Regarding the March 27 article, “County Fire Wants to Pass on Ambulance Services Subcontract, Sell Vehicles,” all I can say is what an absolute waste of taxpayer funds!
Not just once but twice the Santa Barbara County Fire Department was not chosen as the best option. Yet that didn’t stop them, or the Board of Supervisors, from spending millions of dollars for equipment before the contract decision and then more taxpayer funds for legal fees in a vain attempt to overturn the legitimate process.
On top of buying several million dollars worth of ambulances, they paid for storage and equipping them, and now are going to sell the vehicles and equipment, likely at a significant loss.
All to increase the number of employees and build a bigger empire.
And when all is said and done, county taxpayers will be out a lot of money that could have been spent on things like fixing infrastructure or helping local residents.
People should be punished for this egregious example of government agency waste. But I suspect that, unlike in the private sector, no one will be held accountable and likely will ultimately receive kudos and raises.
Art Thomas
Santa Barbara
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Regarding Noozhawk publisher Bill Macfadyen’s March 21 column, “Santa Barbara Payouts to 2 Ex-Employees Total an Unsettling $800,000,” having been involved as an attorney representing local government entities in many settlements, I just want to caution that unless you know all the background details it is impossible to characterize the propriety of the settlement amount as either a “giveaway” on one hand or “in the public interest” on the other.
It is what it is, so leave it at that.
Stephen Weiss
Montecito
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I write in response to the March 16 article, “Santa Barbara Pays 2 Department Heads Nearly $800,000 in Employment Settlements,” and the subsequent commentary and letters to the editor.
While the eye-popping figures have understandably raised eyebrows, the response may well be missing the forest for the trees.
The hush-hush nature of these agreements, with mutual nondisparagement clauses, aligns with common practice to avoid public embarrassment. In this case, the city’s decision to pay nearly $800,000 likely reflects a calculated move of damage control, not an arbitrary windfall for the departing employees.
For instance, former Santa Barbara Public Library director Jessica Cadiente’s statement about prioritizing her health amid cancer treatment complications and workplace stress hints at potential claims of an untenable work environment — claims the city may have been ill-equipped to defend.
The real scandal isn’t the payments themselves but what necessitated them. If the city failed to address workplace issues or violated employment agreements, these settlements could represent a fair resolution for wrongs committed, not a reward for quitting. Settlements like these are often a response to legal exposure caused by governmental missteps.
As troubling is the deliberate opacity. Why did the city hire a San Francisco law firm to negotiate these deals rather than a local one? The answer seems obvious: to maintain distance and deniability.
A San Francisco firm, detached from local context, could more easily bury the facts, ensuring the “hush-hush” remains intact. This choice fuels distrust, and raises questions about whether the city prioritizes secrecy over accountability.
Rather than vilifying the payments, we should demand answers about what went wrong — why these employees felt compelled to seek redress, and why the city opted for an out-of-town firm to sweep it under the rug.
Transparency, not the settlements themselves, is where the real battle for trust lies. Santa Barbara deserves better than expensive secrets.
Peter Sadowski
Santa Barbara
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So there are absolutely no vocational classes left in Santa Barbara Unified School District schools!
Pink-slip 85 teachers but don’t cut any of the administrative staff, which is overstaffed. Paid $800,000 to get rid of two City of Santa Barbara employees. Gave $56,000 annual raise to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors.
I agree with the March 21 letter writers who called for an outside audit of city and county governments.
John Sween
Santa Barbara
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Some additional information for the March 26 article, “United Jetliner Strikes Flock of Birds While Landing in Santa Barbara”: While waiting for friends arrival at the Santa Barbara Airport, there is a cell phone lot south of the airport next to the World War II Memorial.
While waiting there for friends flying in, I have seen airport trucks come out by the runway right before planes land and scare off large flocks of birds that hang out at that end of the runway. I figure these actions are coordinated with the airport tower.
After reading the article, I was wondering if perhaps they didn’t send out the truck to scare off the birds before the United flight landed and this is why all those birds got sucked into the airplane engine.
I am curious to know. Perhaps Noozhawk can do a follow up article.
Bart Bader
Goleta
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Regarding the March 26 article, “Afternoon SpaceX Rocket Launch Carries 27 Starlink Satellites From Vandenberg,” as SpaceX accelerates launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base, a hidden crisis is unfolding: pollution from rockets and space debris.
Despite warnings since 1990, no global regulations exist, leaving the final frontier vulnerable to unchecked environmental damage.
Space is becoming dangerously crowded. More than 11,000 satellites currently orbit Earth, with numbers set to soar. When old satellites burn up on re-entry, they release metal particles, including ozone-depleting aluminum oxide.
Starlink alone contributes 40% of this space junk, with daily re-entries worsening the problem.
In 2023, there were 211 successful orbital launches worldwide, 98 by SpaceX — a record it matched in 2024.
