[ "Schneider on Hot Seat - Height Initiative Wins Tactical Victory," by Nick Welsh, SB INDEPENDENT, March 26, 2009 ]


An obviously agonized Helene Schneider  —  Santa Barbara City councilmember and mayoral candidate  —  cast the key vote giving traditional slow-growthers active with Save El Pueblo Viejo a significant tactical victory in their battle to put an initiative limiting the maximum size of new buildings on the November election ballot...

... Save El Pueblo supporters denounced the alternative  —  drafted by councilmembers Das Williams and Grant House — as an effort to leave voters, in the words of signature gatherer Bill Marks, “hornswoggled, boondoggled, or conned.”

... Schneider cast the tie-breaking vote to keep the alternative off the ballot, despite having initially criticized the initiative as “too simplistic” and having voted twice to authorize City Hall to pursue alternative language. After listening to the community and members of the city’s many boards and commissions, Schneider said she concluded that the alternative language was just not right. By voting against the alternative, however, Schneider found herself breaking with many close political friends and allies in the affordable housing and sustainability camp. Privately, she said the alternative process was fatally uncertain; the public would not vote on the precise enabling ordinance language until some indeterminate time after having voted in favor of the alternative itself. And that’s assuming that there would be five city councilmembers — the minimum legally required — willing to place it on the ballot.

None of this washed, however, with Mickey Flacks, an iconic affordable housing activist who until Tuesday was also a Schneider supporter. Flacks dismissed the vote as “politically calculated” and said she would no longer support Schneider in her mayoral run. (Flacks also said she would not support Councilmember Iya Falcone, whom Schnieder is now running against.) Despite past criticisms of the initiative, Schneider declined for the time being to state whether she would support it or oppose it come November...

Joining Falcone and Schneider to exclude the alternative was Mayor Marty Blum and Councilmember Dale Francisco. Joining Williams and House in supporting the alternative was Councilmember Roger Horton. Horton pointed out that the City Council never approved any of the projects on Chapala Street and that no civic groups now supporting the initiative appealed those projects to the council. He took offense that these developments had been approved by the city’s Planning Commission, and some of the most ardent supporters of the initiative were the very planning commissioners who approved them.

--------------------------------

For full text and lotsa comments, please go to:

SBI: Hotseat

Labels: building heights

[ From "When the Political Gets Personal," By Nick Welsh, SB INDEPENDENT, March 26, 2009 ]


... elected officials tussled over a proposal to delay for two weeks the ratification of a relatively small union contract in deference to City Hall’s mounting fiscal woes.

Councilmembers Dale Francisco and Iya Falcone argued that the 4-percent-over-two-years wage hike negotiated by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) on behalf of waterfront security workers, water plant employees, and water treatment plant employees and their supervisors had touched off a firestorm of community discontent. Francisco and Falcone requested a two-week “breathing spell” to give the council an opportunity to discuss how its labor agreements fit into the city’s broader budgetary future.

Francisco lamented the 11-percent plunge in city sales taxes from December 2008 over the previous year’s — a 3-percent drop had been anticipated — as well as a 20-percent drop in bed taxes. “We have not seen these types of declines in decades,” he said. Francisco worried that by issuing pay raises now, City Hall might find itself forced to lay off employees in the near future.

“Do we take a breath, a quick breath of a couple of weeks, to reevaluate where are we?” asked Falcone. Last week, Falcone not only voted in favor of the contract in question but also spoke in favor of it...

Mayor Marty Blum, now at the end of her eight-year term, dismissed the Falcone-Francisco proposal as election-year grandstanding. “We’re looking at a very political item,” she said. “People are looking at this because they’re running for something, because there’s an election going on. I think that’s a shame.” Francisco denied he was running for office, and Falcone, her face reddened, replied, “I’m not going to dignify the petty remarks I heard a little while ago.”

... Councilmember Das Williams blistered [at] the news coverage of the contract, saying it failed to mention the $600,000 in concessions that SEIU negotiators had agreed to in the form of work furloughs — mandatory unpaid vacations — and by agreeing not to cash out accrued vacation time. He argued that the city’s ailing general fund will realize a net benefit as a result of the contract, while the city’s Waterfront Department — financially self-sustaining and relatively better off — will cover the bulk of the pay increases. Williams was decidedly not moved by Falcone’s plea for more time. “I think we talk too much,” he said. “I think we need to take action.”

