I have had a tattoo studio in Santa Barbara for 40 years. I have paid many thousands of dollars in inspection fees, and every year am charged not only a business license fee but also a studio facility fee and an owner/operator license fee. If part of what I paid went toward investigating and regulating the unlicensed individuals working illegally out of garages and kitchens, or doing house calls, it would seem like it is protecting the public. But no, if a tattooist works illegally they are of no interest to the Environmental Health Department, who are only concerned with an annual inspection of licensed facilities. The parallel to the way they micro-manage restaurants but ignore the street vendors is complete.
I hope you will show up and speak up at the hearing on Tuesday at the BOS meeting. You can testify remotely from your phone or computer. Email me for directions at andy@colabsbc.org. Please ask other business owners to do the same thing.
Every year when more Boomer government employees retire, the CalPERS government pension fund swoops in to recover even more tax dollars to cover their own over-promised and growing pension payment liabilities - demanded by the projected actuarial free fall that cannot be escaped.
Soon taxpayers will need to fund two government employees for each position - one who is retiring and short on CalPERS full pension funding, and the new replacement one who benefits from the bloated compensation packages now offered current government employees. (Who continue to wail in unison they are overworked, underpaid, under-appreciated and whose morale is bad.)
This is unsustainable. This has been predicted for over 20 years when defined benefit government pensions were promised, but routinely underfunded. .Now the well dug in Democrat super-majorities, protected by "term limits", have been able to kick this can down the road forever. The next team can figure it out, they say as they themselves scramble out the door. Often moving on to some new position on the taxpayer piggy trough.
But look .....climate change!!! ..... we are all gonna die ..... at some unknown future date. While the real future crisis -- the underfunded government pension crisis -- demands sucking out more tax dollars and fees even year, right here and now. And for every year to come. Do the math.
Amen Andy...please keep preaching as you are our voice of reason!
I am so sick of the employees telling the employer (us the taxpayer) how much we are to pay them! In what world does the employee decide on their raise, then vote on it and expect the employer to just go along and pay them. As the employer of the employees of Santa Barbara County I cannot afford these raises and I am sick of being a tax slave for the county. These "fees" on businesses will only be passed along to the us the taxpayer. Enough is enough!
I guess the supes don't realize that every action causes a reaction....Recall ??
I wish everyone on SB Current would read Thomas Sowell, who brilliantly explained the mentality of our Leftist Santa Barbara government in his books, especially “The Vision of the Anointed.” Here's a link to a terrific short piece about that book. You will probably find yourself saying - as I did - yep, that sums up what we're dealing with in Santa Barbara.
Agree Polly. Thomas Sowell is such a brilliant and clear thinker on these very topics.
Even more required reading: "While America Aged" (Roger Lowenstein) The sordid tale of over-promised and underfunded pensions in America - both private and public. Private companies can declare bankruptcy and pass this costs off to insurance companies (often backstopped by taxpayers).
But our current national crisis of underfunded and over-promised government employee pensions gets passed on to all future tax payers. Projected to be a trillion dollar liability just in California, and we are not even the worst state.
Gens XYZ and Gens ABC, are you listening? The Boomer tax and spend on themselves gifts to your generations will not keep giving. Instead they very much will be taking from you for decades to come. Term limits let elected official kick this can down the road and into your laps.
Same over-promised and underfunded rules apply to Social Security and Medicare -so common understanding of what is at stake, and who gave away the store in exchange for votes, is critical for all of us to finally get our heads around. And stop the political grift that exploits such critical promises, as guaranteeing retirement funding.
Everyone needs a plan B as well. Everyone. Esp. government employees who are holding the leakiest pension promises of all.
How long can they keep asking us to dig into our retirement savings pockets, just so they can be made whole when they retire? Just to make good on promises made to them by vote-buying politicians eager to obtain their own re-election. support. This is a brazen scam of first rank.
Missing from discussions of pay increases for supervisors, and other public employees, are discussions of their job duties (do job descriptions exist?) and any measure of their performances. Instead, the total discussion involves "comparable" compensation (actually salaries as the total compensation package is never mentioned) which, in essence, delegates the right to set compensations in Santa Barbara to other localities. Anyone want to bet against those localities will now use SB salaries to raise their own? As Sonny and Cher sang "The beat goes on and on."
Exactly, what I heard is we guarantee we will pay as much as any other possibly bankrupt and profligate county, or else we might lose "our good supervisors".
Automatica escalators for any compensation package, based solely on what the other guy is doing, absolutely nullifies any pretense of autonomy that we should expect from our elected supervisors who should be representing the taxpayers; not themselves.
