Thank you, Mike and everyone else who has written on this scam. There's something else shocking to me about how this misuse of funds has gone on as long as it has: where have our local newspapers been during this? Why didn't The Independent do an investigation into this? Did the News-Press?
At one time, Santa Barbara had Tom Stork. I have my own quibbles with Stork's legacy, but he was a newsman. He did investigations. We've only really had a rah rah paper for the Left here for far too long.
The recent overturn with the owners of WaPo, USA Today and the LA Times refusing to endorse Kamala Harris is a victory that I personally have been celebrating. It's as huge a take back of American values as Trump's victory would/will be. And Trump is a major part of this media awakening, in fact without Trump and without the TDS that those newspapers became guilty of enflaming, it wouldn't have happened, the public wouldn't have become suspicious of the media.
So thank you to Jim Buckley and James Fenkner and the columnists for Santa Barbara Current. I hope you all already see a victory, whatever the outcome on November 5th is. And that's you helping to make American journalism great again. It's always had its flaws, but what it became during the last eight years is simply garbage and propaganda.
Here, here Polly. You will recall McCall lost control of the NP once the union ganged up on her for cracking down on “editorial expression” in news stories. Now, you can’t even give away the remaining printing presses as part of the bankruptcy. And to think we now have to depend on Jerry Roberts for political commentary!
I love watching how all these “journalists” right now are outraged. As Glenn Greenwald wrote “In what dream world are these people living? This is utterly self-serving dreck, a self-flattering fairy tale, that is completely unhinged from any objective reality. Like virtually all corporate media outlets, the Washington Post has no “credibility” to squander. The opposite is true: the mass media is now held in the lowest esteem of any major American institution, somehow even lower than Congress. And the major reason why is that the public perceives – accurately – that large media outlets do not try to tell the truth, but instead lie on purpose to advance their political, ideological, and partisan preferences.”
I think Musk has been a huge force for the good. These guys like Bezos are looking at him and saying “He does what he wants to and thinks is right. Why am I being a wimp? I'm one of the richest most powerful men in the world!” I never thought I'd say this, but I have hope for the global elite. They could just save us.
I think you are naive. Bezos and Musk are competing for control over the surveillance apparatus that is being set up piece by piece. They are putting up the satellites for the 5-g mesh in the battle to harvest more of the information about our every thought, view, preference and discussion. This will be used to enslave us in a social credit score type of system with carrots and sticks to "nudge" us into the desired behavior, even if it is getting a chip installed or forgoing having children. COVID tyranny was only a preview, but it demonstrates the mechanisms used to get lower level managers such as SBCC trustees or school principles or hospital admins to be "nudged" in the "correct" direction and how social media and mainstream media can be censored by the government to "program" us with no meaningful way for the citizens to organize and push back. Cheering for good oligarchs vs bad is not what our founding fathers claimed to envision for us.
Aimee, I lived and worked in the NYC media world for a few decades. Get off your high horse - you aren't as smart as you like to think you are about everything on earth despite your degree.
Important to remember too that for many decades the WashPo had immense connections with the CIA. (That was a different era, granted, and I have zero idea whether the current WashPo maintains that kind of “we’re buddies!” relationship with the Intel world that it once did.)
Signed, a former employee of the Washington Post company.
Bloated college staff, salaries and facilities have been primarily enabled by the federal government taking over the job of giving out student loans. Easily secured loans for all manner of useless courses of study will eventually be forgiven. The graduate in environmental science or queer theory is unequipped to earn a living or repay a loan. Until college loans are given with consideration for ability to repay, the bloat will persist. Nothing is as expensive as that which the government has sought to make affordable.
You mean, the government shouldn’t just pass bills, print money and pretend it’s accomplished something? Our representatives should actually fix some problems? What kind of dreamer are you???
Measure P is also a carry along for the trustee vote in this election. Take a hard look at who is running for a trustee in your area? Are they outspoken hard core Leftest? These are the same who ran SBCC into the ground.
Are current employees of SBCC supporting the same left who bankrupt SBCC? Yes. Then are they the same supporters of Measure P who have used phones, emails, and office space to campaign for Measure P? You betcha and guess what these are campaign violations according to the State of Calif. Gov. is not supposed to use your money in a campaign opposing you.
YOU the voter have the option of stating no confidence or "no" when faced with a candidate you object to but there is no one running against them.
If you have not voted do so. If you see an empty suit running make sure you vote against them. You will see a lot of that in NoLeta and Goleta.
