An unprecedented year of flood, fire, elections, and more made 2018 a year to remember
It doesn’t matter who you ask, 2018 was filled with the unexpected.
Natural disasters swept homes and lives away in moments as the Thomas Fire and Montecito debris flows punctuated the beginning of the year. And months later, as Santa Barbara County’s first responders still worked to find the missing, they sent more of their ranks to aid California counties ravaged by historic wildfires. The topics of emergency alerts, disaster response, and preparation continue to ring through the halls of county, state, and the federal government.
It was also an election year that saw unprecedented voter turnout for a midterm both locally and on the national stage. National and state races heated up as candidates traded barbed words at debates and forums before the big night. Two Central Coast cities–Santa Maria and Lompoc–both saw their first district-based elections, with surprising election-night upsets to show for them.
“This election was one for the history books,” said Gloria Soto, the District 3 first-timer, during her opening remarks as a Santa Maria City Council member.
Beyond the politics, Central Coast cities worked to address long-standing problems, like the lack of housing, homelessness, dwindling budgets, and gaps in vital services. Local schools responded to death threats with lockdowns amid a national crisis of gun violence. And a new cannabis industry grew in every corner of the county as officials worked to license and enforce the myriad businesses setting up shop.
Throughout the year locals came together to raise funds, volunteer time, and work to meet whatever unexpected challenge came around the corner.
Whether 2018 was what you expected, it was a significant year, so take a look back in our annual Year in Review.
While Santa Barbara County’s first responders were still fighting the last bits of the Thomas Fire, then California’s largest wildfire, a rain surge hit Montecito on Jan. 9. It drenched hillsides scorched by the fire, triggering massive flooding, debris flows, and rock falls that tore through the mountainside community, destroying more than 100 homes and killing more than 20 people. Just days before the flood, Santa Barbara County Public Works Director Tom Fayram told the Sun that the county was concerned about potential rainfall. “This isn’t rocket science: We know there’s going to be a problem if we have rainfall of any significance,” Fayram said on Jan. 4. “There’s no magic pill to make this go away.” A report released in November from the county’s Office of Emergency Management detailed how its emergency operations center handled the response to the debris flows and the fire, finding a need for a more refined public alert system, increased collaboration between local government partners, and to “increase the county’s capability to recover from a major disaster.”
The 2018 midterm elections saw an unprecedented turnout of Santa Barbara County voters, who decided everything from their representative in Congress to their city council person to how to tax cannabis businesses. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) (pictured, left) held his seat against returning challenger Justin Fareed, winning the vote by a healthy margin, which Democratic operatives said was part of the “blue wave” in response to President Donald Trump’s administration. But local races could be just as heated, especially in cities like Santa Maria and Lompoc, which saw their first district-based elections this year. In Santa Maria, progressive Latina/Latino candidates emerged to run for seats on the dais, with Rafael “Rafa” Gutierrez unsuccessfully challenging incumbent Etta Waterfield (pictured, center left), who won decisively in District 4. The young first-time candidate, 28-year-old nonprofit administrator Gloria Soto (pictured, center right), beat out Current Council member Dr. Michael Moats for the District 3 seat by nearly 400 votes. In Lompoc, the city’s residents re-elected the two incumbent City Council members, Dirk Starbuck and Victor Vega, to their respective districts. But citywide, voters chose Councilmember Jenelle Osborne (pictured, right) over Councilmember Jim Mosby to lead the city as mayor. Osborne is the first woman to serve as Lompoc’s mayor in 20 years.
Dozens of farmers, ranchers, and growers attended a listening session on Feb. 1 at the Santa Maria Fairpark, where Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara), left, and Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minnesota), right, listened to what locals hoped to see prioritized in the 2018 farm bill. There, residents affiliated with the agricultural industries in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties discussed the importance of specialty crop research, crop insurance, disaster relief, and California’s farm labor shortage. After months of negotiations, failed drafts, and a prolonged stalemate, Congress finally passed a farm bill in December, one that addressed nearly all the issues highlighted by local farmers. The U.S. House of Representatives approved the $867 billion bill with a 386-47 vote on Dec. 11, a day after it passed the Senate 87-13. It was a massive vote of support from both sides of the aisle, and will maintain and enhance funding for specialty crop research, marketing, and insurance. California cut-flower and hemp growers would be eligible for crop insurance for the first time, and there will be slight increases in automation and mechanization research funding, along with a boost in funding for food banks and farmers markets.