Claiming "otherwise we will not get good people" is borderline extortion. Prove it.
Thank you Andy, for continuing to sound the alarm over non-sustainable County salaries and pensions. What should be mentioned are the two co-conspirator entities, ie public sector unions and their Democrat handlers. Yes, both have a vested interest in seeing salary costs continue to increase. Public sector unions in order to get higher dues from their members and the Democratic machine in order to tie their election to higher pay. It is by nature, a self serving, pay for play, incestuous scam perpetrated on the taxpayers and fee paying public.
What needs to be calculated is our debt clock in relation to County liabilities, when does it stop working? When do we become insolvent? Many feel we are already past the tipping point.
Furthermore, please attend the hearing in person or remotely on Tuesday, March 11. The fee increase is agenda item D-5. It should be heard just before noon.
I read this article titled "The Fee-fdom Known as County Government
by Andy Caldwell. I quote Mr. Caldwell's piercing statements as follows;
"The recent salary raises for county supervisors was just the tip of the iceberg; employee salaries, benefits, and pension costs continue to rise with no end in sight. As a SB Current commentator put it, county employees are always asking for more money..."
As I have pounded the table here in SB Current .... so the real title should read>
"Santa Barbara County Government Corruption" "just the tip of the iceberg" in California.
In open Court I was examined by an Attorney who asked me this question.
MR. WALTHER DID YOU CONTACT THE FBI IN ANY WAY?
My Answer: No I did not contact the FBI in any way.
MR. WALTHER DID YOU CONTACT ANY OTHER FEDERAL AGENCY.
My Answer: Yes I contacted NCIS.
THE JUDGE: MR. WALTHER WHO IS NCIS?
Mr. Walther: NCIS is NAVAL CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION SERVICES (I SPELLED IT OUT FOR THE JUDGE)
That is when the "SHIT HIT THE FAN"
Santa Barbara Currentor's: TIME TO STOP TALKING AND TIME TO GET DOING
or as Andy said it is a simple choice "GET BUSY LIVING OR GET BUSY DYING"
Andy, thanks once again for bringing these important issues to the forefront and providing links that we can use to express our views to the pertinent parties.
SB 972, the decriminalization of unsafe food cart vendors was unanimously passed in the Assembly. Naturally, our Assemblywoman, Limon, voted for it, but it may surprise some of the readers that not one Republican voted against. A number of them were absent and didn't vote, a particularly cowardly way of dealing with the issue.
Hmmm, that is exactly the way Ms Limon deals with locally controversial issues too. Votes either present, or absent too. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
We need a running score card on Limon and Hart's votes listing their hits, misses balls and strikes. Food carts are already ruining our town, invading Upper State Street as well. Explain yourself, Ms Limon.
They were not invited and they are not welcome in this town of long-standing and carefully controlled blight ordinances and community aesthetics reviews. Have been fighting this issue for years - first the corn venders, the frozen item carts - no sanitation, no permits and in total violation of any long-standing sign and blight ordinances.
Solvang is starting to slip badly too. Getting very honky tonk around the edges, after years of very tight design control. Maybe we should sell it to Denmark, per a recent Babylon Bee offer to buy California.
I have had a tattoo studio in Santa Barbara for 40 years. I have paid many thousands of dollars in inspection fees, and every year am charged not only a business license fee but also a studio facility fee and an owner/operator license fee. If part of what I paid went toward investigating and regulating the unlicensed individuals working illegally out of garages and kitchens, or doing house calls, it would seem like it is protecting the public. But no, if a tattooist works illegally they are of no interest to the Environmental Health Department, who are only concerned with an annual inspection of licensed facilities. The parallel to the way they micro-manage restaurants but ignore the street vendors is complete.
I hope you will show up and speak up at the hearing on Tuesday at the BOS meeting. You can testify remotely from your phone or computer. Email me for directions at andy@colabsbc.org. Please ask other business owners to do the same thing.
Too much government! These fees are plain-out theft. They should be abolished, revoked, withdrawn.
It is NOT JUST THE SALARY INCREASE it is the WHOLESALE EMBEZZLEMENT
FROM CITIZENS OF SB COUNTY.
Yes, this blatant embezzlement needs to be stopped.
The Embezzlement is alittle involved, but it is all documented
and ALOT for this Lil Ole Sleepy Beach Town.
That's where the term>>>"nickel and dime you to death" comes from...and the sups are pro's at this.
Every year when more Boomer government employees retire, the CalPERS government pension fund swoops in to recover even more tax dollars to cover their own over-promised and growing pension payment liabilities - demanded by the projected actuarial free fall that cannot be escaped.