Thanks Mike, for showing us the salaries. Having 9 Superintendents/presidents is the "name-game" meaning that title is used to benchmark the salaries. The title "superintendent" implies responsibility for maintaining the building: time to review their performances against this requirement. Sadly, a great deal of the money given to President Biden to help rebound from COVID was spent on increasing the number and salaries of public employees. No private company can pay these salaries and survive.
Thank you Mike for shedding light on this ongoing con job. When reviewing the salaries of CC employees, it should be clear to all that Measure P is no more than a scam masquerading as a works project benefiting our youth. The fact that there has not been a meaningful investigation by our Grand Jury into the sanctioned theft of tax dollars, goes to show how corrupt our local government has become. Yes, the Unions involved with this fleecing scheme rivals anything perpetrated by organized crime.
Shame on any who allowed their names to be used in support of this corrupt and shameful Measure.
Agree: shame on the liars and proponent supporters. Do know the Grand Jury has investigated a school bond fraud allegation: L2020. It was turned over for criminal indictment. However, small time politics intervened. So guess what? Rather than criminal charges, promotions. It’s usually the same scenario on Santa Barbara County: it’s incestuous, all who you know. There is no justice in school matters. The corruption is deep from County Office of Education to Districts and the D.A. Office.
Jeff the article includes data from 2012 to 2022. SBCC has not yet filed its 2023 data. Bizarre. Employees got their IRS W2 forms. I wonder WHY required payroll data not submitted.
Be sure to remember Transparent California when donating. Super important service providing govt salary transparency.
John Thomas, it was Stoker's number not mine and I was questioning it. That's what that funny curvy thing at the end of a string of words is for??? Resist Google it saps your brain.
OK, I agree. It is a strange sentence. "You will then find that a total of 30,947 employees (some were counted twice )were employed from 2012-2022 " Having an employee count over a decade.... And for whatever it's worth - it's been the counter arguments posted on the Current which lead me to vote no on P..
Wow, eye-opening piece. I don’t know how I’d be able to make sense of politics here in SB without the Current and its roster of tough, smart writers. Many thanks to all. I wouldn’t mind learning more about that coup back in 2010. Hey: good topic for a column!
I enjoyed the oped piece from Marsha Croninger. It explained a lot of the failures. It is sad so many in charge don’t take into account falling enrollment in their thinking. Downsizing is not a bad thing.
Who *are* the five bad SBCC trustees? Can we name names and tell tales, or is that something we shouldn’t be putting in print? If so: drinks are on me.
Thanks for this Mike. I've already posted on NextDoor. I don't need slick 4-page mailers to reach the public. Just the facts reported honestly. Thanks for adding your voice.
The Dems have figured out how to transfer money without the use of guns. But it's still a Mafia organization, don't forget that! It's all about money going where they want it to. And maybe now they are concerned the money handling practice of this Mafia is coming to an end.
Thank you Mike for sharing your institutional knowledge about SBCC and the SB Tax Payers Assoc. Thank you to the SB Current for providing a platform for some of the issues that The Independent and Noozhawk would rather sweep under the rug. The dishonest mailing by a moribund group is the kind of smoke and mirrors behavior that alienates decent people from politics. But I implore all of you reading this to instead, become more engaged as a citizen to monitor, organize and advocate, but in a manner that is honorable and can serve to inspire others to do the same. That is the only way I can see for us to overcome the deep level of corruption that goes all the way down to the grassroots in our country and area. We must be clear that shortcuts and dishonest tactics won't cut it to root out corruption and steadfast in our resolve that our children and grandchildren deserve a functioning society.
Thank you for this expose on the grift going on, no surprise. And I appreciate the endorsements. Heres a dumb question, since I've always voted on election day, how does one vote early? Does that mean mail in, or can one go down to the registration office on C Real and vote early?
Nadine you can also vote at the County Election Office on Calle Real. Booths are in place. Unsheltered/ homeless are bused in to vote there. Folks needing or wanting assistance, or added confidence that there ballot is secure go to the Election Office. Also there’s a drop box out front, if you prefer.
Mike, submit this to Noozhawk, Indy and the Mesa paper. There are many people who don't see the Current and are being misled by the other side. They are being bombarded with mailers and ads. I think it will be helpful for these voters to see what is really going on with this measure. You should do it soon since the election is only 6 days from now.
