Nick Welsh

Billionaires bow to Trump: How two rich buys undermined the Constitution.

The long-festering dispute between bike-lane advocates and defenders of the iconic Canary palms lining Modoc Road officially ended this week with the County of Santa Barbara agreeing to turn over 35 acres of undeveloped land it owns by More Mesa to the Land Trust of Santa Barbara County, which holds title to the 50-acre land preserve over which a new, multi-modal bike lane will be built. The agreement, signed off on this week by the Board of Supervisors, now unlocks the door to $5.4 million in state construction grants for which the bike lane has already qualified. The proposed 4,000-foot-long Modoc Multi-Use Path — which bike advocates describe as a key missing link in the South Coast's network of bike lanes — encroaches on land that was donated to the Land Trust in perpetuity with the legally enforceable understanding it would never be developed. The bike lane qualifies as development. For the Land Trust to sign off on the deal, it had to reap a net increase in open space. This deal does that and then some; in exchange of permission to build the new bike lane on .38 of the 50 acres of the existing Modoc Road land preserve, the Land Trust will get 35 new acres of undeveloped land abutting More Mesa, by any reckoning a prime location. (No housing has been proposed for this site.) When news of the Modoc Multi-Use Path abruptly surfaced three years ago, neighbors came unglued over the large number of trees — 63 — initially slated for removal . Included in that proposal were 29 Canary palms. Under the final terms hammered out, 35 trees will be removed instead. Of those, three are “junior” Canary palms, eight are eucalyptus, nine are live oaks, and 15 qualify as “other.” The new bike lane will be paved according to standards set by the Americans with Disabilities Act, making the new lane accessible to walkers, runners, strollers, rollers, bicyclists, and e-bikers, according to Supervisor Laura Capps, whose office helped broker a peace deal in what seemed to be an intractable conflict among environmentally minded activists of only slightly different persuasions.

More ballots have been sent to polling places plagued by long lines and bottlenecks on Election Day.

Planning Commission approves transfer of ExxonMobil permits.

When the Music Academy of the West — shown here surrounded by serrated lines — announced it wanted to increase the number of students that could enroll there and hold up to 15 weddings a year, neighbors became unglued. There was already too much traffic, they complained; this would make things worse. The Montecito Planning Commission saw it otherwise and so did the county supervisors this Tuesday. | Credit: Courtesy Residents of Montecito's sylvan woodlands have fallen to feuding over operational changes proposed by the Music Academy of the West to allow the school to bump its enrollments by 25 students per semester and to hold as many as 15 weddings a year on the campus's sprawling grounds. Neighbors complained to the county supervisors this Tuesday — showing up en masse — that the proposed changes would create hazardous traffic conditions on the neighborhood's narrow winding roads, that the noise generated would disrupt the ambient tranquility for which the neighborhood is known, and that the changes would violate the 2004 conditional-use permit that's kept a tight lid on academy events for the past 20 years. The supervisors unanimously rejected the neighbors' appeal, finding that all the changes proposed comply with the operational limits established back in 2004. The changes allow the music school to increase the number of students at any given time from 150 to 175, to allow up to 15 weddings to count among the 41 “significant life events” — non-music events — that the school is allowed to hold, and to allow greater-use amplified spoken-word and non-amplified music outdoors. Initially the school sought to increase its enrollments by 60 students at any given time, increase the number of participants of seminars from 175 to 350 and to eliminate the total summer attendance cap of 22,000 and, for other times, 25,000. These proposals were withdrawn in the face of stiff neighborhood opposition. All the many attendance caps established in 2004, county planners insisted, will remain firmly in place. If anything, they argued, traffic impacts might be reduced because of the school has vowed to increase shuttle transport and to encourage ride sharing and bike commuting by staff. These changes were approved by the Montecito Planning Commission earlier in the year and the neighbors hoped to get a more sympathetic response from the supervisors. They got sympathy, but they did not get the votes.