Soon taxpayers will need to fund two government employees for each position - one who is retiring and short on CalPERS full pension funding, and the new replacement one who benefits from the bloated compensation packages now offered current government employees. (Who continue to wail in unison they are overworked, underpaid, under-appreciated and whose morale is bad.)
This is unsustainable. This has been predicted for over 20 years when defined benefit government pensions were promised, but routinely underfunded. .Now the well dug in Democrat super-majorities, protected by "term limits", have been able to kick this can down the road forever. The next team can figure it out, they say as they themselves scramble out the door. Often moving on to some new position on the taxpayer piggy trough.
But look .....climate change!!! ..... we are all gonna die ..... at some unknown future date. While the real future crisis -- the underfunded government pension crisis -- demands sucking out more tax dollars and fees even year, right here and now. And for every year to come. Do the math.
Amen Andy...please keep preaching as you are our voice of reason!
I am so sick of the employees telling the employer (us the taxpayer) how much we are to pay them! In what world does the employee decide on their raise, then vote on it and expect the employer to just go along and pay them. As the employer of the employees of Santa Barbara County I cannot afford these raises and I am sick of being a tax slave for the county. These "fees" on businesses will only be passed along to the us the taxpayer. Enough is enough!
I guess the supes don't realize that every action causes a reaction....Recall ??
I wish everyone on SB Current would read Thomas Sowell, who brilliantly explained the mentality of our Leftist Santa Barbara government in his books, especially “The Vision of the Anointed.” Here's a link to a terrific short piece about that book. You will probably find yourself saying - as I did - yep, that sums up what we're dealing with in Santa Barbara.
https://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?id=484
Here, also, is a great long interview and intro to Thomas Sowell:
https://raysawhill.info/2022/03/13/thomas-sowell/
Agree Polly. Thomas Sowell is such a brilliant and clear thinker on these very topics.
Even more required reading: "While America Aged" (Roger Lowenstein) The sordid tale of over-promised and underfunded pensions in America - both private and public. Private companies can declare bankruptcy and pass this costs off to insurance companies (often backstopped by taxpayers).
But our current national crisis of underfunded and over-promised government employee pensions gets passed on to all future tax payers. Projected to be a trillion dollar liability just in California, and we are not even the worst state.
Gens XYZ and Gens ABC, are you listening? The Boomer tax and spend on themselves gifts to your generations will not keep giving. Instead they very much will be taking from you for decades to come. Term limits let elected official kick this can down the road and into your laps.
Same over-promised and underfunded rules apply to Social Security and Medicare -so common understanding of what is at stake, and who gave away the store in exchange for votes, is critical for all of us to finally get our heads around. And stop the political grift that exploits such critical promises, as guaranteeing retirement funding.
Everyone needs a plan B as well. Everyone. Esp. government employees who are holding the leakiest pension promises of all.
How long can they keep asking us to dig into our retirement savings pockets, just so they can be made whole when they retire? Just to make good on promises made to them by vote-buying politicians eager to obtain their own re-election. support. This is a brazen scam of first rank.
Missing from discussions of pay increases for supervisors, and other public employees, are discussions of their job duties (do job descriptions exist?) and any measure of their performances. Instead, the total discussion involves "comparable" compensation (actually salaries as the total compensation package is never mentioned) which, in essence, delegates the right to set compensations in Santa Barbara to other localities. Anyone want to bet against those localities will now use SB salaries to raise their own? As Sonny and Cher sang "The beat goes on and on."
Exactly, what I heard is we guarantee we will pay as much as any other possibly bankrupt and profligate county, or else we might lose "our good supervisors".
Automatica escalators for any compensation package, based solely on what the other guy is doing, absolutely nullifies any pretense of autonomy that we should expect from our elected supervisors who should be representing the taxpayers; not themselves.
Claiming "otherwise we will not get good people" is borderline extortion. Prove it.
Brent's Journal; "Missing from the discussions ..." is the wholesale EMBEZZLEMENT
from the SB Citizens.
Thank you Andy, for continuing to sound the alarm over non-sustainable County salaries and pensions. What should be mentioned are the two co-conspirator entities, ie public sector unions and their Democrat handlers. Yes, both have a vested interest in seeing salary costs continue to increase. Public sector unions in order to get higher dues from their members and the Democratic machine in order to tie their election to higher pay. It is by nature, a self serving, pay for play, incestuous scam perpetrated on the taxpayers and fee paying public.
What needs to be calculated is our debt clock in relation to County liabilities, when does it stop working? When do we become insolvent? Many feel we are already past the tipping point.
Furthermore, please attend the hearing in person or remotely on Tuesday, March 11. The fee increase is agenda item D-5. It should be heard just before noon.
