As Noozhawk reported in its Feb. 27 article, “Santa Barbara Library Director Jessica Cadiente Steps Down After Year of Paid Leave,” the library director had been on paid leave for nearly a year. No reason for a year off with pay was given. Only that it was a personnel matter.
According to Transparent California, in 2023 Cadiente received total pay and benefits equaling $343,494.79. This is quite a salary for a library director; more than double what a U.S. senator is paid.
It is also interesting that in 2015 her total pay and benefits were $83,039.55, so a 314% increase in eight years. That makes the recent widely criticized 48% raise that the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors gave themselves pale in comparison.
At the same time, the Library Services manager also went on paid leave. She only earned $218,415.81 total pay and benefits in 2023. In 2016 she received $32,737.38. So, in her case, she saw a 567% increase in seven years!
Now we learn that, in addition to being paid to stay home, Cadiente has also been paid an additional $500,000 to resign after threatening unspecified legal action.
And still the City of Santa Barbara gives us no reason for paying one former employee more than $800,000 and another more than $200,00 for staying home.
All of this may be legal but it certainly doesn’t seem right.
Further, we are told that the city is going to recruit a replacement who presumably will be paid somewhere toward the higher amount. Since the library apparently was able to function without these two directors, why not leave the positions vacant and continue operating as we have for this past year?
Since the city has stated that our budget is so tight that a 1% sales tax increase was needed to balance the budget, leaving those positions unfilled would save the city quite a bit and go a long way to help with those budget challenges.
Perhaps Noozhawk could do an in-depth review of this situation and report to the community since the city is apparently not going to explain why we had to spend so much of our public funds this way.
Art Thomas
Santa Barbara
• • •
The March 5 article, “Santa Barbara Council, County Supervisors Honor Former Mayor Sheila Lodge,” celebrating former Santa Barbara Mayor Sheila Lodge as a local hero who has helped maintain the small town flavor of Santa Barbara cited only one example: helping stop the big development at the Alice Keck Park Memorial Garden site.
When I look around today and think about Pearl Chase and the Santa Barbara she and others helped create, it seems we have taken a step backward.
Examples of this are the failure of Paseo Nuevo to revitalize downtown, the closure of State Street downtown and the placement of the ugly parklets replacing the cars, and the years of nothing happening to improve De la Guerra Plaza.
If this is preserving the small town atmosphere of Santa Barbara, I think we needed an alternative vision. We need one now.
Sure, outside forces have had an impact on the aforementioned situation, but I haven’t seen any dynamic leadership such as Chase and her generation provided trying to address the future.
The Chase vision centered around rebuilding the Presidio as the quintessential statement of re-creating Santa Barbara after the 1925 earthquake, but the next generation decided that this project was destructive of Santa Barbara’s small town neighborhood setting and cut it down to half its proposed size.
This happened during Lodge’s tenure as mayor. This could be cited as an example of her preserving the city’s small town neighborhood atmosphere, although I question putting an oversized dragon mural next to the city’s oldest building as achieving that goal.
State Street used to be a hub of activity, but today it is unfriendly to seniors because of the difficult access to the area. And the parklets detract from the architectural landscape created during the Chase era.
Parades have gone from being central to the city’s cultural activities to sideshows on side streets, and De la Guerra Plaza remains a homeless hangout. Turning Paseo Nuevo into little residential cubby holes holds little creative promise to my mind.
Like others, I admire Lodge and her lifelong commitment to our city. But I certainly don’t find the current small town atmosphere as particularly appealing.
But you never know: some creative citizens may step forward and come up with some ideas that fulfill and enhance a vision that matches the beautiful natural environment of Santa Barbara.
Jarrell Jackman
Santa Barbara
• • •
The March 4 article, “County Supervisors Vote to Form Task Force to Curb Illegal Street Vendors,” brilliantly highlighted the outlandish thinking of our Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors and local city council members.
The supervisors have decided to “form a task force“ to study for six months how to stop the spread of illegal street side vendors.
Supervisor Laura Capps noted that Ventura‘s equivalent of this task force cost that city $2 million and states that she doesn’t want to see a new bureaucracy develop.
I hope she truly means that, and I have a way to make sure it doesn’t: Have the patrolling police units stop and get out of there cars and ask for a permit.
It’s simple, it’s brilliant! Have the police do their job. What a concept!
Maybe if they find that the business is operating illegally, they could start with giving them a warning, to give them a chance to acquire a legal license. If they are caught a second time, they should be arrested and have their equipment confiscated.