Talk of union contracts, union campaign contributions, and budget negotiations is always a politically volatile subject, but rarely so much as it is now. The two leading mayoral candidates — Iya Falcone and fellow councilmember Helene Schneider — have drawn strong financial support from different unions throughout their career. Whereas Falcone has been endorsed strongly by the Police Officers Association and Firefighters for Better Government, Schneider can bank on support from SEIU. Recently, SEIU has become the focus of much criticism from the Taxpayers Association and the Santa Barbara News-Press, which editorialized that Schneider had almost single-handedly bankrupted City Hall with her support of the SEIU contract. Also, at least one former city council candidate, Terry Tyler, argued that no one taking money from SEIU should have voted on the waterfront contract.

But for all SEIU’s largesse — it has donated $31,000 to various council and mayoral candidates since 2005 — its donations pale when compared to the police and firefighters organizations. Likewise, the pay raises negotiated by the two public safety unions dwarf those secured by SEIU. (Police officers secured a 26.5-percent increase in pay and benefits over 3.5 years during its last negotiation. Firefighters got 24.8 percent over the same period. General employees — represented by SEIU — received closer to 5.1 percent over two years.)

Of the three major unions, SEIU has been more responsive to City Hall’s fiscal crisis. It remains the only bargaining unit to formally agree to “meet and confer” with City Hall negotiators about such painful issues as furloughs, deferred pay raises, and vacation pay freezes. Anxious to secure a no-layoff commitment from City Hall, SEIU has been willing to negotiate contract give-backs and has been doing so on a weekly basis since February. No deal, however, has been reached. The two public safety unions, by contrast, have been willing to meet with city negotiators on an informal basis to determine what, if anything, there is to discuss.

Given the political showdown now unfolding between Schneider and Falcone for the mayoral seat, it was inevitable that their respective union backers would get dragged into the fray. The police union is so supportive of Falcone that it denied Schneider the customary courtesy of an endorsement interview with the union’s political committee earlier this year. Little wonder that Schneider was quick to challenge what many consider the most politically influential union on the South Coast.

Schneider has noted how police unions in Sacramento and Redlands voluntarily accepted mandatory unpaid vacations, with no loss of public safety coverage. On Tuesday, she predicted the union could save City Hall $250,000 if it agreed its members could not cash out their unpaid vacation time. And, she said, the Police Officers Association could save another $333,000 by deferring the pay increase that’s scheduled to take effect this April. That’s more than $500,000, she said, it could save the city “with no changes whatsoever in staffing.”

------------------------------

For full text, plus a good number of comments, please go to:

The Santa Barbara Independent When the Political Gets Personal

[ From "City defends labor agreements," By Eric Lindberg, DAILY SOUND, March 25, 2009 ]


... Citing a continuing economic crisis and a projected $9.5 million budget shortfall for the city next year, a string of public speakers criticized officials for approving any salary and benefits increases.

Councilmember Das Williams countered by pointing out that the agreements also include concessions that will save the city money in the next fiscal year compared to budgeted figures.

“At this point, the rhetoric of this has gotten so out of control that nobody is reading the fine print of this agreement,” he said. “…There are massive concessions in this agreement that save the city money.”

For example, he said, city supervisors and managers will be subjected to a mandatory 5 percent furlough and won’t be able to cash out vacation time. That outweighs their 2.5 percent salary increases next year, which are also being delayed to lessen the impact on the city’s cash-strapped general fund.

The plan will put the general fund $288,814 below current labor costs next year, said Kristine Schmidt, the city’s employee relations manager.

“It is true that, in the long term, these labor agreements are going to increase the city’s ongoing budget costs,” she acknowledged.

But those impacts — $1.8 million across the city’s ledger and $690,000 in the general fund specifically — won’t be felt until 2011 and 2012, she said, adding that the city could continue furloughs and other cost-cutting measures in the future.

Williams also pointed out that some of the contracts up for approval deal with employees who are paid through enterprise funds, which are separate from the general fund and are weathering the economic downturn better.

“We need to do this agreement to save money for next year,” he said. “…I think we talk too much and we need to take action.”

Councilmembers Dale Francisco and Iya Falcone had the opposite approach in mind. They asked for a few weeks to take another look at the agreements in closed session.

Citing the latest tax revenue figures for the city — which show a 11.7 percent drop in sales taxes in the fourth quarter of 2008 as well as a 20.8 percent drop in transient occupancy taxes last month over the same periods last year — Francisco said city leaders have a responsibility to deal with economic realities.

“The situation has grown dramatically worse for the city’s revenue picture just in the last week,” he said. “…What I don’t want to see happen is large-scale layoffs of city workers.”