Jenna Santana, then a junior at Pioneer Valley High School, performed a stunning cover of “Rise Up,” written by Andra Day, at a Pioneer Valley rally on March 14, when hundreds of local students walked out of class at 10 a.m. to honor those killed a month earlier in a Parkland, Florida, school shooting. The walkout—which lasted 17 minutes, a minute for every life lost in the Parkland shooting—coincided with thousands of similar rallies at schools across the nation, and several within Santa Maria itself. Simultaneous walkouts at Ernest Righetti and St. Joseph high schools were postponed after students received threatening texts and were placed on lockdown that day. It was just one of dozens of instances in which students hurled violent threats at schools across the Central Coast in 2018, an ugly trend that spurred debates over gun policy reform and the importance of school resource officers and deputies, and ignited to a string of
and rallies against gun violence throughout last school year.
This year, longtime real estate agent and developer Gary Crabtree was one of several Santa Maria residents who decided to take advantage of a new ordinance allowing for the construction of accessory dwelling units in Santa Maria. As of May, the city had issued 10 building permits for accessory dwelling units since the Santa Maria City Council reluctantly adopted an ordinance allowing for the use and construction of the units in residential neighborhoods at a meeting in December 2017. Roughly 20 other applications were still in the city’s review process at that time. The ordinance, which City Council members were essentially forced to pass after several state bills requiring local governing bodies to adopt similar regulations were signed into law in 2016, is part of a greater effort to increase the area’s housing supply. Although city officials weren’t sure exactly how each accessory dwelling unit would be used once built, city and state officials say the units—which could benefit both homeowners and renters—may become part of a greater solution to California’s growing housing crisis.
The California Department of Education adopted a new framework for social studies curriculum that began in 2018, including changing the approach to the mission project local students complete in fourth grade. The new guidelines ask teachers to “focus on the daily experience of missions” rather than building sugar cube models. One teaching example is the Chumash rebellion of 1824, which the Sun explored in a cover story that came out in March, the anniversary of the rebellion’s end. In February of 1824, the Chumash living at missions Santa Ines, La Purisima (pictured), and Santa Barbara overthrew the Mexican military and Spanish friars there after an incident at Santa Ines. The Chumash abandoned Santa Barbara and Santa Ines, and held La Purisima for nearly a month before Mexican military was dispatched to quell the rebellion. After a bloody firefight that included muskets and cannons firing on and from the mission and multiple casualties on both sides, the Chumash surrendered. The month-long incident is well documented, explained Santa Barbara Natural History Museum Curator John Johnson, and provides a perfect example for scholars looking to the complexities of mission life, which he also employs as a history teacher at UCSB. “I end the mission period with discussion of the revolt,” Johnson told the Sun. “You have the missionaries blaming the soldiers, the soldiers blaming the Indians, and the Indians blaming a particular Indian interpreter that they say misinterpreted them. So they all had different points of view on this.”
Allan Hancock College revisited its nondiscrimination and harassment policies on April 10, two months after a longtime employee publicly described to the board of trustees her experience of being sexually harassed and retaliated against. The policies were reworked to include an updated list of characteristics that cannot be discriminated against, and established updated guidelines for harassment and discrimination investigations. The changes came shortly after Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement Program (MESA) Coordinator Christine Reed described at a meeting on Feb. 13 her own experience with harassment on Hancock’s campus. “It was an act of intimidation,” Reed said at the meeting. “It was a threat. It was a misogynistic attack on my personal character, my sexual identity, and my integrity as a professional educator.” Reed declined to go into further detail but called on Hancock’s board of trustees to adopt a “no tolerance” position at Hancock that would protect employees and students from similar abusive situations. Still, Hancock officials said their revisions were not linked to Reed’s comments in any way. Pictured: The Allan Hancock College Board of Trustees at its Dec. 11 meeting.