HALLOWEEN is nearing with all the excitement of witches and goblins! Speaking of witches, my dad was born in Salem, MA and I was born in the neighboring town of Beverly, MA located on the other side of a bridge from Salem. My dad definitely had special powers of calculating stuff in his head. As an example, one day I needed to know if two trains are approaching each other from different ends of a straight track, and at different stated speeds, then how long would it take for the two trains to pass each other (or collide if on the same track), a problem I read from my 9th grade algebra book. In school to acquire the “the train meeting” answer required solving two simultaneous equations. So happens dad stopped going to school in the 9th grade because when his dad died the family needed him to work for money. Dad pondered the train question while resting on one of my pillows with his eyes closed and within about twenty seconds, he provided a precise answer to the question. I asked, "How did you do that?" He just shrugged his shoulders without saying a word. I found the “head” answer frustrating which didn’t help me to put it on paper for the classroom requirements. More recently, I wonder if he had autism spectrum disorder. My dad and I both preferred to do stuff by ourselves. When we visited relatives, he would be in a corner reading technical magazines while others were playing games. I can’t do anything special. I do try to make people levitate, but no luck so far. I guess you've got to be born in Salem to be really weird and have special powers. My first cousin, Gordon Russell, was born in Salem and was a head writer for the gothic soap opera “Dark Shadows.” He and Sam Hall took daily turns writing for the soap. I think Gordon was weird to write several hundred creepy gothic episodes, some kind of prolific writing record, and also to be born in Salem. Like my dad’s dad, my dad also passed away when I was in the 9th grade at the age of 48; a type one diabetic that couldn’t resist those strawberry shortcakes.
Mike, submit this to Indy, Noozhawk and the Mesa paper. It's important to get people who may not see the Current to hear the truth about the Measure. Right now they are being bombarded with mailers and ads saying this is the best thing since slice bread. These people could vote for it because they don't know any better. I would do it as soon as possible since the election is only 6 days from now.
Thank you, Mike and everyone else who has written on this scam. There's something else shocking to me about how this misuse of funds has gone on as long as it has: where have our local newspapers been during this? Why didn't The Independent do an investigation into this? Did the News-Press?
At one time, Santa Barbara had Tom Stork. I have my own quibbles with Stork's legacy, but he was a newsman. He did investigations. We've only really had a rah rah paper for the Left here for far too long.
The recent overturn with the owners of WaPo, USA Today and the LA Times refusing to endorse Kamala Harris is a victory that I personally have been celebrating. It's as huge a take back of American values as Trump's victory would/will be. And Trump is a major part of this media awakening, in fact without Trump and without the TDS that those newspapers became guilty of enflaming, it wouldn't have happened, the public wouldn't have become suspicious of the media.
We need this on the local as well as national level. How great it would be if Marianne Partridge suddenly did a Jeff Bezos and wrote in her paper as he did in WaPo: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/10/28/jeff-bezos-washington-post-trust/
So thank you to Jim Buckley and James Fenkner and the columnists for Santa Barbara Current. I hope you all already see a victory, whatever the outcome on November 5th is. And that's you helping to make American journalism great again. It's always had its flaws, but what it became during the last eight years is simply garbage and propaganda.
Here, here Polly. You will recall McCall lost control of the NP once the union ganged up on her for cracking down on “editorial expression” in news stories. Now, you can’t even give away the remaining printing presses as part of the bankruptcy. And to think we now have to depend on Jerry Roberts for political commentary!
I love watching how all these “journalists” right now are outraged. As Glenn Greenwald wrote “In what dream world are these people living? This is utterly self-serving dreck, a self-flattering fairy tale, that is completely unhinged from any objective reality. Like virtually all corporate media outlets, the Washington Post has no “credibility” to squander. The opposite is true: the mass media is now held in the lowest esteem of any major American institution, somehow even lower than Congress. And the major reason why is that the public perceives – accurately – that large media outlets do not try to tell the truth, but instead lie on purpose to advance their political, ideological, and partisan preferences.”
Worth mentioning is, in 2016 the SBNP was the ONLY major newspaper which endorsed Trump and look what it got them!
Bezos just lost 200k lefty subscriptions for not endorsing Harris! See a connection?
I think Musk has been a huge force for the good. These guys like Bezos are looking at him and saying “He does what he wants to and thinks is right. Why am I being a wimp? I'm one of the richest most powerful men in the world!” I never thought I'd say this, but I have hope for the global elite. They could just save us.
But not Soros or his stupid son.
