Regarding the April 29 article, “Santa Barbara Laying Groundwork for Major Airport Transformation,” my eye caught the sentence, “City officials see the redevelopment of the north side of the airport as a major investment with decades of ramifications.”
What it reflects to me is a lack of proper community focus. We have State Street and De la Guerra Plaza that have languished because of the inability of the City Council to provide leadership.
Money would be better spent focusing on what really matters: Fixing the heart of the city. That would have decades of positive ramifications.
Jarrell Jackman
Santa Barbara
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Regarding the April 25 article, “‘101 Is Almost Done’: Two More Sections of Highway Widening Project Complete,” I am sure we all have been amazed with the engineering expertise that has gone into the Highway 101 expansion and look forward to completion of the final sections in the next few years.
However, I can’t avoid being amused and somewhat annoyed to see the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the new section being attended by several of our “progressive” political leaders who themselves or their like-minded predecessors fought tooth and nail to prevent.
Remember the cry “build it and they will come” asserting that expansion and modernization of our sole route of ingress and egress for Santa Barbara would only serve to attract more traffic, despoil the aesthetics of the area and generally diminish our quality of life?
Well, I guess this was all very predictable.
Glenn Dorfman
Montecito
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Almost complete??? Funding not complete and completion in 2028. What am I missing?
“In June, we’re hoping to get funding in the last portion of the Santa Barbara segment, which is the biggest portion. It goes from Montecito to Sycamore Creek, and that would be under construction from 2026 to 2028,” (project spokeswoman Kirsten) Ayars said.
Gary Gulbransen
Montecito
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Talk about getting a participation trophy. I’m glad our elected officials got their chance to pat themselves on the back, but only in government is this Highway 101 job “almost done.”
Not only does this 20-year project still have at least two more years to go, they don’t even have the money allocated to finish it yet.
J. Cota
Santa Barbara
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At its April 22 meeting, the Santa Barbara Unified School District board extended chief operations officer Steve Venz’s contract, even as 85 teachers hold reduction in force notices and four arts-and-music teachers still face layoffs, erasing their programs.
That vote tells students and teachers one thing: reward administration, destabilize classrooms.
We’re told the district faces acute financial strain. That claim has been used to cut high-school courses and create “dismissal periods” that leave teenagers in idle, off-campus time.
Yet while instruction shrinks, executive contracts balloon.
Since Superintendent Hilda Maldonado arrived, enrollment has fallen 15% while her cabinet has grown nearly 10%.
The COO post — created in 2021 to handle COVID-19 pandemic logistics — now costs about $270,000 a year, up 21% in two years.
If programs are slashed on a three-year reserve forecast, top-level contracts must face the same test. Crisis for classrooms cannot mean business as usual for administrators.
Meanwhile, the annual ritual of mass layoff notices is destabilizing and dehumanizing. Teachers can’t plan mortgages or families, and students lose trusted mentors. That is a board choice, not a budget inevitability.
SBUSD also risks violating the spirit of Proposition 28, which voters passed to expand arts and music. The district’s own report shows zero arts positions funded in Year One despite nearly $2 million in new revenue; only recently were Folklórico groups launched at three schools.
The Los Angeles Unified School District is already being sued for backfilling salaries with Prop. 28 money. If SBUSD isn’t careful, it could face the same legal and community backlash.
The public is watching. On May 6, students and families will rally outside the district office, some calling for recall of trustees who expand administration while cutting face-to-face services.
To regain trust, SBUSD must:
- Stop excessive RIFs
- Right-size administration
- Align Prop. 28 spending with its legal and ethical intent
- Put classroom stability first, not executive convenience
This isn’t bookkeeping; it’s a test of leadership and values. The time to correct course is now.
Michele Voigt
Santa Barbara
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Regarding the April 24 article, “Lower Crime Rates in Lompoc Among Highlights at State of the City Event,” there was a lot to learn.
First were the attendees, representatives from the City of Lompoc, Lompoc Valley Medical Center, the Lompoc Unified School District and commanders from Vandenberg Space Force Base participated.
However, the only elected official who was there was City Councilman Victor Vega. Missing were Mayor Jim Mosby and the other three council members.
For decades the mayor and other council members have attended, but not this year.
By far the best presentation was by city manager Dean Albro. It was well put together and represented the hard work of all city departments.
Of note was his analysis of the next two-year budget. Citizens can’t expect many new projects; this will be a status quo, maintenance-oriented budget.
Another revelation was the addition of about 50 “backward-looking” cameras programmed to track the rear license plates of passing cars.
The purpose is to locate stolen vehicles and/or license plates. When one is spotted, police are sent to recover the vehicle and arrest the driver.
Our city isn’t flush with funds, but it is well managed.
Ron Fink
Lompoc
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If the elected Los Olivos Community Services District board members are successful in convincing residents that they should pay more taxes to pay for a giant sewer pipeline to Solvang, along Alamo Pintado Road; to tear up their driveways and landscaping to connect their homes to the sewer line; and additionally pay more taxes to construct sewage collection systems and pump stations, the growth and sprawl will explode.
On top of that, Los Olivos parcel owners will pay sewer rate fees established by Solvang officials in perpetuity.
It sounds wild that homeowners may have to fund a sewer to accommodate all the sewage generated by the growth of tourism in the Los Olivos downtown core.
Downtown needs a sewer solution. A local downtown solution will ultimately be less expensive, more environmentally friendly, and will slow sprawl.
Homeowners who are not contributing to the nitrate contamination of the groundwater, with a functioning septic or on-site advanced treatment system, who will not benefit from a sewer, should explore an “opt-out” of the district, if they can — ASAP.
In the 1970s, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors declared nearly 400 Los Olivos parcels part of a “special problems area.” That determination was based on guesstimates about the trajectory of nitrate contamination in the groundwater beneath those parcels.
Now 55 years later, more scientific groundwater monitoring data show that the vast majority (more than two-thirds) of “special problems area” parcels are not contributing to elevated nitrate levels after all.
Ensure you are informed before your vote impacts your property and wallet.
Michelle de Werd
Los Olivos
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Regarding Brian Massey’s April 25 letter to the editor about then-President Joe Biden using Social Security funds for illegal immigrants, undocumented immigrants are not eligible to receive Social Security benefits.
In addition, Biden did not administer Social Security funds in any way shape or form.
I have no idea where Massey got his ideas, but it is not a reliable source of information, and he should look elsewhere.
Brian Epstein
Santa Barbara
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