Several public speakers argued that point as well, saying that any wage and benefits increases now will result in more layoffs down the line.

Falcone said she still isn’t sure how city employees fall on the issue — whether they would prefer a salary increase and possibly more layoffs, the status quo, or even wage cuts.

“We don’t know where the true sentiment lies, particularly with the folks that are in the various bargaining units,” she said.

But she said one thing has been made clear in recent weeks: the public is not happy with salary and benefits increases, particularly given the economic crisis.

“The community is speaking out in very, very loud and large numbers with their apparent discomfort with how things have been handled not just now, but previously,” she said.

Community angst has been growing since early February, when the city finalized a deal with its largest group of union workers; an agreement that provided salary and benefits increases between 5 and 8 percent during the next two years.

The downward economic spiral has since prompted city negotiators to return to the table with that bargaining unit, Schmidt said, and they are currently in the process of discussing possible amendments to the deal.

“We have a joint interest in preventing the loss of jobs and in preventing the loss of services to the community,” she said. “I think they’ve been a very active partner in discussing ways in which we can do that.”

Schmidt said options include unpaid furloughs, suspension of vacation payouts and other concessions to address the impending budget crisis.

Some city leaders used those discussions to counter the proposal put forth by Francisco and Falcone to wait a few weeks and examine the latest round of union contracts...

Ultimately, the council voted 5-2 to approve the contracts, with Falcone and Francisco in opposition. The agreements involve nearly 575 employees, including water and wastewater workers, harbor and airport patrols, hourly workers, supervisors and managers.

------------------------------

For full text, please go to:

Daily Sound — City defends labor agreements

[ From: "Assembly race already heating up," By Eric Lindberg, DAILY SOUND, March 12, 2009 ]


It’s still 20 months away, but the race for the State Assembly’s 35th District seat is already stirring up interest in the political community, particularly on the Democratic side of the ticket...

In recent days, Santa Barbara Councilmember Das Williams has started testing the waters with an exploratory committee and statement of intent to enter the race, allowing him to start raising funds to bankroll a possible campaign...

Williams preferred not to discuss the potential primary showdown with [Susan Jordan], adding that he doesn’t even want to set a date certain for when he’ll officially enter the race or back down.

“I think it’s just really important right now to concentrate on some of the problems in the city itself and I don’t want to be distracted by the assembly race when we’re dealing with things like the budget and gang violence,” he said.

Nonetheless, Williams said the pinch of the state’s budget nightmare is starting to be felt locally, describing how he visited a school yesterday where a large percentage of teachers had received pink slips.

“I’m pretty passionate about what’s happening — the destruction of our public education system,” he said. “It’s definitely made me even more serious about running.”

The councilman is also feeling out how his potential bid sits with a handful of voters in the district, which sprawls across a huge chunk of the Santa Ynez Valley and South Coast, as well as a portion of Ventura County.

Williams said he is speaking with 100 people from “all walks of life” throughout the district to get feedback...

----------------------------

For full text, please go to: DAILY SOUND: Assembly Race Heats Up

Labels: 2010, 35th Assembly District, education, oil

[ From: "Oil-drilling deal splits Democrats - Fracture opens the way for contested Assembly primary," By Timm Herdt, VENTURA COUNTY STAR, March 11, 2009 ]


The fallout from a state agency’s controversial rejection of an offshore oil deal brokered by Santa Barbara environmentalists has created a potentially bitter fracture among area Democrats that could spill over into Ventura County.

An immediate effect of the split is the decision by Santa Barbara City Councilman Das Williams to open an exploratory committee to run for the 35th Assembly District. Williams had previously pledged to endorse Susan Jordan, the wife of termed-out incumbent Pedro Nava.

Nava and Jordan opposed the deal, which would have allowed the first new drilling in the Santa Barbara Channel in 40 years in exchange for the oil company’s agreement to virtually shut down all oil production off the Santa Barbara coast by 2022 and close the oil processing facility in Gaviota.

The agreement was enthusiastically supported by such longtime anti-oil crusaders as the Environmental Defense Center and Get Oil Out, which saw it as the realization of their decades-long dream of ridding Santa Barbara of offshore oil rigs once and for all.

“It would have gotten rid of all the infrastructure,” said Linda Krop, chief counsel for the Environmental Defense Center. “For the first time in the nation’s history, you had members of a local community shutting down offshore oil.”

The deal was approved by Santa Barbara County and was backed by Rep. Lois Capps. But the State Lands Commission shot it down on a 2-1 vote in late January thanks at least in some measure to Nava’s leadership in organizing opposition among Democratic legislators.

