The Goleta City Council voted Tuesday night to disband the Standing Naming Committee, a group that can be thanked for naming Potters Point on Ellwood Mesa.

Beyond that, however, the committee’s naming recommendations have not been historically adopted by the City Council and staff.

The council also voted to change how the city considers requests for memorial benches and other commemorative objects.

That comes after the council previously had directed city staff to re-examine the city’s naming policy in 2021.

However, Councilman Staurt Kasdin acknowledged that there is a benefit in having an independent committee generate naming recommendations.

“With naming sorts of things, when it is council members, it can feel very incestuous where everyone is choosing to name things after their colleagues and friends,” he said. 

Disbanding the committee will move the job of naming parks, open spaces and city buildings to different city entities before reaching the desks of the City Council. It also will save a significant amount of time and effort, according to city staff.

History of the Naming Committee

While the committee was formed in 2010, it wasn’t until 2024 that a naming request actually produced a naming recommendation approved by the council: Potters Point on Ellwood Mesa.

The committee is made up of two city residents and two council members for a one-year term. 

Previous naming requests were in 2018 and 2021.

In 2018, the committee came together to find a name for a park in Old Town Goleta. However, the final name, Jonny D. Wallis Neighborhood Park, did not come out of the committee but rather was a public comment suggestion. 

A couple of years later, in 2021, the committee was tasked with naming recommendations for the monarch butterfly recreation space at Berkeley Park. The City Council chose the name Mariposa, Spanish for butterfly, which was a name the committee had not even recommended.

Commemorating a Loved One in Goleta

Tuesday’s City Council action also included a new policy for memorial benches and other commemorative objects.

Residents hoping to memorialize a loved one with a plaque on a bench in the city and who are willing to pay $1,600 currently aren’t able to because of a lack of space, according to the city. 

City staff plan to bring back an updated bench program to the council in the spring, once staff find other viable location options. 

Staff hopes a set list of locations will be the centerpiece of the program, rather than community members having the choice to request a bench anywhere.

“We want them to be placed somewhere that makes sense,” Assistant City Manager Jaime Valdez said.