Regarding the Dec. 2 article, “Paseo Nuevo Housing Plan Falls Short with Santa Barbara Council,” I agree with the comments of many who opined that the critical comments of the City Council were properly focused primarily on the decisions of city staff.
Clearly this is an extremely complex and highly consequential negotiation, well beyond what can reasonably be expected to be within the capabilities of city staff.
However, the other side of the negotiation was led by real estate professionals. No wonder that the result appears to be a lopsided proposal that does not favor the interests of the citizens of Santa Barbara.
The city should be in a strong negotiating position if leadership experienced with similar complex real estate development can be brought into the city to develop a negotiating strategy that utilized the strengths that the city can apply in these negations.
This will likely require creativity that the city has thus far failed to demonstrate. For example, why can’t the city offer to buy out the interests of one or more of the current parties to the land development agreement?
It seems that the key to resolution of the current stalemate could be to reduce the number of parties in the negotiations and the city should have the strength to make this happen, if the council is willing to accept a modest amount of development risk.
The point here is that the city — with appropriate consultants — should lead a creative effort to restructure the negotiations with the goal to create an ownership structure that can redevelop the property for the future benefit of the city.
After such an ownership structure is established, the city will be able to choose the time to sell its ownership for the proper market value.
As the state of California has stated, the current value of this property is limited by the complex ownership/easement structure. The city must invest the time, effort and money to simplify this structure.
Fred Marsh
Santa Barbara
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I think Santa Barbara City Councilman Oscar Gutierrez’s idea of giving back the Paseo Nuevo land to the Chumash is fantastic.
Having recently visited Monaco and New Orleans, I’ve seen the benefits a downtown casino for a city.
Giving or selling the Chumash the property with an agreement to build a world-class casino and equitable profit sharing with the City of Santa Barbara could be an incredible financial windfall.
Rather than burdening developers with unrealistic affordable housing requirements, the city might have more than enough revenue from the casino, bed and sales taxes, and other revenues to provide affordable housing for its citizens.
Mark Westerhoff
Santa Barbara
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I’m a local landlord working with the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara, Good Samaritan Shelter Services, People’s Self-Help Housing, and recently New Beginnings Counseling Center.
I’m offended at the proposal by Santa Barbara City Councilwomen Wendy Santamaria and Kristen Sneddon attacking landlords to limit increases to 60% of Consumer Price Index.
Santa Barbara is more expensive regarding materials, taxes, public works, labor, maintenance and all costs. Everyone reading knows local costs.
A recent “unintended consequence” event was Proposition 33 enacting vacancy control in 2023-2024 to not allow property owners to raise to market rates between renters, even after keeping rents low while they stayed.
The threat of Prop. 33 made owners increase rents in preparation, but Prop. 33 failed.
This local attempt should fail before it delivers more unintended consequences: less housing available. The Santamaria/Sneddon proposal does not acknowledge workers, taxes, utilities and that all costs must be paid 100%.
10% of Santa Barbara’s budget goes toward “global warming” ($55 million). Take a year off the falling sky’s unintended consequence and build workforce units.
The problem is real. Do your job and stop shifting blame.
David Sullins
Santa Barbara
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Regarding the Dec. 5 article, “18-Year-Old UCSB Student Liz Hamel’s Death Ruled Accidental Fall,” as a former UC Santa Barbara student during the early 1970s, I also resided in the San Rafael Mountain Cluster dorms.
While students standing on the decks of Del Playa Drive apartments in Isla Vista have regulary been reported as falling over the bluffs and landing on the beach for at least the last 50 years, I have never heard or read about anyone falling over the railing at the San Rafael Mountain Cluster dorms.
It seems very suspicious to me, regardless of the “exhaustive investigation” by UCSB police.
I sincerely empathize with the family and friends of Liz Hamel. That terrible and tragic event should never happen to anyone.
John Thermos
Lompoc
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Regarding the Dec. 12 article, “ICE Activity Reported at Santa Barbara City College, Westside Neighborhood,” I want to make it crystal clear as the SBCC Board of Trustees president: SBCC has absolutely nothing to do with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement staging in our parking lots.
We did not communicate with ICE beforehand, ICE did not ask for permission, and ICE did not pay for parking as anyone else would.
Our campus safety employees who regulate parking/access were no longer working for the day when ICE arrived, and ICE entered the West Campus when our campus safety kiosk was closed.
SBCC does not support the use of our campus for ICE activities for many reasons; most important, it disrupts ALL people’s educational experience on campus.