Some Santa Barbara environmentalists are still stinging over the defeat and are focusing their anger on Nava and Jordan.

The situation played a major role in convincing Williams to abandon his support for Jordan and move toward entering the race himself.

“People who I thought would be part of her base are not supporting her,” Williams told me this week. “It’s definitely something that caused a lot of environmentalists in Santa Barbara to approach me about running.”

Williams was an aide to former Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson and is now an organizer for Central Coast Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE), a community-based advocacy group in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

At 34, Williams will be termed out of the Santa Barbara City Council in 2011 an age, he figures, “a little too young to retire from politics. I have to at least explore the idea of running.”

The 35th Assembly District strides the two coastal counties, with 56 percent of voters in Santa Barbara County and 44 percent in the cities of Ventura and Oxnard.

Because he works for a Ventura County-based organization, has longtime family roots in the county and was reared in Ojai, Williams says he has strong ties to both counties.

An avid surfer, Williams says his psychic home remains in Ventura. “I feel most at home right there at Surfer’s Point.”

Still, Williams is an elected official in Santa Barbara. And if he and Jordan, another Santa Barbaran, are in the race, that could create an opening for a candidate from Ventura County.

Ventura City Councilman Bill Fulton has told associates not to rule him out as a potential candidate, and Ventura insurance agent Irene Henry, a one-time City Council candidate, told me Tuesday she is researching the idea of running.

The staying power of the fracture in Santa Barbara remains to be seen.

Jordan, director of the California Coastal Protection Network, is a longtime environmental activist who has built trust and allies in the environmental community — notably for her leadership in stopping a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal off the Oxnard coast.

Jordan notes that her objections about the offshore oil deal were substantive, based principally on concerns that the terms of the agreement that called for dismantling of platforms, pipelines and the processing facility may not have been enforceable.

She cites a State Lands Commission analysis that reports the conclusion of the Attorney General’s Office that “the goals of the agreement could not be reliably enforced.”

Jordan is a long-standing friend and ally of Krop at the Environmental Defense Center. And while some have split with Jordan over the issue, Krop is withholding judgment.

Asked if there will be political repercussions from Jordan’s opposition, Kropp told me, “It’s too early to say.”

At this point, the split over the offshore oil issue has at least created an opening for Williams and appears to have ensured a contested Democratic primary next spring.

Such primaries can become nasty, but Williams said he hopes this one won’t. He says he has nothing but “friendship and love” for Jordan.

“I would really, really not like to see a primary that’s about knocking people down.”

-----------------------------

Timm Herdt is chief of The Star state bureau. His political blog “95 percent accurate*” is at http://www.TimmHerdt.com.

Labels: 35th Assembly District, oil

Santa Barbara City Councilman Das Williams has opened an exploratory committee that will allow him to begin raising money to run for the 35th Assembly District next spring.

The decision means that a contested primary is now highly likely, with Susan Jordan, wife of incumbent Assemblyman Pedro Nava, already a declared candidate.

One reason Williams -- who had previously said he would put aside his aspirations and support Jordan "for the greater good of the community" -- decided to change course is a split among Santa Barbara environmentalists over a controversial offshore oil deal... The bottom line is that the fallout from the failure of the offshore oil deal has caused some who previously supported Jordan to reconsider.

If Williams runs, it could set up a very interesting primary, based on these factors:

-- Williams was an aide to former Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson, and there is no love lost between Jackson and Nava. Having those two in different camps would create a battle of Democratic heavyweights in the region.

-- The fact that Nava is a sitting legislator will probably give Jordan a huge leg up in the ability to raise money from Sacramento-based interest groups, which typically take great care not to step on the toes of legislative incumbents.

-- With two Santa Barbarans in the race, it could create an opportunity for a candidate from Ventura County, such as Ventura City Councilman Bill Fulton.

-- Timm Herdt, Ventura County Star

To view full text and graphics of Timm Herdt's "95 Percent Accurate Column in the Ventura County Star, please go to:

95 percent accurate

Santa Barbara voters will soon be casting their ballots almost exclusively by mail... As the result of irreconcilable differences with county elections officials over the cost of city elections — which are held in off-years — Santa Barbara city officials opted to go their own way in 2007, hiring outside consultants to count votes. While that effort was $220,000 cheaper than what the county would have charged, city officials reckon they can save $50,000 more with mail-in elections... Councilmembers Das Williams and Dale Francisco opposed the measure, while Iya Falcone abstained... Under the mail-in system, voters would have a month to fill out ballots and mail them in. City Hall would maintain seven polling places...

