BlogaBarbara

Santa Barbara Politics, Media & Culture

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Leaky Foulcone


First, a big BlogaBarbara welcome to Frank Ciucut who posts below on divebombing butterflies and today's happenings at the so-called City Council. And a quick note -- why the heck don't they publish the minutes of their council meetings online? Further, when I tried to link to the agenda page, a PDF, it crashed my browser....grrrrrrr. Sara mad, very mad! Sara digress....

Anyways, a quick note: I've no problem at all with paying our officers well, but why the heck should we break the bank on the backs of the poorest SB residents and other city workers? I find it notable and interesting that the sole "nay" votes on the so-called council were a teacher, Marty Blum, and a doctor, Dan Secord. The lowest-paid public servant and the highest-paid public servant seemed to agree, and both have dealt with the REAL public far more than the career politicians, attorneys and political consultants that largely comprise the rest of the council. Now I'm all for unions, but if I had to choose between teachers of all varieties and social workers or cops, you can guess who's gettin' the raises, and a quick clue: ain't the cops.



Now, about that leak....

Frank points out below that Josh Molina of the ever-unlinkable News-O-Press maybe followed his "leak" paragraph with Falcone's quote because he knew something and wanted to imply guilt by proximity. I say Frank? No need. Read the quotes. Have you ever read such back-handed guilt-talk? Sheesh. On the leak, Falcone:
"This is a small town and it doesn't take a long time for things to get out," said Ms. Falcone. "I operate from the position that everything gets out."
Oh, it gets worse:

"I don't need to hide behind closed session. I would be just as happy saying in public what I said in closed session."

Huh what huh? Closed sessions aren't about back room deals, they are about matters of human resources that by law in some cases -- well, actually, in most cases -- absolutely must stay in closed session. That's what closed session is for. In fact, if Falcone said some of the things in public that she said in closed session, much less divulging what others have said, it could cost the city a huge bundle in quite justified lawsuits by current and former city employees discussed in such sessions. Even worse? She knows this. The quotes above are sideshow hocus-pocus, cheap and flashy and quite easy to see through. You would think that an attorney like Leaky Foulcone wouldn't drip drip drip like a melting snowman under Molina's questioning unless, guilty as OJ, she felt the need to back-pedal and justify her own misdeeds. Now, I expect politicians to lie -- however, one might suppose that a seasoned political operative slash consultant slash politician like Falcone could at least lie well. Oops! Guess not.

A portent of who knows what

Good morning, BlogaBarbara fans. I'm new here and I'd be happy to introduce myself, but on second thought, nah, I'd rather stay shrouded in mystery. It's good to be here, though, and many thanks to the efforts of Cannon and Sara in developing the narrative so far. I hope my thoughts and words can be of some tiny service to this great community as well.

Sara's right: there are enterprises of great pitch and moment afoot at city hall today. And what better festive way to start the morning off than a plague of butterflies? Seriously! It seems to be slowing down now, but for an hour or so this morning, thousands upon thousands of butterflies were observed flying across the beach (straight upwind!) and apparently throughout town, headed for points west. They must be en route to the freshly preserved Elwood Mesa, so keep former Assemblymember Hannah-Beth Jackson and the good folks at the Trust for Public Land in mind today. Or try to imagine the hundreds of thousands of really awfully disappointed butterflies we would've had instead. They'd be looking for the eucalpytus trees they usually hang out in, but instead finding $2 million sprawly McMansions with lots of curb appeal and whopper heating bills. Shudder!

But back to the fireworks - if you're among the lucky subscribers to the local fishwrap, make sure to check out this morning's skinny on the negotiations that Sara's planning on gluing herself to Channel 17 today to watch. (ordinarily I'd link to it, but...well, y'know). There's a bunch of the good stuff in it, but you have to just love the story of the leak that looks like it's in the process of backfiring...

Mayor Blum believes that her vote in closed session to oppose the police union's 5 percent raises was leaked to the union, in an attempt to hurt her politically. Other council members interviewed confirmed that they believe there is a leak on the council.

Councilwoman Iya Falcone said council members shouldn't say anything in private closed session that they can't back up in public.

"This is a small town and it doesn't take a long time for things to get out," said Ms. Falcone. "I operate from the position that everything gets out."



Talk of leaks followed so closely by a couple quotes from Ms. Falcone? Does Intrepid Reporter Josh Molina have his suspicions, or is it just us? There's lots of possibilities, of course: maybe the Slugger leaked it herself to appeal to the fiscally prudent! Josh mentions (but doesn't really tease out) the implications of uber-organizer Das Williams' police-unionless win in the last go round, but I think the underlying point is that there are a lot more ways to win elections in this town than there used to be.

Stay tuned, and be sure to watch out for divebombing butterflies!