I think you are naive. Bezos and Musk are competing for control over the surveillance apparatus that is being set up piece by piece. They are putting up the satellites for the 5-g mesh in the battle to harvest more of the information about our every thought, view, preference and discussion. This will be used to enslave us in a social credit score type of system with carrots and sticks to "nudge" us into the desired behavior, even if it is getting a chip installed or forgoing having children. COVID tyranny was only a preview, but it demonstrates the mechanisms used to get lower level managers such as SBCC trustees or school principles or hospital admins to be "nudged" in the "correct" direction and how social media and mainstream media can be censored by the government to "program" us with no meaningful way for the citizens to organize and push back. Cheering for good oligarchs vs bad is not what our founding fathers claimed to envision for us.
Aimee, I lived and worked in the NYC media world for a few decades. Get off your high horse - you aren't as smart as you like to think you are about everything on earth despite your degree.
Important to remember too that for many decades the WashPo had immense connections with the CIA. (That was a different era, granted, and I have zero idea whether the current WashPo maintains that kind of “we’re buddies!” relationship with the Intel world that it once did.)
Signed, a former employee of the Washington Post company.
The owner, Jeff Bezos, has big contracts with the CIA, so perhaps the more things change, the more they stay the same!
Thank you Mr. Stoker for laying out some of the relevant history on this Measure.
Bloated college staff, salaries and facilities have been primarily enabled by the federal government taking over the job of giving out student loans. Easily secured loans for all manner of useless courses of study will eventually be forgiven. The graduate in environmental science or queer theory is unequipped to earn a living or repay a loan. Until college loans are given with consideration for ability to repay, the bloat will persist. Nothing is as expensive as that which the government has sought to make affordable.
You mean, the government shouldn’t just pass bills, print money and pretend it’s accomplished something? Our representatives should actually fix some problems? What kind of dreamer are you???
Measure P is also a carry along for the trustee vote in this election. Take a hard look at who is running for a trustee in your area? Are they outspoken hard core Leftest? These are the same who ran SBCC into the ground.
Are current employees of SBCC supporting the same left who bankrupt SBCC? Yes. Then are they the same supporters of Measure P who have used phones, emails, and office space to campaign for Measure P? You betcha and guess what these are campaign violations according to the State of Calif. Gov. is not supposed to use your money in a campaign opposing you.
YOU the voter have the option of stating no confidence or "no" when faced with a candidate you object to but there is no one running against them.
If you have not voted do so. If you see an empty suit running make sure you vote against them. You will see a lot of that in NoLeta and Goleta.
Good article
Cars Are Basic: Excellent summation with recommended action! VOTE, but be careful who and what you vote for.
Thanks Mike, for showing us the salaries. Having 9 Superintendents/presidents is the "name-game" meaning that title is used to benchmark the salaries. The title "superintendent" implies responsibility for maintaining the building: time to review their performances against this requirement. Sadly, a great deal of the money given to President Biden to help rebound from COVID was spent on increasing the number and salaries of public employees. No private company can pay these salaries and survive.
Thank you Mike for shedding light on this ongoing con job. When reviewing the salaries of CC employees, it should be clear to all that Measure P is no more than a scam masquerading as a works project benefiting our youth. The fact that there has not been a meaningful investigation by our Grand Jury into the sanctioned theft of tax dollars, goes to show how corrupt our local government has become. Yes, the Unions involved with this fleecing scheme rivals anything perpetrated by organized crime.
Shame on any who allowed their names to be used in support of this corrupt and shameful Measure.
Agree: shame on the liars and proponent supporters. Do know the Grand Jury has investigated a school bond fraud allegation: L2020. It was turned over for criminal indictment. However, small time politics intervened. So guess what? Rather than criminal charges, promotions. It’s usually the same scenario on Santa Barbara County: it’s incestuous, all who you know. There is no justice in school matters. The corruption is deep from County Office of Education to Districts and the D.A. Office.
30,000 employees for 13,000 students? Is this true?
Jeff the article includes data from 2012 to 2022. SBCC has not yet filed its 2023 data. Bizarre. Employees got their IRS W2 forms. I wonder WHY required payroll data not submitted.
Be sure to remember Transparent California when donating. Super important service providing govt salary transparency.
You can google that Jeff...... might not be to 0.1 FTE accuracy but you'll find out you're off by 30x or so.
John Thomas, it was Stoker's number not mine and I was questioning it. That's what that funny curvy thing at the end of a string of words is for??? Resist Google it saps your brain.
OK, I agree. It is a strange sentence. "You will then find that a total of 30,947 employees (some were counted twice )were employed from 2012-2022 " Having an employee count over a decade.... And for whatever it's worth - it's been the counter arguments posted on the Current which lead me to vote no on P..
