After several edits, a revised immigration resolution was approved Tuesday by the Santa Barbara City Council. 

The resolution, which went before the council in March, was created to specify how city entities should respond to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations, and to promote public safety, diversity and public trust.

Following a lengthy discussion, the council voted 6-1 to adopt the resolution after removing a section about the Santa Barbara Police Department’s role in immigration enforcement.

Several new sections were added to the resolution since the council saw it last month. 

Among those was the now-removed section stating that the role of the Police Department in response to ICE activity is solely to maintain peace and public safety and not to help agents carry out any operations.

“It is important that we recognize that the resolution is not going to build back the trust that the community already lost,” Councilwoman Wendy Santamaria said.

She was in support of removing the section to further discuss. 

“I do feel torn, because this is something that I want to support us moving forward, but I also don’t want to give a false sense of completion,” she said.

Community members felt the same, calling the section incomplete and in need of more revisions. 

“It fails to provide the mandatory reporter language, many of you ask of (the Police Department), that would require officers to report observed misconduct to appropriate authorities,” said Larry Behrendt with Indivisible Santa Barbara.

Police Chief Kelly Gordon said that adding that specific language is not necessary for the Police Department “to do the right thing.”

Other newly added sections included: training city employees about their rights if a federal agent enters city facilities; making reporting ICE agent misconduct accessible; adding signage to public facilities; periodic reports about police interactions with immigration enforcement authorities; and election safety. 

Some sections, including data privacy, city facility usage and police responsibilities, were further expanded to clarify city employees can’t disclose personal information about a person, and federal agents can’t use city buildings for immigration enforcement.

Mayor Randy Rowse voted against adopting the resolution because he wanted to remove two other sections about adding signage to public facilities and the use of city facilities.

He said the wording in the public signage section was confusing after seeing an example sign from the city of Seattle that says that civil immigration enforcement staging, operations or processing cannot be done in the area where the sign is placed. 

City Administrator Kelly McAdoo clarified that the signs would highlight which areas are private and need a warrant to enter.

While council members were mostly supportive of the resolution’s second version, some felt its contents should not need to be explicitly written out. 

“I am not interested in this resolution, to be frank,” Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon said.  “This should be in our DNA in everything we do and everywhere we go. It isn’t something that needs to be wordsmithed,”

Additionally, like last month, another significant discussion topic was the Flock Safety cameras currently used throughout the city. 

Gordon said the cameras are used to read vehicle license plates and to help solve crimes. 

Community members urged council members to cancel the city’s contract with Flock Safety because of privacy concerns. 

While Tuesday’s discussion was just to approve the revised resolution and give city staff more feedback, council members said it was hard to talk about the resolution and not talk about the privacy concerns. 

“I am very impatiently waiting for the Flock (Safety) cameras item to come back,” Santamaria said. “There is no guarantee that a company itself is not using the hardware that’s out there to implement their own software.

“If it were up to me, I would have cancelled this contract months ago.”

The city council will discuss the cameras specifically in June or August, depending on agenda scheduling, according to McAdoo.