The final of five community meetings held by Santa Maria city officials focusing on seasonal farmworker housing was met with fierce opposition from the local ag community on Nov. 15.
Of greatest concern among the several dozen residents gathered that night in a small room at the Minami Community Center was how quickly the city is moving forward with a new ordinance that would set a cap on the number of foreign workers that could be housed in a particular dwelling under the federal H-2A program.
“Agriculture is not what it used to be, so we rely heavily on this program,” said Carlos Castaneda, a Nipomo-based farm labor contractor. “This program is the only lifeblood we have left. I trust the judgement of our civil servants, but I have to question it when it moves at breakneck speed.”
Santa Maria staff and its City Council have spent much of the year attempting to tackle the H-2A issue, culminating with the five community forums its chaired since late spring. Most of the meetings have revolved around painstaking explanations from the city, state, and Santa Barbara County on how the program works, the processes involved, and what can be done without violating federal law.
The H-2A program grants temporary visas for foreign workers as a way to augment the workforce for domestic farmers experiencing labor shortages. The vetting process is extensive, involving background checks and interviews with the U.S. Consulate. Once the visas expire, laborers return to their home countries.
Since 2012, the number of such workers in the county has exploded from practically zero to more than 2,000. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Santa Maria has roughly 1,200 certified H-2A workers, more than any city in California.
Santa Maria officials in particular were caught off guard by the program in January of this year, when several residents voiced complaints at City Council meetings about H2-A’s blooming presence in many of the city’s neighborhoods. On March 20, the council unanimously passed an urgency ordinance banning property owners from housing more than six H-2A workers in units falling under single-family and medium density residential zoning.
Surrounding ag community representatives immediately blasted the decision, calling it rushed and poorly researched. The temporary ordinance expired on May 4, after the council opted not to extend it.
The pace for regulation has slowed since then, with the city rolling out its five meetings methodically in an attempt to get as much information to the public as possible, according to City Attorney Phil Sinco.
The result was the draft ordinance presented on Nov. 15, which would effectively cap the amount of H-2A workers permitted within residential areas to six, unless owners apply for a conditional use permit, which would allow for seven or more without a cap.
All permits could be issued by the city’s “zoning administrator” and do not require review by the Planning Commission (unless it is appealed by neighbors) as it had in years past. The ordinance also would make housing employees of any number a conditional use in certain commercial districts.
Applications would take around 30 to 45 days to complete, according to Sinco. He said the new zoning requirements would give city administrators and code enforcement teeth to hold bad actors accountable.
“The basis of zoning is the fundamental power of government,” he said.
Regardless of the city’s attempts to placate the agricultural sector and community members frustrated with the program’s apparent impact on Santa Maria neighborhoods, the vast majority of speakers were still against the proposed ordinance and the speed at which the city was moving to pass it.
The Planning Commission is expected to approve the document when they meet on Nov. 21. If approved, the ordinance would go to the City Council, which would then have an opportunity to pass it on Dec. 4.
“Our members need adequate time to review this,” said Claire Wineman, president of the Grower-Shipper Association of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. “I don’t think a thoughtful review can be confined to a two week process.”
According to Wineman, most members have already made financial commitments for the next growing season and would “definitely” be impacted by the ordiance’s passage.
Her comments were echoed by Laura Brown, a regulatory analyst for the California Strawberry Commission.
“This feels very rushed,” she said. Brown argued that the council and city had only really been working on the issue for less than a year, and to suddenly force an ordinance on the ag community was a far cry from a fair and equitable process. She asked council members in attendance that night to let the ag community evaluate what the conditional use permit process will look like.
“Right now we’re in a very time sensitive time for growers as far as securing housing for their H-2A workers,” Brown said.
Castaneda, the labor contractor from Nipomo, noted that many concerns stemming from community members in past months were overblown. As an example, he mentioned a property he purchased for H-2A workers that before had had as many as 18 compliance issues with the previous owner–who had not been affiliated with the H-2A program.
Since Castaneda’s workers took up occupancy, the number of violations has dropped to zero.
“These are model citizens, interviewed by us and our U.S. consulate, only an X amount of people can be there and not one more or we get barred from the program,” he said, adding that regular landlords violate code “all the time.”
Castaneda pointed to San Luis Obispo County’s approach, which he characterized as better paced. He also called the city’s emergency ordinance in March “mud on your face” to Sinco and the council members at the meeting, including Councilmembers Etta Waterfield, Mike Cordero, and Mayor Alice Patino.
“The first meeting that started almost a year ago, we were promised to be at the table, to have a conversation on how to form this, not to have something stuffed down our throat that goes to [the Planning Commission] next week, and council the next.
“I think we’re all in for coming up [with] a solution,” he added. “We just want a seat at the table.”
Staff Writer Spencer Cole can be reached at scole@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 22-29, 2018.