WRITTEN Public Comment:
Email your comment to the Clerk of the Board at: sbcob@countyofsb.org
IN-PERSON Public Comment:
At the County Administration Building, Board Hearing Room, Fourth Floor located at 105 East Anapamu Street in Santa Barbara OR
Betteravia Government Administration Building Board Hearing Room located at 511 Lakeside Parkway in Santa Maria.
VIRTUAL Public Comment via Zoom:
Use this link to make comment via Zoom:
https://santabarbaracounty.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_DRh0yr0MRYaq0CSHcst7LQ
Andy Caldwell
Government Watchdog
COLAB Santa Barbara County
Mr. Andy Caldwell, last time I went down the So-Called-Leaders
Meeting and I SPOKE they all CUT OUT MY ENTIRE STATEMENT
in Violation of to many CALI Codes and Statutes weblinked below>
https://oag.ca.gov/open-meetings
https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/bk-open-meeting-act-guide-2024.pdf
https://legalclarity.org/understanding-californias-brown-act-rules-and-exceptions/
I JUST WOUNDER WHY OH WHY THE SO-CALLED-LEADERS DID NOT LIKE WHAT I
SAID?
I WILL GIVE YOU ONE QUESS WHAT COUNTY/CITY MEETING IT WAS.
THINK CRIMES COMMITTED IN SANTA BARBARA.
Mr. Caldwell a GOVERNMENT WATCHDOG would assemble
a TEAM and engage EXPERTS to INVESTIGATE!!!
That is EXACTLY what I did. As stated yesterday in the Current.
I have the Investigation Reports. NO DOUBT WHO GOT THEM.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46GwJbrMghQ&ab_channel=DarkSanctuaryBBS
Quote from RED Above>"I BEEN IN HERE MOST OF MY LIFE, I AM AN INSTITUTIONAL MAN"
Mr. Caldwell. "ARE YOU AN SB INSTITUTIONAL MAN????"
Red said "GET BUSY LIVING OR GET BUSY DYING ...... THAT IS GODDAMN RIGHT"
I read this article titled "The Fee-fdom Known as County Government
by Andy Caldwell. I quote Mr. Caldwell's piercing statements as follows;
"The recent salary raises for county supervisors was just the tip of the iceberg; employee salaries, benefits, and pension costs continue to rise with no end in sight. As a SB Current commentator put it, county employees are always asking for more money..."
As I have pounded the table here in SB Current .... so the real title should read>
"Santa Barbara County Government Corruption" "just the tip of the iceberg" in California.
In open Court I was examined by an Attorney who asked me this question.
MR. WALTHER DID YOU CONTACT THE FBI IN ANY WAY?
My Answer: No I did not contact the FBI in any way.
MR. WALTHER DID YOU CONTACT ANY OTHER FEDERAL AGENCY.
My Answer: Yes I contacted NCIS.
THE JUDGE: MR. WALTHER WHO IS NCIS?
Mr. Walther: NCIS is NAVAL CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION SERVICES (I SPELLED IT OUT FOR THE JUDGE)
That is when the "SHIT HIT THE FAN"
Santa Barbara Currentor's: TIME TO STOP TALKING AND TIME TO GET DOING
or as Andy said it is a simple choice "GET BUSY LIVING OR GET BUSY DYING"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46GwJbrMghQ&ab_channel=DarkSanctuaryBBS
There are very serious problems in Santa Barbara .... time that you all DO SOMETHING!!!
Howard Walther, Member of a Military Family
I’d call it public grift
Andy, thanks once again for bringing these important issues to the forefront and providing links that we can use to express our views to the pertinent parties.
SB 972, the decriminalization of unsafe food cart vendors was unanimously passed in the Assembly. Naturally, our Assemblywoman, Limon, voted for it, but it may surprise some of the readers that not one Republican voted against. A number of them were absent and didn't vote, a particularly cowardly way of dealing with the issue.
Hmmm, that is exactly the way Ms Limon deals with locally controversial issues too. Votes either present, or absent too. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
We need a running score card on Limon and Hart's votes listing their hits, misses balls and strikes. Food carts are already ruining our town, invading Upper State Street as well. Explain yourself, Ms Limon.
They were not invited and they are not welcome in this town of long-standing and carefully controlled blight ordinances and community aesthetics reviews. Have been fighting this issue for years - first the corn venders, the frozen item carts - no sanitation, no permits and in total violation of any long-standing sign and blight ordinances.
Solvang is starting to slip badly too. Getting very honky tonk around the edges, after years of very tight design control. Maybe we should sell it to Denmark, per a recent Babylon Bee offer to buy California.