From left: Michael Jordan, Wendy Santamaria, and Oscar Gutierrez | Credit: Ingrid Bostrom There was little joy in Mudville this Tuesday night, not even among the victorious candidates here in Santa Barbara. As the victors — all Democrats — and their supporters assembled at downtown bars and nightclubs, there was the obligatory happy talk about gratitude, humility, service, and the opportunities that lay ahead. But even the most upbeat kept an apprehensive eye on the big screens behind the bar. Was there any reason to hold out hope or joy for Kamala Harris, their party's presidential standard bearer who sought to make “hope” and “joy” campaign buzzwords? In a word, the answer was no. In the battle of vibes, Harris fell decisively short against the most grimly dystopian and openly racist candidate ever to represent the Republican Party — the golem of American politics — Donald J. Trump. Beyond the White House, the Senate flipped decisively in favor of the Republicans, 52-42. By night's end, the fate of the House was at best uncertain. The final results, the party faithful were told, would not be known for days. The sky had fallen. As the revelers traipsed from their “celebration” at S.B. Biergarten in the Funk Zone 18 blocks up State Street to SOhO, the Biergarten waitstaff tidied up. Waitresses were on their phones in tears, crying over the night's results. They called their families. They called loved ones. Could this really be true? There were no stiff upper lips. The sky had fallen. And hard, too. On the TV, pundits were discussing the contours of the Diploma Divide and how Trump won thanks to economically alienated white voters, blue-collar workers without college degrees, who live in what's called “flyover country” — America's rust belt, h0llowed out by the benign neglect of globalist trade policies and the ascendancy of the new tech-bro economy. It was the clash of political civilizations, one talking head said. The chasm of two Americas, said another. But politics being politics, the show must go on. And to a large extent, Santa Barbara is inoculated from the gathering storm of encroaching inevitability. In an election marked by a less-than-expected turnout, Santa Barbara city voters elected two City Council candidates who strongly support rent control: incumbent Oscar Gutierrez in District 3 and a newcomer to the city council, Wendy Santamaria in District 1. Depending on the reliability of the math, that means there will now be four councilmembers — a voting majority — who support rent control. To the extent Santa Barbara's council races carried any drama, it was in District 1; Wendy Santamaria, a labor union organizer by trade and a progressive activist by avocation, was all smiles Tuesday night. And Santamaria, who made rent control her number-one talking point, happens to be graced with a 150-watt smile. That's a useful attribute for a candidate better-known as a firebrand. “We are looking at a new era of housing, reform, and justice for working families of this city,” Santamaria said on election night. “And I'm not exaggerating. I literally mean finally having enough votes on the City Council to really make some reform and really create policy based on lived experience and not on special interests.” Little surprise, then, that Santa Barbara landlords, rental property associations, and property managers had pooled their resources heavily behind District 1 incumbent councilmember Alejandra Gutierrez, an avowed foe of rent control. Her own parents were mom-and-pop landlords. Gutierrez, who initially won a seat on the council by a margin of only eight votes, lost — at last count — by 138 votes to a candidate she castigated as a carpetbagger. Beset during her term by pressing health problems she did not publicly disclose, she missed 61 council business meetings. Imbued with the fierce and prickly independence of someone born and raised on the city's much-neglected Eastside, Gutierrez made it clear she would march to her own drum. All politics is personal. But in District 1, it got personal, and silly too, as the campaign descended into a comic last-minute micro-drama featuring competing sign-stealing conspiracy theories. On election night, Gutierrez did not concede defeat but instead said, “I was born and raised in Santa Barbara and am rooted in that community…. I understand the needs of my district, the needs of the entire district. And I know how to make that connection.” By contrast, District 3 — the city's Westside — was always incumbent Oscar Gutierrez's to cakewalk his way through. On election night, he did just that. Gutierrez beat out his challenger and his former martial arts sensei, Tony Becerra, by a decisive 500-vote margin: 