Bomb threat during county meeting under investigation

A planned one-hour break during a county Board of Supervisors’ budget workshop meeting in Santa Barbara was extended by more than an hour after an individual called in a bomb threat on the building where the meeting was taking place. 
 
During the noon break of the April 17 meeting, Santa Barbara Police officers notified the Sheriff’s Office of the threat, and the building was evacuated.
 
“We received a report through the Santa Barbara Police Department of a call that identified this building and several people in a threat,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told supervisors after the meeting resumed. “We obviously wanted to take that threat seriously. We wanted to make sure the building was safe for all of you.”
 
In addition to ordering county employees to evacuate the building—located at 105 E. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara—surrounding streets were blocked off, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
 
After the evacuation, officials found a package on the first floor of the building during a search for suspicious items. The Sheriff’s Office’s bomb squad inspected the package and determined it wasn’t a threat.
 
“We called in our explosive-sniffing dog,” Brown told supervisors. “We were fortunate that dog was in training today in Ventura and happened to be with two other certified bomb dogs.”
 
Along with the Sheriff’s Office K-9 bomb detection team, units from the Cal Poly and Cal State San Bernardino police departments were brought in. According to the Sheriff’s Office, no items were found during the search, and the evacuation was lifted. The Santa Barbara Police Department is continuing to investigate who called 911 to make the bomb threat, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
 
The April 17 meeting was one of three meetings the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors held between April 15 and 19 to work on the budget for fiscal year 2019-20. After the evacuation was lifted, the April 17 meeting resumed at 2:30 p.m. Because of the delay, some agenda items were moved to the April 19 meeting agenda.

This article appears in Apr 25 – May 2, 2019.