Monday, March 28, 2005

Big Contract Talks Tuesday with POA

Sara's tired and is going to sleep early....looking forward to some heavy Channel 17 watching tomorrow as the Police Officers Association (POA) contract is up? Will we see blind law enforcement support -- especially from those up for re-election (isn't it funny how the contract is up right now?) -- or will we see a modest increase that is more fiscally prudent. Word on the street is that the police officers want the world....will they get it? Probably. How will it go down? I will write about that soon...

Ball Park Semantics

The News-Repress unveiled the letters they have been soliciting all week about the Ball Park at Pershing Park. Yet again, they insisted on using the word stadium rather than ball park. And yet again, I can't link what I can't show.

Council Member Barnwell wrote a nice letter on what it means to have a great place like a ball park to bring the family. The BarnStormer also addressed a lot of the "what's going to happen to the neighborhood" issues. He addressed the issue you saw here first -- that it isn't a stadium! Has Mr. Barnwell read BlogaBarbara? He also pointed out that the seating isn't the 1,200 the News-Repress keeps on talking about but the 600-800 Barnwell and Mayor Marty "the Slugger" Blum have been talking about all along.

His letter addresses some of the concerns expressed by some writers about parking -- less seats mean less parking needs. One writer said people have to walk a mile to Los Banos Pool. This dosn't make sense as there is Harbor Parking near the pool and Pershing Park free parking (that will still be available if we even have one game a week there) is a short walk away. The same letter asked the city to take care of the Castillo Street underpass -- where tiles are broken and water is rampant. The city would love to and has lobbied for this work to be done for years but does not own the land. This is a problem for CalTrans and Assembly Pedro Member Nava to look into.

In any event -- Travis FactsWrong showed his colors once again by providing a leading question and getting the seating wrong. In simply asking people to come up with questions within a context that is incorrect, he has shaped the debate to his own agenda yet again.

Friday, March 25, 2005

Cottage Hospital Means Business

The News-Press’ Josh Molina surprisingly called them the “dream team” saying that Tuesday nights’ council meeting had “more than 100 people, most of them doctors, nurses and other health care professionals, packed City Hall, urging Santa Barbara to let Cottage build its $413 million hospital on the city's upper Westside. Cottage has assembled an impressive array of architects, business people and donors to back the project.” (Not to beat a dead horse, but I can't link what I can't show -- write Travis (tarmstrong@newspress.com) and Wendy (wow! no email listed for her!) at the News-Suppress and let them know how you feel).

As Cottage runs the construction and development gauntlet of a 2013 state deadline related to earthquake safety – those of us here at Blogabarbara wonder how much $413 million will buy them.

As Molina pointed out, Cottage is the only game in town – thus my philosophical problem with monopolies. There is no leverage available when you are held over a cliff by the scruff of your neck.

Kudos to Cottage for the $10 million in proposed improvements – especially the flood culverts and neighborhood improvements -- let’s just hope none of them follow the Fess Parker path of least resistance. Still, as I watched Channel 17 this morning – I caught something I am not sure even city staff saw.

There’s an area that planners had suggested be dedicated to a little bit of green space near the proposed building. Apparently, however, Cottage has already signed lease agreements with corporate doctors to place assigned parking in the location. The word from Cottage was that there was no way they could provide green space because of the legal contract they had signed already.

I found it interesting that staff didn’t have any objections to the fact that city planning is asked to be bound to a third party legal contract for a structure that does not even have approval as of yet. It would be nice to have a green space and I can understand the need for parking – but why should the city turn their head and look the other way because Cottage made a separate deal?

I did some research and found that Bill Levy apparently did not officially own the area that city planners spent countless hours and countless dollars reviewing and approving. You don’t actually have to own a piece of property that you send plans to the planning commission to review. Canon and I are thinking about submitting a plan to redevelop city hall into a three story night club – we don’t own the property, but it’s something that would bring a little panache to the most official building near the former residence of a King Juan Carlos III statue (Storke Placita).

BTW, Sara and Canon wonder whether LevyTown is going the way of the formerly “black hole” at the Carrillo Hotel (now known as Hotel Andalucia). Hmm – sounds like a future post.

Peace Out,
Sara

Sunday, March 20, 2005

U-Curve Economics

News-Repress CFO Randy Alcorn's article on housing leaves a little to be desired.. He reviews for us the State of the City Breakfast last week where Mayor Marty Blum presented the State of the City. Sara was there and doesn't remember much of what he mentions in his article that appeared today.