VSFB set a record 51 launches in 2024 and has already launched 35 this year. While promoted as a national security necessity, most of these launches are commercial.
Reusable rockets reduce waste, but their upper stages — each weighing four tons — burn up on re-entry, releasing pollutants into the upper atmosphere.
Atmospheric scientist Connor Barker estimates that megaconstellation launches already account for 12% of the space industry’s ozone depletion, a figure set to rise.
Without oversight, commercial space activity risks causing lasting harm to Earth’s atmosphere. Urgent action is needed before it’s too late.
Jill Stegman
Grover Beach
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Regarding the March 27 article, “Graffiti Vandalism Reported at Santa Barbara Tesla, Ford Dealerships,” in a democracy, who is it who promotes violence as political protest? It must be those who prefer another form of government?
John Johnson
Santa Barbara
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Regarding the March 25 article, “CalFire Releases New Fire Hazard Maps for Santa Barbara County,” I clicked the link in the story and zoomed to where I live in northwestern Goleta, aka El Encanto Heights.
I was like, “Oh s**t! I live in what the state fire marshal has declared a ‘very high fire hazard severity zone.’ Not good.”
As the City of Goleta and Santa Barbara County pour money into:
- Street restriping projects creating congestion and fender benders when drivers back into parking spaces
- Bike lanes in places where bike ridership is low
- Roundabouts, roundabouts and more roundabouts
- Speed limit reductions not based on traffic engineering studies
- Board of Supervisors’ obscene pay raises
- New $200,000 a year, county DEI manager
- Goleta’s crash program to power the city with renewables 15 years sooner than the state requires
And so it goes …
All the while, our two local government entities refuse to build Santa Barbara County Fire Station 10, which would serve western Goleta and fulfill a need that has been documented for not just years, but decades.
Construction of Fire Station 10 was announced in 2017 as beginning early in 2018. It’s now 2025 with Goleta and the county still unwilling to rein in wasteful spending and invest money in an infrastructure that, through improved firefighter-to-population ratio and shorter response times, would make western Goleta a safer, less stressful place to live.
Oh yeah, my insurance agent told me to expect a 40% increase in my homeowner’s insurance premium because of CalFire’s new maps, which take into account the lack of adequate firefighting resources. So the new station might make living in El Encanto Heights less expensive as well as more safe.
We have a potential perfect storm: northwestern Goleta is now a very high wildfire danger area, a housing development of 800-1,000 homes planned for what’s now Glen Annie Golf Club and, for years, environmental activist organizations have used the courts to prevent the county and the U.S. Forest Service from constructing fire breaks in the Goleta foothills.
What could go wrong?
Hib Halverson
Goleta
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Just when you thought it was impossible, public-school education has reached a new low.
It has been widely reported that, nationally, K-12 students have been “graduated” from high school while more than 75% of them can’t read, write or do math at grade level.
Santa Barbara County public schools are no different, and in many ways have totally failed students, their parents and taxpayers.
In the last few years many school districts in the county have added a new curriculum to their K-12 liberal toolbox: protest marches. Local media recently reported that hundreds of Santa Barbara High School students staged a walkout to protest the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Santa Barbara.
This and other demonstrations like it wouldn’t happen if school administrators didn’t support and/or encourage it. These carefully orchestrated protests don’t help students prepare for being productive citizens.
Maybe school districts should focus on improving reading, writing and math proficiency instead of advancing a political agenda.
Ron Fink
Lompoc
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All you have to do is walk down the sidewalk on Santa Barbara’s Quarantina Street under the Highway 101 overpass to find a dozen old dirty motor homes sitting there. The whole area reeks of urine and trash.
These motor homes sit here for months on end, periodically moving a few feet from where they are.
We found out that the City of Santa Barbara’s parking ordinance was changed a few years back to allow the parking of these vehicles on our streets with no ramification.
All the ordinance requires is that these motor homes move a few feet back or forth and they are OK to stay.
This is bad for businesses because these motor homes use up a lot of parking for employees and patrons. Yesterday I watched an occupant of a motor home empty his toilet tank in to the gutter in front of our business. This is beyond disgusting.
This should not be happening here in Santa Barbara. We have made attempts to contact local government and we have called traffic enforcement only to be told that there’s nothing they can do.
Well, there is something that can be done. The ordinance needs to change back to a common sense ordinance that will keep our streets safe and clean.
We watch drugs being dealt from these motor homes, trash is everywhere around them and the area smells like urine. It is sad this is happening.
The city does offer parking places for these vehicles, but since the ordinance allows them to park on our streets, we have a mess on our hands.
Tourists walk right by here to go rent bikes and surfboards and this is what they see. Not good!
Is this how Santa Barbara should be represented? I don’t think so. Let’s bring back common sense and get this mess cleaned up.
Peter Tierney
Santa Barbara
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