59 percent to 40.6 percent. Although Becerra is also blessed with a brilliant smile and generous donations from local landlords, he was too nice to really go on the attack against Gutierrez. Both candidates are children of Mexican immigrants who grew up in households where Spanish was the first language. Gutierrez takes pride in claiming he's the most responsive city councilmember in the City of Santa Barbara, estimating he responded to 27,000 constituent calls, texts, or emails. Gutierrez supports rent control and shrugs off arguments about rent control's unintended consequences. Renters need protection, he says. And they've told him so. Like Alejandra Gutierrez, Oscar Gutierrez lives at home with his mother, who also happens to be a small landlord. She opposes rent control and many of the protections her son champions. It's one of those issues, he says, where he and his mother agree to disagree. It's worth noting that countywide, voters overwhelmingly opposed Prop. 33, a statewide ballot initiative that would have extended the grasp of state rent control laws at the local level. Landlords, admittedly, spent lavishly — and effectively — to defeat it. In addition, county voters narrowly endorsed a measure hatched by the statewide landlord association designed to financially punish the tenants' rights organization that put Prop. 33, or a variant thereof, on the ballot for the third time. In the city's District 2, Michael Jordan, who represents the Mesa, holds a bulletproof lead of 80 percent over a candidate named Terra Taylor who spent less than $100 in a come-out-of-nowhere campaign. Jordan first emerged as a business-minded candidate who, over the years, has gradually shifted in a quasi-liberal/progressive direction. To the extent there are swing votes on the council, Jordan is one of them. He does not, however, support rent control — for him, it's a bridge too far — and is willing to explain why. But he'd much rather explain how downtown Santa Barbara is poised to be reborn, and spectacularly so. “Not since the earthquake [of 1925] have we had this many things lined up, from the underpass to State Street to De la Guerra Plaza and the just-opened library plaza last weekend,” he gushed. “I personally think we're on one of the precipices of some of the greatest good things, particularly in downtown.” Perhaps the biggest sleeper among Santa Barbara city races is Measure I, the half-cent sales tax increase, gently reviled by some councilmembers who point out it's regressive. Measure I was ahead by 62.55 percent. It needs 55 percent to win. Its backers — principally City Hall's newest City Administrator Kelly McAdoo — spent nothing. They waged an almost nonexistent campaign. In exchange, Measure I promises to generate $17 million a year. By contrast, backers of Measure P — the $198 million building repair and rebuild bond package — spent nearly $350,000. No social media platform was safe, no mailbox un-intruded upon. The money — a lot, by local standards — came from the Santa Barbara Community College Foundation but achieved its desired results. Even the Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association, normally just-say-no when it comes to such measures, endorsed it, thus generating an interparty rift among Santa Barbara's community conservatives and fiscal hawks. That's all for now. Fri, Nov 08 5:00 PM Santa Barbara Sun, Nov 10 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Sun, Nov 17 11:00 AM Solvang Wed, Nov 06 All day Santa Barbara Wed, Nov 06 10:30 AM Santa Barbara Wed, Nov 06 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Thu, Nov 07 5:00 AM Santa Barbara Thu, Nov 07 4:00 PM Santa Barbara Thu, Nov 07 5:00 PM Goleta Fri, Nov 08 5:00 PM Santa Barbara Sun, Nov 10 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Sun, Nov 17 11:00 AM Solvang Wed, Nov 06 All day Santa Barbara Wed, Nov 06 10:30 AM Santa Barbara Wed, Nov 06 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Thu, Nov 07 5:00 AM Santa Barbara Thu, Nov 07 4:00 PM Santa Barbara Thu, Nov 07 5:00 PM Goleta