Here's his take on what was said:
Heading the mayor's list of challenges confronting the city was the need for affordable housing, which, baring a real estate price collapse of seismic proportions, means more housing. More housing, however, means more people which mean more traffic; more sewage; more demand on limited resources like water and open space; more police and fire fighters; more schools; more teachers--more of everything we wouldn't need if we continued to have limited housing.
He took a statement about the need for affordable housing and made it look like the Mayor was calling for the apocolypse. I'm not sure what he means here as Santa Barbara just doesn't have a lot of real estate to build "more housing" and this isn't what the Mayor or the City Administrator actually said.
Twenty years ago the city's elected stewards recognized that in order to preserve what makes this place so uniquely desirable, population had to be limited to 85,000. Because they understood the correlation between development and population growth, they pursued policies intended to limit development.

Today, with noticeable new development and a city population exceeding 90,000, that correlation has been euphemized into the "critical need for more work-force housing". Do our elected officials speak for most of us when they stump for more housing and commercial development? Has community sentiment changed so much in 20 years?


Sara was at this breakfast and did not hear Marty "The Slugger" Blum or the City Administrator call for more commerical development or housing past our present capacity. Where does he think all of our service workers are going to live? Where are News-Press owrkers going to live -- if we aren't careful, we are going to have a "brain drain" and lose our young talent. No one wants Santa Barbara to grow too much or even at all -- but we have to take care of our workforce if we are going to thrive as a city.

We are in the u-curve era. In the Reagan era, it was the bell curve trickle down economics. Today, the u-curve is how there are young and old, rich and poor, etc. without much in between. Just as dangerous as building up or out is the concept that we need to circle the wagons like we are entitled to have Santa Barbara all to ourselves.

Call it like it is! It's a ball park!

For the last week, the News-Supress has been asking readers to comment on plans to build a baseball facility at Pershing Park on West Beach and whether readers think it is "realistic" that it will take the estimated $1 to $3 million city officials say it will take to build it.

Why do they insist on calling it a "stadium"? This 1,200 seat facility is a ball park. Why evoke images of Dodger Stadium with the public like it will be some kind of a behemoth seen from the Riviera when early plans call for a small facade, a media box and just 1,200 stadium seats?

Why are the questioning the costs when there are no official budgets or plans as of yet? Matching the word stadium and the question whether $1 to $3 million is "realistic" -- makes this a leading question.

They ask about transparency of process and there isn't even a written proposal as of yet. It is then that we should be making comments and figuring out neighborhood and environmental impacts. The editors of the News-Press forget that this is an idea which has a lot of community support -- but it is not on paper as of yet.

How can they or their readers comment on more than the idea itself without something to refer to? Let's see what Marty "The Slugger" Blum and the council come up with. As for cost, the city can't bear all of the cost -- this will have to be a partnership with contributions from the community to be successful.

Oh yeah -- I'd show you the actual text but the News-Press doesn't give you access on-line unless you have a subscription.

Let's play ball!

Sunday, March 13, 2005

Where's the youth hostel Fess?


This from Barney Brantingham at the News-Depress on Saturday:
Fess won: Lily Rossi, former city clerk, reminded me that today is the 20th anniversary of the referendum where the public OK'd what is now known as Fess Parker's Doubletree Resort. "Environmentalists had challenged the city's approval of the proposed 360-room hotel-conference center that had taken over 12 years and many scaled-down revisions to go through the city's planning process.
What Barney forgot to tell us is that Fess "Let's Build the Hotel Across Cabrillo Blvd" Parker promised a youth hostel and a public park as part of the deal he got from the city.

The public park consists of the swath of grass in front of the Doubletree. Not many Santa Barbaran's even know its a public park because Fess never put up a sign saying so. Even a few benches might help imply that this is a public park. Santa Barbara resident David Stone has been holding his birthday parties there for the last few years under the moniker "Take Back the Park". Go Dave!

As for the youth hostel, which was originally going to be located where Q's Sushi-a-Go-Go is now, it is promise left unfulfilled.

Let's not give Fess any more projects without making sure that a promise made is a promise kept -- especially when that promise is made to an entire community in exchange for an incredibly profitable hotel. Yeah, Fess won, but Santa Barbara lost big time. Hope ya' got kissed, 'cause...

Sunday, March 06, 2005

Local News Radio Great Idea


March 6, 2005: "Bringing Back Local News Radio" was the headline today in the News-Press article written by Wendy McCaw in VOICES.

Although she's been taking some hits from me of late with the pigs-rights effort and continuing to rewrite Lois Capps' environmental record, this effort is worth supporting. In the article, she points out that Bob Newhart, who owns KZBN 1290 AM, sold the station to a group of investors at below market rate because of his commitment to Santa Barbara having an all news station.

I miss listening to the Voice of Santa Barbara in the morning (Jerry Cornfield has since moved to Olympia, WA). It's also important for all of us to have a place to turn to in an emergency.

