Jason Dominguez plans to participate in this Tuesday’s Santa Barbara City Council meeting from his hotel in South Africa.
Technically, Dominguez will phone it in from the Hotel Sunsquare, Montecasino Boulevard, Fourways, Johannesburg, 2055, South Africa.
Dominguez, an attorney, is on a study abroad trip with five universities, the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, the Santa Barbara & Ventura Colleges of Law, Pacific Oaks College, Dallas Nursing Institute, and Saybrook University, for a cross-disciplinary, 3-month course and 10-day experience in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Dominguez is a member of the local colleges of law faculty.
The contingent is “looking at and contributing to the building of a great pluralistic, multicultural society, building on my earlier overseas work as a legal officer for the United Nations,” Dominguez told Noozhawk. “We’re focused on exchanging ideas on health, education, the environment, and law.”
Dominguez said he is also meeting with Dr. Kevin Prince, a national water expert, “to see what we can learn from Cape Town’s devastating drought.”
He is not the first member of the Santa Barbara City Council to participate in a meeting remotely.
The late Dr. Dan Secord in 2005 took part in a council meeting from home after he tore his quadriceps muscle in both legs in a fall at City Hall. It went off without a hitch, and Dominguez expects the same for the next two meetings — Tuesday and Dec. 11.
“There will be no impact and no city funds were expended,” Dominguez said.
Dominguez added that he is looking forward to a session for students and faculty called “reimagining citizen action and nation building,” facilitated by Dr. Mamphela Ramphele.
This week, the council will discuss a proposal to create a project labor agreement and upgrades to the city’s high-density rental-housing apartment program.
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.