--------------------------------

For full text, please go to:

The Santa Barbara Independent: "Mail Vote for City Elections," by Nick Welsh

[ From: "Height Fight Turns Personal - Councilmember Williams Likens Foes to 'Darth Vader'," By Nick Welsh, SB INDEPENDENT, March 8, 2009 ]


... Councilmember Das Williams lashed out at supporters of a strict limit on the heights of new buildings both downtown and citywide. Complaining that activists with El Pueblo Viejo — the grass-roots group that collected more than 11,000 signatures to place the matter before city voters on this November’s ballot — kept changing their bottom-line bargaining posture, Williams charged, “Bargaining with you is like bargaining with Darth Vader, where the deal gets worse and worse and worse.”

... former planning commissioner Bill Mahan, who spearheaded with almost evangelical passion the initiative to limit the height of new buildings downtown to no more than 40 feet, and the height of new buildings elsewhere throughout the city to 45 feet... commented, “That’s right, we’ve changed. We’ve evolved. When we started this, we were rank amateurs. But based on what we’ve experienced and learned since starting, we’ve evolved. Das, it seems, has not.”

Far more than a testy exchange between Williams and Mahan is at issue. The debate underscores a seemingly irreconcilable split within the environmental community over how much growth should be allowed, what kind, where, and for whom. Lining up behind the ballot initiative are traditional slow-growth organizations like Citizens Planning Association, the League of Women Voters, and a host of well-established homeowner associations. Also in support are traffic activists worried that City Hall is determined — as part of its push toward so-called “smart growth” in the urban core — to make driving so inconvenient that all but the most intrepid motorists will abandon their cars for mass transit or bicycles.

In opposition to the height-limiting measure are developers and architects who fret that it would adversely affect their flexibility of design as well as their bottom line. Affordable housing advocates are concerned that reducing building heights from the current 60-foot maximum will also reduce the amount of new affordable housing that gets built: Developers will have less of the financial cushion that might otherwise allow them to include affordable units, the housing advocates reckon. The sustainable smart-growth crowd has expressed grave concern that lowering building heights will promote sprawl and, by limiting the intensity of development in the city, undermine the emergence of a more “walkable,” pedestrian-friendly downtown where mass transit can supplant the supremacy of the automobile.

Making this iteration of a long festering split even more dramatic are the identities of the two chief combatants: Mahan and Williams. Of all the elected officials on the South Coast, none have sought to embrace the conflicting impulses of the environmental movement as much as Williams has. Williams has consistently sought to embody both smart growth and slow growth principles throughout his years in office. Certainly, he’s voted against more development than any other member of the current council. But with the proposed new height limit, Williams’s ability to straddle the two has been put sorely to the test.

And Mahan makes for an intriguingly incongruous, born-again slow-growther. Mahan, an architect by profession, was largely regarded as a solid pro-growth vote when he sat on the Planning Commission. Even so, he was always quick to criticize proposed developments that violated his intuitive sense of what was right or wrong for Santa Barbara. Mahan voted in favor of all the large Chapala Street projects that critics contend will gobble up Santa Barbara’s prized and historic skyline, and which gave rise to Save El Pueblo Viejo’s current campaign to limit building heights.

About a year ago, Williams sought to engineer a compromise deal... But before the ink had dried, Mahan and the slow-growthers had disavowed the deal...

Though that particular deal went sour, Mahan and other key strategists in his group, like Planning Commissioner Bendy White, recognized that a ballot-box initiative is a crude tool with which to craft a nuanced policy change. By holding the initiative as a gun to City Hall’s head, they initially had hoped to pressure the City Council into crafting a superior ordinance. While certain die-hards within their camp might not like this, they would.

For a while, the new plan was for the City Council to craft an ordinance of its own and place that on the November ballot to compete with the Save El Pueblo Viejo ballot initiative. The council’s measure would contain exceptions for affordability, setbacks, and open space. But Mahan and White have experienced a dramatic change of heart in recent months. They have disavowed any interest in considering a City Council alternative, arguing instead that the height limit proposed by Save El Pueblo Viejo should go to the people for a straight up or down vote...

Two weeks ago, members of the Planning Commission voiced opposition to the notion of a competing height limit ordinance by a vote of 6-1, and other advisory bodies within City Hall weighed in similarly. But a joint meeting of the Planning Commission and the City Council, Sheila Lodge — former mayor, ardent slow-growther, and current planning commissioner — suggested yet another alternative. Lodge suggested the council place “a supplemental measure” on the ballot in November that could refine the height limits of the Save El Pueblo Viejo initiative, should the initiative pass.