Santa Barbara County Jail Health Care Provider Declares Bankruptcy Wellpath Says It's Looking to Reorganize Not Go Out of Business; County Public Health Director Says, ‘If We Need to Step in, We Know What to Do' Santa Barbara County Public Health Director Dr. Mouhanad Hammami said he doesn't want to take over health care at the county jail but can if needed. | Credit: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Executive Office Maybe the toughest gig in Santa Barbara County is health care in the county jail. Every few months or so, the county supervisors square off with Sheriff Bill Brown over just this — jail deaths, medical quality control issues, and whether the county's getting its money's worth from Wellpath, the private company that's paid $17 million a year to take care of inmates in the county's two jails and juvenile detention facility. The county supervisors, increasingly frustrated, recently put the jail contract — which expires at the end of next March — out to bid. And just this week, the parent company of Wellpath — which provides health care services for county jails in 34 of the state's 58 counties — filed for bankruptcy in a Texas court. According to company press releases, Wellpath — the biggest private correctional health care provider in the nation — is looking to re-organize more efficiently, not go out of business. The company promises a seamless transition for however long it takes for its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case to wend its way through the legal system. But in county government circles — where the politics and economics of crime and punishment command a vast portion of the supervisors' collective cranial capacity — the news qualified as a great, big wait-and-see WTF. “We're all on the edge of our seats waiting to see how this plays out,” stated Tanja Heitman, the county's onetime and longtime probation chief recently hired to bird-dog criminal justice reform for the county administrator's office. Everywhere one looks, Heitman noted, Wellpath is getting sued for medical malpractice by inmates and their families. It's not the only provider getting sued, but as the biggest, the company generates the lion's share of litigation and media notice. As what goes on behind bars has come under greater scrutiny by civil rights activists and mental-health advocates, such lawsuits — and likewise the awards imposed by juries — have been piling up. The most recent skirmish over the jail involved what the supervisors contended was lax contract management and oversight by Sheriff Brown and his commanders over Wellpath's contract. The company failed to meet the medical staffing levels required by the contract but got paid in full. By how much exactly, the numbers vary . But most estimates hover around $500,000. At supervisors meetings, Brown has stood up for Wellpath with the ardent loyalty of a foxhole buddy. It's easy to see why. Together, Brown and Wellpath have weathered the nightmare of COVID and the inevitable logistical challenges involved in opening up the new Northern Branch Jail. And even under the best of circumstances, running a medical and psychiatric ER in a county jail setting 24/7 is flat-out hard. The supervisors want Brown to make sure they get their money's worth and that inmates get the care they need. But as sheriff, it's Brown's jail to run as he sees fit under state law. And he's made it clear he won't tolerate any encroachment on his jurisdictional domain. The two sides, however, hammered out a deal a few months back. The County Public Health Department would hire a full-time nurse and part-time doctor — newly created positions — who would be assigned to monitor the medical charts of county jail inmates to make sure they're getting the care they need. In addition, they would suggest ways to improve treatment under admittedly challenging conditions. To date, the new registered nurse has been hired and has been working in the county jail for six-to-eight weeks. It's his job to chair the jail's medical advisory committee and its quality improvement committee. Before that, a Wellpath employee chaired these committees. The part-time doctor has just been hired — she has 20 years' experience in correctional medicine — but has yet to start. Public Health Director Dr. Mouhanad Hammami said the initial experiences have been positive. He described relations between Wellpath, the correctional staff, and his nurse as “collaborative, constructive, and congenial.” The county's bidding process for new medical providers just recently came to a close. It's not clear how many applicants applied. Anecdotally, it's said to be a small number. They have yet to be screened by the scoring committee. When that's done, the ball will once again be in the supervisors' court. To the extent the county might have an ace up its sleeve, it's Hammami himself. Before assuming his Santa Barbara post nearly two years ago, Hammami worked as Public Health Director for Wayne County, Michigan, where he had direct hands-on oversight over three county jails — think the City of Detroit — and a juvenile facility from 2009 to 2015. He knows first-hand how hard it can be. “It took me three years to hire a psychiatrist, and we were offering three times the going rate,” he exclaimed. When the supervisors authorized hiring the two new positions, they also instructed Hammami