If my calculations are correct, problem solved.
Brian MacIsaac
Santa Barbara
• • •
Regarding the Feb. 23 article, “Proposed New Creeks Ordinance in Santa Barbara is an ‘Extinction-Level Event,’ Homeowners Contend,” I have lived in Santa Barbara by a creek since 1980.
The proposed regulation has several severe problems:
- The substantial redevelopment clause would have caused me to redesign my entire house when, two years ago, I had to replace our 30-year-old roof. This should not require us to redesign our whole house.
- As was diagramed so explicitly and beautifully in the creek proposal itself, creeks like humans are quite varied, so to have a one-size-fits-all standard, 50-foot setback is not good practice and is bound to be unfair and harmful to many people, including myself.
- The reason stated for this proposal in the Feb. 19 memorandum was frustration with dealing with California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requirements and I quote: “This process is a source of frustration to city decision makers, staff, applicants, landowners, consultants and community groups alike as the lack of clear requirements often creates a prolonged period of analysis and inconsistent outcomes over time.” I am sorry that it is frustrating for the city and others to deal with CEQA, but this ordinance will not stop the frustration. Each house and property and creek are still different as the city has shown in the proposed ordinance and will still require multiple attempts to work around CEQA to comply with its regulations.
- The ordinance amounts to a uncompensated taking of private property.
- Finally, this undermines the value of my property by arbitrarily limiting what a future buyer can do to this house and land, and may force the new owner to reorient from an east-west placement, which currently allows sunlight to come into the living room from the south. To keep the same square footage, the new owner would be required to use a north-south orientation with loss of that lighting and the beauty of this house.
P. Joseph Frawley M.D.
Santa Barbara
• • •
Thank you to Mark Patton for his March 2 column, “Home Is Where the Heart Beats for Dons’ Basketball Star Luke Zuffelato,” and his earlier column on the Zuffelato family.
I’ve enjoyed Patton’s sportswriting for decades, but these kinds of features that he writes really capture the essence of our Santa Barbara community, especially with sports.
I love reading Noozhawk’s sports articles. Thank you.
Ren Aguilera
Santa Barbara
• • •
We want to express our deepest gratitude to Noozhawk and South County editor Josh Molina for the thoughtful and consistent coverage of community events, including the March 1 article, “Transgender Unity March Attracts Several Hundred People for Rally in Santa Barbara.”
Your reporting not only informs but also uplifts, giving voice to the many individuals and organizations working tirelessly for justice, democracy and inclusion in Santa Barbara.
A special acknowledgement goes out to the Santa Barbara Transgender Advocacy Network and their collaborators for their courageous and spirited organizing. The power of their leadership was evident in the strength and unity felt throughout the march.
Noozhawk’s coverage helps ensure that these vital movements are seen, heard and remembered.
A thriving democracy depends on a strong public square — whether it’s the historic grounds of De la Guerra Plaza, the pages of a newspaper or the digital platforms that connect us.
Noozhawk’s commitment to responsible journalism fosters that essential civic space, ensuring that all voices — especially those from marginalized or underrepresented communities — are heard.
At a time when facts and truth are more important than ever, we are grateful for Noozhawk’s dedication to keeping Santa Barbara informed and engaged. Thank you for your invaluable service to our community and for holding space for the stories that truly matter.
Philippa Della Vina
Michal Lynch
Women’s March Santa Barbara
• • •
I enjoyed Dan McCaslin’s Feb. 24 column, “On the Snowy Urban Trail in Bend, Oregon,” about his trip to Bend and negotiating the snowy/icy streets.
Today is March 1 and the snow is ALL gone. Thursday and Friday’s high temperatures were 70 degrees. Yes, the frigid zero-degree temperatures are, hopefully, a thing of the past winter and locals are preparing to head into the mountains as the snow melts there, but we still have the opportunity to ski Mount Bachelor for at least another month.
I invite McCaslin to come back to the Bend/Sisters area again, but this time in June or July and enjoy the beauty of the multiseasonal region.
As a youth, I spent numerous spring breaks camping and hiking the Davey Brown, Manzana, Nira and Red Rock regions of Santa Barbara County. I was involved in an experience when unseasonable rains trapped hikers and campers by the flooding Santa Ynez River back in the early 1960s.
Lots of memories from this beautiful region of Santa Barbara County. Keep your stories coming.
