• In the Sun’s March 17 issue, “The race is on,” it was mentioned that Santa Barbara mayor Helene Schneider helped form a housing mediation task force with federal dollars to combat mass eviction. It should be noted that the mediation task force was already in existence with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, but that Schneider kept the program going on a local level despite cuts to the program in the wake of the Recession.
• Also in “The race is on,” Candidate Bill Ostrander wants to clarify that there should be tiered regulations for large and small businesses.
• In the March 17, article, “Diablo Canyon evacuation plans inadequate, report says” it should’ve stated that the city of Lompoc was the only one of the nine jurisdictions contacted that didn’t respond to the information request. Also, the article should’ve said that according to Ben Smilowitz, executive director of Disaster Accountability Project (DAP), the author of the report, SLO County was offered an opportunity to provide feedback on a courtesy draft of the report before the final report was released to the media. SLO County then sent a letter that DAP reviewed and changes were made to the report as a result, Smilowitz said.
This article appears in Mar 24-31, 2016.