to run the numbers to run the jail himself — how many staff would need to be hired, how much would it cost. He knows how that's done because he's done it. But he's not itching to do it. There are other major initiatives — one a massive collaboration with the Department of Behavioral Wellness over the mentally ill on the streets — demanding his attention. “I don't want to,” he stated flatly. “There will be a lot of challenges. It will be hard. But can we do it? In a word, ‘Yes,'” he said. “If we need to step in, we know what to do.” His department currently runs five health centers, he noted, three clinics, and a raft of services for homeless people. Three more would not be the end of the world. “It's not impossible.” Hammami praised Brown, calling him both a good friend and partner. “I don't want to step on anyone's toes here,” he said. When Hammami started out his medical career, he spent 12 years doing pediatric research. Running a jail health program was the furthest thing from his mind. When he heard Wellpath declared bankruptcy, his first reaction was “I don't know. It's too early to say.” His next reaction was different. “If something no longer works, there has to be a better way,” he added. “Maybe this is the time.” Thu, Nov 14 4:00 PM Lompoc Thu, Nov 14 5:00 PM Carpinteria Sat, Nov 23 2:00 PM Santa Barbara Thu, Nov 28 12:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 14 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Wed, Nov 13 4:30 PM Santa Barbara Wed, Nov 13 6:00 PM Virtual Wed, Nov 13 7:30 PM Santa Barbara Wed, Nov 13 9:00 PM Santa Barbara Thu, Nov 14 4:00 PM Lompoc Thu, Nov 14 5:00 PM Carpinteria Sat, Nov 23 2:00 PM Santa Barbara Thu, Nov 28 12:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 14 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Wed, Nov 13 4:30 PM Santa Barbara Wed, Nov 13 6:00 PM Virtual Wed, Nov 13 7:30 PM Santa Barbara Wed, Nov 13 9:00 PM Santa Barbara Thu, Nov 14 4:00 PM Lompoc Thu, Nov 14 5:00 PM Carpinteria

It wasn't the Prize Patrol, but for Santa Barbara County homeless housing providers, it may have been the next best thing. Santa Barbara County just got awarded $5.3 million in state homeless funds, courtesy of Governor Gavin Newsom's fifth and latest installment of HHAP (Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention) grants, in which Newsom disbursed $827 million to 37 regional areas statewide to get people off the streets and into transitional or full-time housing. This announcement comes at a time when state and federal funds for such purposes is drying up, but Newsom's sense of urgency to get people off the streets is ramping up. The money will be used to create incentives for landlords to take in tenants who would otherwise be homeless and to underwrite the cost of “wrap-around” services designed to make the transition from outdoors to indoors more successful. Ten percent of the money is to go to youth experiencing homelessness. Such funds have reportedly served 1,681 individuals — unduplicated — countywide since 2020. Of those, 800 have reportedly transitioned into permanent housing. Most of the new funds will be used to get people into short-term transitional housing.

The Democratic Party campaign tactician, 48, died late last month in San Luis Obispo.

Marilyn Kirby Welsh shown with Josh, the last of nine. | Credit: Courtesy CURB YOUR HUMAN: When I was a kid, my mother had a “Shirley Chisholm for President” bumper sticker plastered to her car. That was 1972. Chisholm, then a congressmember from New York, was the first Black woman to run for president . She was a genuine badass. My mother was a genuine badass. All the way around, it was a good fit. Chisholm wound up with 300,000 votes in the primary. I think she got on the ballot in maybe 14 states. Back then, my mother posted signs reading, “I support the right to arm bears” over our kitchen sink. She was also a big believer in “ZPG,” shorthand back then for Zero Population Growth . By then, my mother had given birth to nine children It was that kind of house. Fifty-two years later, and another Black woman just ran for the White House. Different circumstances, I admit, but despite my foolhardy, optimistic predictions a few weeks ago, Kamala Harris didn't make it either I guess I owe you an apology. Right now, I'm focused on keeping my own house from burning down . Especially with me in it. Especially with me as the match. For all of you facing a similar challenge, self-immolation is never a sexy look . If nothing else, it makes your carbon footprint look fat. Right now, I find reading the news impossible . My eyes bounce off. I have to read the same paragraph three times. Then I give up. It's a common symptom for