SBCC has asked Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, to communicate this to ICE, requesting that it no longer use our campuses, and we have also asked additional elected leaders at the county and state levels to advocate and support us.
We will continue to provide information about these matters as required by state law.
Jonathan Abboud
Santa Barbara City College Board of Trustees president
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Regarding the Dec. 1 article, “Goleta Grandmother Juana Flores Deported on Thanksgiving Day,” I have read in several Noozhawk stories that the deported woman’s husband was granted U.S. citizenship in 2015.
But Noozhawk has never explained why Flores never became a U.S. citizen, too. Did she ever try, instead of trying to keep renewing her “humanitarian parole” status?
Also, I couldn’t help but notice the theme of how mean President Donald Trump is for deporting Flores, but the article says her extension was denied “last year.” Trump wasn’t president in 2024.
M. Smith
Santa Barbara
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Should elected and appointed government officials be obliged to abide by a Code of Ethics to assure they “follow the rules”?
The Ralph M. Brown Act, Fair Political Practices Commission, and penal and government codes make numerous references to inappropriate behavior, but it can take weeks and in most cases many months before an offending official is held accountable.
Recently, a Lompoc city councilman was charged with eight felonies; it will take many months before this case is resolved.
In the meantime, this councilman can still participate in closed session meetings concerning a variety of subjects, including disciplinary action for misconduct by other members of city government.
Egregious conduct by an elected or appointed official deserves at least censure and/or punitive action by a majority vote of the Lompoc City Council. Currently no process exists to even define what constitutes a breach of ethical conduct.
Previous councils have declined to create a set of guidelines, and the current council doesn’t even want to discuss it.
This is why a Code of Ethics with options for accountability is needed.
Ron Fink
Lompoc
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The Santa Barbara Unified School District’s first interim budget is more than a wake‑up call. The district’s own numbers show the unrestricted general fund losing about $12.9 million in 2025-2026, with deficits continuing in 2026-2027 and 2027-2028.
The unrestricted balance drops to $6.8 million from roughly $19.7 million in a single year, and the required reserve falls below California’s 3% minimum, kept technically compliant only by dipping into a separate special reserve fund.
By 2027-2028, total reserves are projected to be just over 5%, and that’s only by leaning on the special reserve while the main operating fund goes negative.
If the district continues on that path, simple extension of its own numbers suggests reserves would fall below 3% around 2028-2029 and be virtually exhausted by 2029-2030.
The first interim budget also shows why: in 2025-2026, restricted programs (including special education and other grant‑funded programs) are projected to spend about $40.5 million more than their own revenues, while the unrestricted budget can only cover about $26.2 million.
The remaining ≈ $14 million gap is what blows a hole in the budget and drains reserves.
The SBUSD Finance Committee was created to provide transparency, independent oversight and guidance to the Board of Trustees on exactly these issues.
Its chair is currently elected by the committee from any voting member and is a community‑based professional finance executive and CFA. Under Resolution 2024‑25‑32A, the chair could no longer be anyone except one of the two Board of Education representatives — permanently barring community members, teachers, site leaders, etc. from ever leading the committee, no matter their expertise.
A body meant to provide independent oversight cannot be chaired by the very people it is supposed to oversee; families and taxpayers should demand both a real structural plan to fix the budget and a Finance Committee led by independent expertise, not board politics.
Michele Voight
Santa Barbara
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Regarding the Nov. 13 article, “Plenty on Bell Restaurant Faces Eviction Lawsuit in Los Alamos,” Plenty on Bell is a longtime and beloved Los Alamos restaurant prized for delicious and reasonably priced meals.
It is fighting an eviction lawsuit filed by its new landlord. A crowd of hugely loyal locals recently packed the restaurant to show their support.
Plenty’s co-owner and executive chef is Jesper Johansson, born and raised in Sweden. He was the first chef to put Los Alamos on the foodie map, as head chef and partner at the storied Café Quackenbush for 16 years.
Johansson has also cooked for clients throughout the region, including the late Julia Child. He developed the restaurant into the popular dining spot it is today. Plenty is also part of “Feed the Valley,” providing food to seniors and others in need.
The new property owner is Noah Rowles, a wealthy Los Angeles high-tech entrepreneur-turned-winemaker and owner of Dovecote Estate Winery in Los Alamos. It has been alleged that Rowles has been “combing through” the lease to find “technicalities.”
Let’s give Rowles the benefit of the doubt about his intentions and consider that he says his “goal remains to be a good neighbor … and a constructive member of the town …”
Los Alamos always welcomes good neighbors … and good food.
Seth Steiner
Los Alamos
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