Wow, eye-opening piece. I don’t know how I’d be able to make sense of politics here in SB without the Current and its roster of tough, smart writers. Many thanks to all. I wouldn’t mind learning more about that coup back in 2010. Hey: good topic for a column!
Sawbilly the 2010 SBCC Coup is definitely a story every school bond taxpayer needs to hear. The coup was orchestrated by Mayor Marty Blum …
I enjoyed the oped piece from Marsha Croninger. It explained a lot of the failures. It is sad so many in charge don’t take into account falling enrollment in their thinking. Downsizing is not a bad thing.
Who *are* the five bad SBCC trustees? Can we name names and tell tales, or is that something we shouldn’t be putting in print? If so: drinks are on me.
Thanks for this Mike. I've already posted on NextDoor. I don't need slick 4-page mailers to reach the public. Just the facts reported honestly. Thanks for adding your voice.
The Dems have figured out how to transfer money without the use of guns. But it's still a Mafia organization, don't forget that! It's all about money going where they want it to. And maybe now they are concerned the money handling practice of this Mafia is coming to an end.
Exactly! Everything with the big D party is about your money and how to take and spend it.
You had me at, "vote no."
Thank you Mike for sharing your institutional knowledge about SBCC and the SB Tax Payers Assoc. Thank you to the SB Current for providing a platform for some of the issues that The Independent and Noozhawk would rather sweep under the rug. The dishonest mailing by a moribund group is the kind of smoke and mirrors behavior that alienates decent people from politics. But I implore all of you reading this to instead, become more engaged as a citizen to monitor, organize and advocate, but in a manner that is honorable and can serve to inspire others to do the same. That is the only way I can see for us to overcome the deep level of corruption that goes all the way down to the grassroots in our country and area. We must be clear that shortcuts and dishonest tactics won't cut it to root out corruption and steadfast in our resolve that our children and grandchildren deserve a functioning society.
Thank you for this expose on the grift going on, no surprise. And I appreciate the endorsements. Heres a dumb question, since I've always voted on election day, how does one vote early? Does that mean mail in, or can one go down to the registration office on C Real and vote early?
Nadine you can also vote at the County Election Office on Calle Real. Booths are in place. Unsheltered/ homeless are bused in to vote there. Folks needing or wanting assistance, or added confidence that there ballot is secure go to the Election Office. Also there’s a drop box out front, if you prefer.
Mike, submit this to Noozhawk, Indy and the Mesa paper. There are many people who don't see the Current and are being misled by the other side. They are being bombarded with mailers and ads. I think it will be helpful for these voters to see what is really going on with this measure. You should do it soon since the election is only 6 days from now.
HALLOWEEN is nearing with all the excitement of witches and goblins! Speaking of witches, my dad was born in Salem, MA and I was born in the neighboring town of Beverly, MA located on the other side of a bridge from Salem. My dad definitely had special powers of calculating stuff in his head. As an example, one day I needed to know if two trains are approaching each other from different ends of a straight track, and at different stated speeds, then how long would it take for the two trains to pass each other (or collide if on the same track), a problem I read from my 9th grade algebra book. In school to acquire the “the train meeting” answer required solving two simultaneous equations. So happens dad stopped going to school in the 9th grade because when his dad died the family needed him to work for money. Dad pondered the train question while resting on one of my pillows with his eyes closed and within about twenty seconds, he provided a precise answer to the question. I asked, "How did you do that?" He just shrugged his shoulders without saying a word. I found the “head” answer frustrating which didn’t help me to put it on paper for the classroom requirements. More recently, I wonder if he had autism spectrum disorder. My dad and I both preferred to do stuff by ourselves. When we visited relatives, he would be in a corner reading technical magazines while others were playing games. I can’t do anything special. I do try to make people levitate, but no luck so far. I guess you've got to be born in Salem to be really weird and have special powers. My first cousin, Gordon Russell, was born in Salem and was a head writer for the gothic soap opera “Dark Shadows.” He and Sam Hall took daily turns writing for the soap. I think Gordon was weird to write several hundred creepy gothic episodes, some kind of prolific writing record, and also to be born in Salem. Like my dad’s dad, my dad also passed away when I was in the 9th grade at the age of 48; a type one diabetic that couldn’t resist those strawberry shortcakes.
Mike, submit this to Indy, Noozhawk and the Mesa paper. It's important to get people who may not see the Current to hear the truth about the Measure. Right now they are being bombarded with mailers and ads saying this is the best thing since slice bread. These people could vote for it because they don't know any better. I would do it as soon as possible since the election is only 6 days from now.