people bludgeoned with an ax handle I have taken to wearing a T-shirt I had made a few months ago that reads, “Fuck that noise.” It was part of a self-help regime I was then pioneering. I sent one of my shirts off to Anne Lamott , the great evangelist of radical self-care, self-love, and all that other Christ-infused radical self-stuff. I sent along a note explaining I was not a nut Strangely, Lamott — who spoke in town this week — never wrote back. In that same vein, I also made a T-shirt reading, “Love is the last light spoken,” a line I stole from the famous Welsh drunk — and poet — Dylan Thomas . I don't quite know what it means yet, but that's poetry. Back before he drank himself to death, Thomas spent some time at UCSB, where he famously ran off with the wife of a high-ranking English professor , inspiring yet another English professor to write a short story about it. Out of that drama, the College of Creative Studies was born. Or so I was told by my baby sister who went there. The moral of the story? Drunks and poets make history So do we all. But maybe right now, we need to exhale and inhale a few times . Gather our thoughts. Stop sputtering so much about him. And them. Maybe it's best to focus a little more on us and what we could do better. Last I checked, apoplexy was classified as a terminal disease that slowly renders its victims so boring that anyone within earshot flees Yes, we need to examine why nine million fewer of us voted for Harris than Joe Biden four years ago. How many times were we told that this was an Existential Crisis , the Death of Democracy ? Why weren't we alarmed when the Democratic Party opted not to hold a primary? Kind of a big deal when you consider it. There's a lot of necessary self-flagellation now taking place: How did the Democrats become the party of the educated, Tesla-driving elites and the Republicans the party of blue-collar workers and Latino men ? How is it Democrats could not feel — or even acknowledge — the economic pain so many are experiencing? This ground is currently being strip-mined by accomplished analysts. We will inevitably discover it's all Bill Clinton's fault — what isn't? — even though, ironically, Clinton was an absolute genius when it came to feeling other people's pain. Right now, the voice that haunts me most is that of Babatunde Folayemi , a longtime social justice advocate and Santa Barbara's first and only Black city councilmember . He died in 2012 — ancient history by Santa Barbara standards — so his name is not well-known. Folayemi was not a great councilmember, but his real genius was being a great human being . When the powers-that-be wanted to pass a gang injunction to stop youth violence then percolating in some parts of town, he suggested that we treated the kids causing the grief as if they were human beings . Maybe then they might respond in kind. Radical stuff, right? But when he said it, you felt it. It had the impact of revelation . One day, Babatunde and I were talking about another activist in town who was busy calling out all the other activists in town for not being radical enough, Black enough, or Latino enough. “I know what makes him mad,” Babatunde said, shaking his head. “But I still don't know what he loves .” At the risk of impersonating Anne Lamott: That is the question We've got four long years ahead of us. And they will be dark. And yes — to steal a line from a movie — they will drink our milkshake. To get through it, we need to focus on what we love It's not a matter of high-minded, preachy moral grandiosity. It's not about love-your-enemy. It's about survival We got four years. Hate's a luxury we can't afford Mostly, I don't want to burn myself up. I'd like to be able to read newspapers again. It's necessary for my job. Besides, I'm addicted to the funny pages. What do you love? It's the badass question. Thu, Nov 14 7:30 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Nov 23 2:00 PM Santa Barbara Thu, Nov 28 12:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 14 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Wed, Nov 13 4:30 PM Santa Barbara Wed, Nov 13 6:00 PM Virtual Wed, Nov 13 7:30 PM Santa Barbara Wed, Nov 13 9:00 PM Santa Barbara Thu, Nov 14 4:00 PM Lompoc Thu, Nov 14 5:00 PM Carpinteria Thu, Nov 14 7:30 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Nov 23 2:00 PM Santa Barbara Thu, Nov 28 12:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 14 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Wed, Nov 13 4:30 PM Santa Barbara Wed, Nov 13 6:00 PM Virtual Wed, Nov 13 7:30 PM Santa Barbara Wed, Nov 13 9:00 PM Santa Barbara Thu, Nov 14 4:00 PM Lompoc Thu, Nov 14 5:00 PM Carpinteria Thu, Nov 14 7:30 PM Santa Barbara