Vandenberg Air Force Base launched its InSight mission to Mars on May 5, which arrived to the red planet on Nov. 26 with a successful touchdown. It was a milestone for Vandenberg and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), as it was the first interplanetary launch from the Western U.S. and the first time NASA scientists could measure seismic activity, or “marsquakes,” and the inner heat of the planet. The mission was also aided by cube satellites tested and prepared by Cal Poly engineers and students, which allow faster communication between NASA and the landers. The cube satellite support was a first as well, according to JPL Systems Engineer Farah Alibay, who told the Sun that the mission was “sort of a pioneer to see what they can achieve.” “Once we know the capabilities, we can start dreaming even bigger,” she added.
Nipomo-based farm labor contractor Carlos Castaneda (pictured) criticized city officials for their handling of community debates over the H-2A program on Nov. 15 at the last in a long line of city-hosted forums regarding the issue. Santa Maria staff and its City Council spent much of the year attempting to tackle the H-2A issue, culminating with the five community forums that revolved around painstaking explanations from the city, state, and Santa Barbara County on how the program works, the processes involved, and possible solutions that don’t violate federal law. The H-2A program, which allows farmers to bring vetted nonimmigrant workers into the U.S. to provide much-needed agricultural labor for a limited time, was pushed to the forefront in March, when several residents complained about the program’s growing presence in Santa Maria’s residential neighborhoods. Complaints of overcrowding and displacement sparked a city investigation into the issue, and an urgency ordinance prohibiting property owners from housing more than six H-2A guest workers in units located in residential zoning districts was passed unanimously by the Santa Maria City Council on March 20. The sudden vote, which city officials said was an effort to preserve residential housing for long-term residents, garnered significant backlash from affiliates of the local agricultural industry, many of whom felt the decision seemed rushed and under researched. After the City Council voted on April 17 not to extend the ordinance, it expired on May 4. At the final forum in November, the city’s new plan was also met with opposition.
Current and former Santa Maria public high school students (pictured left to right) Anthony Vilchis, Katherine Alvarez, Samantha Basulto, and Hector Maldonado were just some of the students who fought to shine a spotlight on issues surrounding California’s university entrance requirements last school year. A-Gs are a specific set of coursework requirements California high school students must complete in order be accepted to schools within the UC and CSU systems. A-G courses are substantially different from those needed to simply graduate from high school, and require a higher final grade and are typically more challenging. It’s ultimately a student’s responsibility to stay on track with the requirements, and while it can be easy to fall behind, catching back up is often no small task. More than three-quarters of public high school graduates in Santa Maria aren’t even eligible to apply to a four-year university. In 2017, only about 20 percent of Santa Maria Joint Union High School District grads met their A-G requirements, according to data compiled by the California Department of Education. That means only 360 of the district’s 1,778 grads were eligible to apply to CSUs and UCs last year. It’s an issue that many local high school students feel hasn’t been addressed, and several students called on the district to align its graduation requirements with the achievements needed to apply for college.
The debate over how best to manage lands in order to prevent wildfires raged in 2018 on every level of government, with a clear political divide over the use of prescribed burns. In Santa Barbara County, the county Fire Department argued for strategic prescribed burns to help firefighters better control wildfires when they do flare up. “The extensive fire history in this county goes back decades and decades. We know that large wildfires are a permanent fixture in our county,” Fire Battalion Chief Rob Hazard said at a county Board of Supervisors meeting. State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) saw two of her bills signed by Gov. Jerry Brown at the end of 2018 that push for changes in the way public and private lands are managed for fire, as well as development in the wildland-urban interface, and how residents are alerted about wildfire threats. Pictured: A U.S. Forest Service crewmember works a prescribed burn in April in the Los Padres National Forest.
The Lompoc City Council approved the Lompoc Police Department’s request to evict scores of homeless individuals from the Santa Ynez Riverbed in 2018. After evictions began in August, a triage center was available for those displaced, which closed in October. A massive contracted cleanup effort started in the riverbed this year, beginning to clear out the tons of trash and hazardous materials. “There’s decades of debris down there,” Lompoc Police Chief Pat Walsh said, adding, “I think we should’ve never let the riverbed get this bad.” For people who called the riverbed home, like longtime Lompoc resident Anthony Gordon, it was a place he turned to out of desperation. “I didn’t want to come down here,” he told the Sun. “People are dying down here. But it seems everywhere I go, there’s always somebody, somewhere, saying I have to leave.” Later, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors declared a shelter crisis in the county to procure state funds to help pay for the cleanup and support efforts. The Lompoc City Council later followed the county and declared a crisis of its own.