Going into last Tuesday’s meeting of the council’s Ordinance Committee, the big issue on the table was whether to support Lodge’s supplemental approach, or the competing-alternative approach — or do nothing at all.

Even though the supplemental approach had been suggested by one of their own, slow-growthers packed the chambers to oppose anything but a straight up-or-down vote. Anything else, they warned, would look like a carefully orchestrated ruse, designed at the behest of developers and other special interests intent on pillaging the city’s skyline, to thwart the political will of at least 11,000 voters. They also objected that the specific language that would have allowed exceptions to the 40-foot height limit was open for abuse and mischief in the hands of future councils. Exceptions would be allowed for developments deemed of “community benefit,” a term they argued was far too subjective and subject to interpretation.

But it was Mahan who really sought to lower the boom. Forty years ago this March, he noted, a majority of the City Council voted to approve two nine-story buildings at the site of the present Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens. Led by civic powerhouse and now patron saint of all things Santa Barbaran Pearl Chase, the community took to the ballot box in response, amending the city charter to allow the construction of no buildings downtown taller than 60 feet. By placing this restriction in the city charter — which functions with the equivalent authority of a constitution — Chase and city voters stripped that City Council and all future councils of the ability to approve anything taller than 60 feet. (At the time, the city already had a 60-foot height limit. However, that was established by ordinance—which can be changed by any given council on any given Tuesday—rather than by charter, which can be changed only by a vote of the people.)

“Now you want to take that power and give it back to future city councils,” Mahan warned. “And we don’t know who they’ll be.” Mahan read off the names of the four councilmembers who voted in favor of the nine-story towers—which never were built. Their names, he said, have been lost to history, but they were swept out of office in the next election and the effrontery of their action has neither been forgiven nor forgotten. “What is our legacy going to be?” he asked members of the Ordinance Committee. “That City Council, nobody can remember their names anymore.”

Other supporters of the Save El Pueblo Viejo initiative pled with the council not to sell out the city’s skylines to developers. This provoked Mickey Flacks, a longtime affordable housing advocate who strenuously opposes the initiative, to sarcastically identify herself “as a developer who profits by the destruction of Santa Barbara.” Flacks, who argued that voters need to be given a clear alternative come election, also hyperventilated slightly with her own rhetoric. “It is the future,” she intoned, “that’s at stake.” As an aside, Flacks noted that if 60 feet was good enough for Pearl Chase, that should be good enough for the rest of us. This, in turn, sparked a mini-debate about what precisely Pearl Chase thought. And this prompted Councilmember Williams to ask for documentation on the séances held in which Chase, dead nearly 40 years, expressed herself on the subject.

Jim Westby of Safe Streets for Santa Barbara argued that thanks to the economic recession, no new buildings would be darkening Santa Barbara’s skyline in the next few years anyway. Given that, he suggested that the council allow the Save El Pueblo Viejo initiative to go to the ballot box unencumbered by any alternatives or supplements. If in a few years problems emerged, he said, the council could then go to the voters with whatever amendments it saw fit. Councilmember Williams responded that he’d have no reason to trust the slow-growth community given how much their position had changed already.

Williams lamented the deep distrust that’s marked the debate and dismissed the tone of the discussion as “ridiculous. ... When we are threatened with ignominy and obscurity for supporting the status quo, I just feel that it’s a little insulting. I never voted for these projects and we’re being accused by someone who supported all these projects,” he said, referring to Mahan. Williams strongly objected to being compared to the council members who 40 years ago supported the construction of the nine-story towers. “I can’t tell you how heart-wrenching it is to be told that, when I’ve been an ardent foe of unencumbered development and sprawl.”

Councilmember Grant House joined Williams in voting to place a ballot alternative before voters. Williams sought to “tighten up” the language allowing exceptions to projects deemed by future councils a “community priority,” but City Attorney Steve Wiley argued that it was all but impossible to further define and restrict language that is inherently subjective. The third member of the Ordinance Committee, Councilmember Dale Francisco, abstained, arguing against any substitute measures at all, terming the effort a waste of city staff time. The matter goes before the entire City Council on March 24, where its fate is highly uncertain.

