuk!. I hear they are all over Santa Barbara. The city is taking the tact of not looking down the road. First build the ADUs and then figure out the parking which doesn't exist. It's obvious the city wants those ADUs no matter what. The City of SB government needs to be swept out like the Federal government needs to be. Follow the money trail.
What does this sound like?
The irrational and and self serving destruction of cities and counties up and down the coast from San Diego to Frisco.
The infill projects are backed by elected people who don't give a darn. It is about radical political philosophy that states high density will overcome any failure and destruction of the urban and once (now gone) rural ag. communities.
CAB tried to warn the voters that backing the current majorities in all south county cities and the BOS would end in destruction. It is like hearing from the supposed guardians of fact that the national Washington based administration has not had a rational head of government for 4 years. Now you see infill projects without parking. Anyone seen the long term slums and failed pride of ownership on the east coast and midwest?
Millions have been repeatedly spent on the failed MTD, that at one time resulted in criminal and un-ethical actions by employees and oversight board member. Millions have been spent just in the City of Santa Barbara to blockade streets, build now almost 100 miles of interconnected bike paths, using greasy palms for Developer Types who could give a darn about quality of life.
YOU who voted for the incumbents know what was happening. YOU are responsible for this DAMAGE to both the physical and social outcomes.
The Democrat Central Committee is responsible and the deep pockets of gated communities in Montecito, Hope Ranch, own this destruction. Every day the lies of quality of life and transportation reality are there. When will the Left take responsibility? I know when they cannot believe formation numbers that were and are false.
Handing the soap box back to Bonnie.
Do you think when you see these types in public they will avoid you hello?