How an all news radio station will cooperate with the newspaper side of the business remains to be seen -- Josh Molina podcasting from De la Guerra Plaza? Barney Brantingham cell phoning from Java Jones? I am willing to hope for the best on this one -- we need news radio and we need it bad.

Saturday, March 05, 2005

Enviro Representative Subterfuge


I would give you a link to this News-Press editorial from 3/4/05 -- but they won't let you see it without a subscription. Please see Cannon's post below. I've typed out a few of their most heinous quotes for discussion:

The representative signs off on bills written by other members. The more bills he or she "co-sponsors" -- that is, let the real author use your name -- the better the odds.

The News-Repress calls this the 'Lotto' approach - I call it democracy. There's nothing wrong with co-sponsoring legislation that you believe in -- it's the way those of us that vote can see where a representative's intention lie.

When a member of Congress labels herself the "environmental Representative," the official better expect scrutiny of whether past actions justify the title.

Mrs. Capps wrote that she's "stood up to protect endangered forests, wetlands, rivers, and coasts."

What she's actually referencing, according to her office, are about 30 bills she put her name on as a co-sponsor.


What about these bills she has sponsored that are listed on the Congressional Website -- Thomas.gov? (They actually let you in without a subscription).

You'll find sponsorships on a variety of environmental legislation -- some passed, some didn't. That's how Congress works. You don't have to pass a bill to show you are environmentalist -- you do have to vote consistently, and she does. Notice that Travis FactsWrong doesn't mention this in his editorial.

The self-proclaimed title of "environmental Representative" suggests a standard that Mrs. Capps must live up to during the remainder of her time in office. To that end, Mrs. Capps says she's introduced bills to halt new drilling in Los Padres National Forest and quicken the replacement of single-hull oil tankers. Will these become law in light of her history?

"She says she's introduced"? -- Mr. FactsWrong, she has! It's in the Congressional Record! A little bit of web research would do you some good...do your homework! As for her history -- right now she's co-chair of the coastal caucus, on the Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality of the Energy and Commerce Committee and need we remind the News-Repress that she is highly rated by the League of Conservation Voters, been endorsed by the Sierra Club in each of her elections and shows up at every way she can to save open space and protect the environment here locally? Interview someone at the Environmental Defense Center or Surfrider and tell us what they say.

Mrs. Capps also is failing the Channel Islands. She's ignored calls for an independent investigation of the mismanagement by the National Park Service and the Nature Conservancy.

A program to return bald eagles has resulted in eagles drowning as they tried to escape the island. The 2004 listing of the island fox as an endangered species means that the captive-breeding program needs examination. Pups produced in it can't survive in the wild at acceptable rates.

She stood by as the Park Service approved the mass poisoning of the Anacapa islets, which not only killed black rats but species from native deer mice to migratory birds.

Is this the record of the "environmental Representative"?

Mr. FactsWrong should be more clear in his intentions. Being a PETA "don't drink milk, drink beer" supporter and being an environmentalist are two different things. You can't bash her on her perfectly strong enviornmental record based on pig, rat and bird rights! At least be straight about your intent -- this writer thinks animals should be treated well but the editors of the News-Opress should stick to animals or the environment as a whole as their issue and not use Rep. Capps' excellent environmental record as a subterfuge for animal rights.

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Santa Cambodia Island


Here we go again...one-note parrot Wendy McCaw takes her screeching to an all-time high!

Last week's post on how the News-Repress thinks the League of Conservation Voters award winning Rep. Lois Capps isn't an environmentalist was eclipsed today by the blatant promotion of a pigs-rights group at the Santa Barbara Public Library. Can't believe it? Read on:

The National Park Service and the Nature Conservancy, which owns much of Santa Cruz Island, are bent on turning the island into killing fields later this month or April. These organizations, particularly the conservancy's Los Angeles office, haven't been upfront in the past about the details of their plans.

Killing Fields? Oh, please. Not to make too fine a point, but the plants have been there for hundreds upon hundreds of years. The pigs, as the name would imply, are eating everything in sight and destroying native plant life and threatening other native animal species that don't, well, eat everything in sight.

Wild pigs have been at home on Santa Cruz Island since 1852 so there's no rush to begin a multimillion-dollar campaign to kill them.

Please consider joining the Channel Islands Animal Protection Association and other concerned residents at a public forum at 6:30 p.m. in the Santa Barbara downtown library's Faulkner Gallery, 40 E. Anapamu St.

Now, Sara likes animals. Sara even likes pigs. Sara wants to protect animals wherever she can -- but Sara thinks that it's about balance -- not blindness. The anniversary of Malcolm X's death was last week -- "by any means necessary" should only apply to broad goals, not a narrow, perhaps even wrong-headed, agenda.