Let’s just get it out of the way: 2016 was rough, mostly thanks to that nasty election season. Regardless of whether the results worked in your favor, I’m sure most can agree we’re glad it’s over. It was a long and stressful road, on both national and local levels.
Beyond the election, the Central Coast faced its own issues. From marijuana laws to immigration, local legislators grappled with following national laws while also implementing regulation that fits within their jurisdictions.
On top of politics and lawmaking, Mother Nature dished up some excitement of her own with the continued drought and fires.
We’ve curated some of the most prominent issues of 2016.
MARIJUANA, INTERRUPTED: The signing of the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act (MMRSA) into law by Gov. Jerry Brown in September 2015 put a wave of local regulations in motion. Jurisdictions throughout the Central Coast either banned or restricted marijuana cultivation while leaving delivery services in place. The legislative bodies took advantage of a provision in the MMRSA that gave them a timeline to pass their own medical marijuana regulations before state law pre-empted them. Before the new law, counties and cities had previously banned storefront dispensaries from operating in the city. Santa Maria went a bit further by placing an injunction that prohibited any marijuana events from occurring in the city. But cultivation rules were beginning to change by the end of the year with the passage of the voter-approved Proposition 64, or the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, which legalized recreational marijuana use for adults 21 and older on Nov. 8. The act also allows an individual to grow up to six plants for indoor cultivation. On Dec. 20, marijuana advocates celebrated at the Lompoc City Council meeting as councilmembers rejected a new ordinance that would’ve heavily restricted the cultivation of the plant. Despite California’s laws, growing or possessing marijuana remains a federal crime.
BLOOD IN, BLOOD OUT: Following a deadly year for Santa Maria in 2015 with 13 homicides, the start of 2016 didn’t prove much better. The city experienced six homicides in the month of January alone. Responding to the street violence was the One Community Action Coalition—a group of community leaders, local law enforcement and politicians, educators, administrators, and concerned citizens—who gathered in a packed boardroom of the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District on Jan. 28 to find a way to put a stop to the killings. Many suspected the violence had to do with local gangs. On March 3, the Santa Maria Police Department and several other state and federal law enforcement agencies arrested 16 suspected MS-13 gang members in a multi-state effort called Operation Matador. Santa Maria Police Chief Ralph Martin said the operation came in response to the unprecedented number of homicides in the city in the prior year. During the investigation, police discovered through wiretap surveillance that two victims were about to be killed by local MS-13 gang members. In order to save the potential victims and not blow their cover, according to court documents, the Santa Maria Police Department issued a false press release on Feb. 12 stating that the individuals were arrested and turned over to immigration officials. Local news organizations (not including the Sun) reported the news as true. The fake press release went undiscovered until Nov. 30 when the Sun broke the news.
WINE AS USUAL: On Nov. 22, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted to keep the wine ordinance status quo. Despite five years and hundreds of man-hours in the making, the proposed ordinance update was shot down by a 4-1 vote (with 3rd District Supervisor Doreen Farr being the only dissenter) at the specially convened session of the supervisors. The draft ordinance drew well-organized opposition from hundreds of vintners who disagreed with some of its provisions, including the ones that prohibited small wineries from having tasting rooms and special events. Such events would have included yoga sessions and even Ultimate Fighting-style cage matches. Some believe those events violate the Williamson Act, which restricts the use of agricultural land to appropriate uses. Facing costs of at least $1 million to start a small winery, vintners said tasting rooms and special events bring in extra money to help pay their bills. Perhaps no vintner in the county understands this more than Michael Larner of Larner Vineyards, who has been competing with nearby property owners for the last six years to get the county to let him build a tasting room at his business. Larner currently pays rent for a tasting room in Los Olivos, which he said is expensive. Without restrictions, some county residents believe the current ordinance will only lead to a proliferation of wineries and are worried it’ll drive up noise complaints and lead to an increase of traffic and impaired drivers on the road.
THIRSTY EARTH: When California’s drought entered its fourth year in 2014, lawmakers were debating how to protect the state’s groundwater. In September 2014, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Calling for better local management of groundwater use, the law allowed the formation of local groundwater agencies by June 2017 or else the groundwater will fall under state control. In 2016, Santa Barbara County set the path for the Cuyama Basin Water District, a representative body that gave farmers in the Cuyama Valley control over how to use groundwater resources for their needs. Encompassing more than 83,000 acres and farmers across four counties, the district is composed of some of the nation’s largest farm operations, including Bolthouse Farms—a subsidiary of the Campbell Soup Company. Santa Barbara County Local Agency Formation Commission Executive Director Paul Hood called it the largest such district he’s ever seen. However, representatives from the remote community of New Cuyama took issue with the district because it excluded the town’s community services district and would essentially drain the Cuyama Valley’s precious groundwater resources. Everyone in the valley—including New Cuyama residents—shares and relies solely on the depleting groundwater basin, which the U.S. Geological Survey said in 2014 is depleting at twice the rate of recharge. Despite the water district, New Cuyama residents would still have a say in the regional groundwater sustainability agency.