------------------------------

For full text, plus images, please go to:

The Santa Barbara Independent Height Fight Turns Personal

[ Excerpt from: "Officials Prepare for Future District Race," By Katie Tullsen, DAILY NEXUS, March 9, 2009 ]


... Pedro Nava is currently serving his third and final term in the state assembly, and two familiar names have stepped up as potential contenders for the 35th District Assembly seat. The first to announce their candidacy was Nava’s wife and ardent environmentalist Susan Jordan. Current Santa Barbara City council member Das Williams, who had previously endorsed the idea of Jordan’s candidacy, has recently suggested he, too, will seek the Democratic nomination for the seat...

“I am thinking about it,” Williams said. “There’s a lot I would still like to give to the community in areas such as environment, education, jobs and health care.”

Previously, Williams had a history of political friendship with Jordan, having worked with her on multiple campaigns.

“I respect Susan [Jordan] a whole lot,” he said. “She does a really good job.”

Meanwhile, Santa Barbara County Supervisor Salud Carbajal - who many speculated would run for the seat himself - recently announced that he plans on endorsing Williams’ campaign.

“I think that Das Williams is a very well rounded candidate,” Carbajal, who represents the 1st District of the county, said. “When you look at Das’ services and accomplishments on city council, he has a broad range that gives glimpses of effectiveness and values.”

Williams sits on the Dean’s Council at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at UCSB, and says that he is well suited to represent the Isla Vista and UCSB community because he understands the communities in ways that most people cannot.

“Growing up in I.V. and going to graduate school at UCSB, I’m a lot closer to the UCSB community,” he said.

The 35th Assembly District extends from the Santa Ynez Valley through the South Coast and through parts of Ventura County. The district has a long history of voting Democratic, meaning whoever gets the party’s nomination is traditionally the easy frontrunner in the general election contest.

-------------------------

For full text, please go to:

Officials Prepare for Future District Race - Daily Nexus

[ Excerpt from: ACLU Sues City - Says Anti-Camping Laws Criminalize Poor and Disabled," By Isabelle T. Walker, SB INDEPENDENT, March 7, 2009 ]


With the closure of Casa Esperanza’s winter shelter fast approaching, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Santa Barbara Friday seeking an end to its prohibitions against sleeping and camping in public. The group said the laws criminalize impoverished, disabled residents who have no alternative place to lay their heads.

The ACLU of Southern California is also considering seeking a court order to keep the Casa Esperanza shelter open beyond April 1, when half of its 200 beds are scheduled to disappear and 100 homeless will be sent back on the streets where they are liable to be ticketed and ultimately sent to jail, said the group’s legal director Mark Rosenbaum...

City Councilman Das Williams said though he had not had a chance to read the suit yet, he expected the city would handle it constructively.

“As someone who had to live in my vehicle when I was younger, I am diametrically opposed to the criminalization of poverty. I know the city is doing some very good things to transition people out of homelessness and into housing. But if there’s something we’re not doing, or if there’s something we’re doing that works against the chance to deal compassionately with the homeless, then I’m glad we’ll have a chance to look at it,” he said...

---------------------------------

For full text of the article quoted above, comments and images, please go to:

SB INDEPENDENT: ACLU Sues

Also track this issue as it is being reported by additional news sources at:

DAS WILLIAMS Website

Labels: ACLU, homelessness

Please visit DAS WILLIAMS Soup, bookmark it, and pass along to a friend. All DAS WILLIAMS Blog postings are linked, as well as lots more information and news about Santa Barbara and the Tri-Counties.

The DAS WILLIAMS Website

Labels: city of santa barbara, councilman, Das Williams, soup

[ Excerpt from; "Opinions fly at building height discussion," By Eric Lindberg, DAILY SOUND, March 4, 2009 ]


... Since a group of local residents known collectively as Save El Pueblo Viejo (SEPV) gathered thousands of signatures and qualified their initiative for the November ballot, the city has been looking into a series of options to address the matter on its own.



If approved, the citizen initiative would lower building height limits to 40 feet in the city’s historic district and 45 feet in other commercial areas where the limit is currently 60 feet.

The latest strategy presented to the City Council’s ordinance committee was a supplemental ballot measure to accompany the SEPV initiative that would allow building projects to exceed the new limits if they are deemed a community priority.

However, two members of the committee recommended that the city move forward with its own charter amendment lowering building height limits and addressing other issues such as open space and affordable housing.

“I’m very concerned with the oversimplification of this issue,” Councilmember Grant House said. “…I don’t believe that the supplemental ballot approach can reap the benefits that a separate ballot alternative could.”

Councilmember Dale Francisco abstained from much of the discussion, explaining that he didn’t feel the city should be involved in essentially undermining a citizen-led effort to address concerns about bulky and tall buildings.