The 2018 midterm elections saw an unprecedented turnout of Santa Barbara County voters, who decided everything from their representative in Congress to their city council person to how to tax cannabis businesses. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) (pictured, left) held his seat against returning challenger Justin Fareed, winning the vote by a healthy margin, which Democratic operatives said was part of the “blue wave” in response to President Donald Trump’s administration. But local races could be just as heated, especially in cities like Santa Maria and Lompoc, which saw their first district-based elections this year. In Santa Maria, progressive Latina/Latino candidates emerged to run for seats on the dais, with Rafael “Rafa” Gutierrez unsuccessfully challenging incumbent Etta Waterfield (pictured, center left), who won decisively in District 4. The young first-time candidate, 28-year-old nonprofit administrator Gloria Soto (pictured, center right), beat out Current Council member Dr. Michael Moats for the District 3 seat by nearly 400 votes. In Lompoc, the city’s residents re-elected the two incumbent City Council members, Dirk Starbuck and Victor Vega, to their respective districts. But citywide, voters chose Councilmember Jenelle Osborne (pictured, right) over Councilmember Jim Mosby to lead the city as mayor. Osborne is the first woman to serve as Lompoc’s mayor in 20 years.
The Sun staff explored the Santa Maria Valley’s newest large-scale development, Enos Ranch, which completed key projects in its first phase this year. While city officials tout the project as a boon to the local economy, a shopping destination, and a new face for the city, it isn’t without its detractors. Critics pointed to the city’s deference to corporate retailers, an apparent slowing of downtown redevelopment, and developing the city into “Anytown, USA.” Also, traffic congestion around the development has caused city planners to return to their drawing boards, slating expensive projects to assuage the increased traffic. But despite the concerns, Santa Marians and Central Coast residents are already filling the parking lots at Enos Ranch, spending their money, and waiting for the next step in the project.
Sociologist and researcher Robin DiAngelo led a day-long racial justice workshop at the Radisson Hotel on Sept. 26, at a seminar hosted by the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District in an effort to increase cultural proficiency among educators in the area. In a city where the majority of students are Latino and most teachers are white, it hasn’t always been easy to bridge cultural divides and close achievement gaps that exist between students of color and their white peers. Some Santa Maria educators think more frequent cultural proficiency trainings for educators could be, at least, part of the solution, but past efforts in both Santa Maria’s school districts have been fraught with tensions, fragile emotions, and forceful pushback. “You can’t have a conversation about high performing schools with a significantly changing demographic without having a conversation about race,” said Peter Flores, director of student services at the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District. “The problem is that when you have a conversation about race, people tend to get defensive.”
It’s been a busy year for Santa Barbara County government and law enforcement agencies as legal cannabis hit the market in California. While growers navigated wads of red tape for proper licensing in order to operate in the county, agencies like the Sheriff’s Office began enforcement on cannabis cultivators that have flaunted the necessary permits and licenses. Enforcement operations began in rural areas, like Tepusquet Canyon near Santa Maria and Cebada Canyon near Lompoc, amid outcries from area residents that cannabis operations were congesting country roads, creating odors and pollution, and depleting their water tables. But not all pot production is tucked away in rural canyons. At the end of October, the Sheriff’s Office made history with its largest illegal pot bust to date of more than 400,000 plants. The grow operation was in the heart of Santa Maria farmland and “was set up like you would grow strawberries, really, the exact same format,” Lt. Brian Olmstead told the Sun. It took the Sheriff’s Office two days and multiple teams to eradicate the plants (pictured). And when not enforcing illegal operations, the county was collecting tax revenues from cannabis business owners, reporting around $1.8 million in taxes collected from June 30 to Oct. 31, 2018.
This article appears in Dec 27, 2018 – Jan 3, 2019.