A HARD YEAR FOR IMMIGRANTS: Between immigration crackdowns and President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promises, Santa Barbara County’s immigrant population faced some uncertainty this past year. In April, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) led worksite inspections at farms in the Santa Maria Valley, incentivizing growers to lay off their undocumented employees and leaving those employees jobless and scrambling. Another blow came in June, when the U.S. Supreme Court voted to kill an executive order that would have granted work authorization and protection from deportation for undocumented immigrants. Meanwhile, temporary foreign farmworkers with H-2A visas met resistance from local residents who opposed H-2A farmworker housing. In April, an arsonist burned down a farmworker housing structure in Nipomo, leading its buyers to scrap the housing project altogether. And then in November, Trump claimed the presidency, and local undocumented immigrants braced for a potential increase in deportations, as promised by the president-elect.
LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP: Ah, the oil and gas industry: one of Santa Barbara County’s biggest employers, and also one of the biggest threats to local nature and wildlife. 2016 saw the usual push-and-pull between economy and environment, with some particularly notable points. For example, a SoCalGas-owned underground natural gas storage site in Los Angeles released the largest leak of methane in U.S. history. It lasted 112 days and was plugged on Feb. 10. Santa Barbara County has a similar gas storage site, also owned by SoCalGas, located just outside Goleta—but the Sun’s research indicated that a methane leak of that size probably won’t happen in our county (though it’s still possible). We observed the one-year anniversary of the Refugio oil spill this year, which prompted new pipeline regulations on the federal level. Offshore oil extraction experienced ups and downs: Environmental groups managed a moratorium on oil drilling in the Santa Barbara Channel’s federal waters, demanding an environmental review of the practice. But the resulting review gave a green light to offshore fracking, and oil companies have begun applying for new drilling projects in the channel. Meanwhile, local governments practiced saying “no” to oil this year. Phillips 66 spent the year fighting to send an oil train through Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, which met a lot of pushback from locals and ultimately a denial from the SLO County Planning Commission. Pacific Coast Energy Company also applied to add new oil wells on Orcutt Hill, and the Board of Supervisors denied it.
VOTED IN: This past year famously upended our national politics, but we saw some changes on the local level, as well. Salud Carbajal (pictured) will be leaving the Board of Supervisors in favor of the big leagues—he beat out eight other candidates, including Republican Justin Fareed, for the 24th Congressional District seat. His seat on the board will go to Das Williams, whose term with the 37th District Assembly ended. Doreen Farr is leaving the board as well, and Joan Hartmann will fill her shoes. 35th District Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian also met his term’s expiration date, opening the seat to four candidates; ultimately Jordan Cunningham won that election. And the presidential election touched base in Santa Maria back in the primary days: Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders came through in May to speak to a crowd of more than 7,000.
CHUMASH FACE CHANGES AND RED TAPE: The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians continued its work with the county on creating terms for the tribe’s planned annexation of Camp 4, a 1,400-acre parcel of land currently owned by the Chumash. The tribe aims to make the parcel part of its official reservation, though the process has been tedious—negotiations between the Chumash and county were initially unproductive, and then took a six-month hiatus between March and October. Still, legislation vying to take Camp 4 into trust continued to move forward. The end of the year saw some more movement at county-tribe negotiation meetings, though they remain inconclusive. In April, the Chumash bid farewell to longtime Chairman Vince Armenta, who retired and was replaced by Kenneth Kahn (pictured). They also welcomed their controversial expanded casino, which opened this year despite pushback from local groups in the Santa Ynez Valley.
BURNIN’ UP: California caught fire in 2016, Santa Barbara County included. We saw several major fires during the past year. Over the summer, two fires blazed through Los Padres National Forest: the Sherpa Fire (pictured) burned more than 7,400 acres, and the Rey Fire—which took more than a month to contain—swept through more than 33,600 acres. The Corral Fire broke out at Vandenberg Air Force Base, and a Ventura County firefighter died in a traffic collision on his way to the site. All the fire action this year could signal the beginning of the end for the concept of “fire season,” according to meteorologists. They’re saying fire season is basically year-round now, thanks to California’s persistent drought.
Reach out to the Sun staff with your thoughts on 2016 at mail@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 29, 2016 – Jan 5, 2017.