“The Save El Pueblo Viejo initiative is quite clear,” he said. “A simple up or down vote on that is all that’s necessary.”

... Bill Mahan, one of the creators of the SEPV initiative, evoked memories of a March 25, 1969 vote by the City Council to approve two nine-story condominium towers at the site of what is now Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens.

The citizens fought back with a charter amendment to restrict building heights to their current limits, he said.

“What is your legacy going to be?” Mahan said. “That city council, nobody can remember their names anymore, but we all remember what they did. Please, please don’t do this. Don’t do this. It will be a terrible legacy for you.”

Cathy McCammon also reflected on the circumstances leading to the city’s current building height limits.

“The original height limit amendment was put into the charter because people at that time did not want the city council to have the power to change the ordinance,” she said. “The same is true today.”

Lisa Plowman, planning manager for Peikert Group Architects and a former county planner, countered those statements by calling on the city to move forward with a charter amendment of its own to offer a choice to voters.

“It’s a sad thing to me that this initiative has hijacked the General Plan process,” she said, referring to an extensive overhaul of the city’s guiding principles currently underway. “I don’t think ballot-box planning is a good idea, but here we are.”

... Councilmember Das Williams addressed some of the criticism directed at city leaders.

“I really, really feel like the tone of this debate has gotten to a point of ridiculous proportions,” he said. “When we are being threatened with ignominy and obscurity for supporting what is the current status quo … I just think it’s a little insulting.”

He said the citizen-led initiative is aimed at addressing a serious community concern, but goes about it in an “overly simple” way.

“At least a supplemental [ballot measure] would not, to me, be fairly criticized as potentially killing the original ballot measure, although that seems to be what it’s being tarred with anyway,” Williams said.

Despite leaning toward the supplemental ballot measure approach, the councilmember eventually agreed with House to recommend that the council pursue its own charter amendment.

The topic should come up for discussion before the full council on March 24.

Labels: building heights, city of santa barbara

[ Excerpt from: "City Aims to Curb Begging," By Lexi Pandell, DAILY NEXUS, March 3, 2009 ]


Santa Barbara is looking to tackle its transient problem and significantly reduce the number of panhandlers on State Street.



( Photo courtesy of the DAILY NEXUS )


Last week, the city council voted unanimously to adopt a new 12-point plan for curbing aggressive panhandling and extending resources to the city’s homeless population. The plan specifically targets the transient population on and around State Street and seeks to help business owners and other residents affected by rampant panhandling.

Councilmembers Iya Falcone, Dale Francisco and Helene Schneider presented the plan to the council at last Tuesday’s meeting. According to Schneider, the plan will push education as a solution to the homeless situation, while stricter regulations, harsher penalties and increased funding will also be key.

In all, the plan - which is the product of community feedback collected through a series of nine meetings dating back to last June - is comprised of a dozen recommendations aimed at improving enforcement, prevention and intervention.

To curb begging, the council has suggested the implementation of an “alternative giving” program. Loosely based off a Denver program that asks residents to give money to a general fund targeted at preventing homelessness instead of individual panhandlers, Councilmember Das Williams proposed the idea of using what he called “compassion coupons.”

“The goal is a compassion, not cash, program,” Williams said. Under his plan, coupons purchased from local businesses would serve as a form of currency, which the homeless could exchange for hygiene kits and cups of coffee. “Compassion is imperative, but directly giving them money is just handing them a gun to shoot themselves with,” Williams added.

Panhandling is not the real issue, Williams noted, but instead a symptom of the more serious underlying problem.

“I think that currently [business owners] are angry and think that [panhandling] impacts their livelihood,” Williams said. “They don’t want to admit that there’s a homeless problem.”

... “A big piece of [the plan] is creating greater connections between police and non-profit teams,” Schneider said. “So, when police officers encounter someone who is homeless, they have a stronger connection with the homeless outreach program that can provide help for that individual.”

Other recommendations proposed by the committee involved a “Recovery Zone or Alcohol Impact Zone” on Milpas Street to enforce liquor license laws and target negative behavior through increased penalties and treatment requirements...

Labels: city of santa barbara, homelessness

“We as a community do have the responsibility for compassion,” said Councilman Das Williams, who added that panhandlers often will use money for drugs and alcohol, resulting in a kind of “slow suicide.” Williams said “compassion does not go along with handing them the gun to shoot themselves with.”

Full text at: NOOZHAWK: Council Tackles Homelessness

Labels: city of santa barbara, homelessness