Rob Phelps
Sisters, Oregon
• • •
Regarding Justin Ruhge’s Feb. 23 article, “When a Japanese Submarine Brought World War II to Goleta,” a familiar submarine myth surfaced again, as they often do around this time of year.
Maybe it suits our American temperament to like the fun story about the oil tanker captain coming back to the Ellwood oil field to avenge a supposed embarrassment he suffered there, but it isn’t true.
Japan didn’t resort to a scratch team of pickup players to captain one of their frontline ships on a mission the farthest forward, particularly early in World War II.
Submarine crews take a lifetime to learn the intricacies of the most technically complex ship afloat and Capt. Kozo Nishino’s career is no different. He was in Japan’s submarine service continuously for 20 years prior to the shelling.
Tom Modugno’s fact-filled and well documented articles on the Goleta History website set the record straight.
George Lehtinen
Carpinteria
• • •
I always enjoy when Noozhawk posts local history. Unfortunately, Justin Ruhge’s post has some things that are just not correct.
Ruhge mentions how Japanese submarine Capt. Kozo Nishino was formerly a captain of a Japanese oil tanker. This has been proven to be false.
I was pleased that Ruhge did not mention the story about the captain falling into the cactus patch. But he goes further than I’ve ever heard before by saying that he was a regular customer at Wheeler’s Inn.
I have the utmost respect for Ruhge as he has done a lot for Goleta history. But I also feel that Noozhawk probably wants to be accurate.
I posted the facts about Nishino’s past on my Goleta History website several years ago.
Tom Modugno
Goleta
• • •
Federal government employees and, more specifically, their union leaders have their underwear in a bunch because President Donald Trump wants to know what they are doing.
All he wants them to do is provide five “bullet points” concerning the type of service they provided for taxpayers the previous week.
That’s not hard; the entire 30 years I worked for government contractors, we submitted weekly activity reports that only required a few minutes to prepare.
In the City of Lompoc, the city manager provides a weekly activity report to citizens via the city home page. This is a cumulative report from all departments and is very detailed.
This might not be a bad idea for all local government agencies to request from their employees. I think as a taxpayer I have a right to know just how busy you really are.
We might be surprised by their reports.
Ron Fink
Lompoc
• • •
From Santa Barbara County to Washington, D.C., taxpayers are finding that they can no longer afford civil service workers with union benefits.
They are breaking the bank at all levels and have in general exceeded the income and benefits of the private sector that pays for civil service benefits.
Civil service unions are the bane of the taxpayers because, unlike private unions, there is no way to control them. The workers are held slaves to them.
In the private sector, there is a company profit motive and a board of directors that is motivated to control costs and therefore employee’ wages and benefits, while in the civil service there are no such controls.
The elected Democratic politicians, whether local, state or federal are beholden to their union fundraisers and vote getters and are hard put not to do their bidding.
The elected officials do not have the backbone to say NO! after taking union dues to get elected.
We taxpayers elect our representatives to be our watchdogs over the civil service, but our trust is undermined because elected officials become civil servants themselves.
There is therefore a collusion of self-interests in which the taxpayers are locked out of the process. The result is always more benefits followed by more taxes to pay for them.
As long as voters continue to elect Democrats with their news media and union buddies, this budget deficits condition will not be eliminated. Municipal bankruptcies will continue to grow as taxpayers cannot afford to pay for civil service benefits.
The civil service is supposed to be a service to the taxpayers, not to the employees. We taxpayers cannot afford to have it continue. Or, we must cut all present benefits!
Justin Ruhge
Lompoc
• • •
Mail Calls
Noozhawk welcomes and encourages expressions of all views on Santa Barbara County issues. Click here to submit a letter to the editor.
Letters should be BRIEF — as in 200 words-BRIEF — and letters under 150 words are given priority. Each must include a valid mailing address and contact information. Pseudonyms will not be accepted, and repeat letters will be skipped. Letters may be edited for clarity, length and style.
As a hyperlocal news site, we ask that you keep your opinions and information relevant to Santa Barbara County and the Central Coast. Letters about issues beyond our local region have the absolute lowest priority of everything we publish.
With rare exceptions, this feature is published on Saturdays.
By submitting any content to Noozhawk, you warrant that the material is your original expression, free of plagiarism, and does not violate any copyright, proprietary, contract or personal right of anyone else. Noozhawk reserves, at our sole discretion, the right to choose not to publish a submission.
Click here for Noozhawk’s Terms of Use, and click here for more information about how to submit letters to the editor and other announcements, tips and stories.