• On March 10, Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Buellton Mayor David Silva to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which consists of 16 members. Silva, who currently serves on the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District’s board, said he’s “so excited to be able to serve on CARB and bring a local air pollution control district perspective on how best to support the clean air goals of our communities,” in a March 12 statement. “Being able to provide firsthand experience on how state policies impact smaller and rural jurisdictions will be critical to help CARB policies work for Californians throughout the entire state,” Silva said. The Buellton mayor has served on the county APCD’s 13-member board as a primary member since 2025. He served as an alternate member in 2023 and 2024. “Congratulations to Mayor Silva. It’s always beneficial to have a Santa Barbara County voice on statewide matters,” county 5th District Supervisor and county APCD Chair Steve Lavagnino said in a statement. The county APCD works closely with CARB on various air quality issues that impact the Central Coast, APCD Executive Director Aeron Arlin Genet said in a statement. “We look forward to working with Mayor Silva in his new role to ensure our agency’s local goals and priorities are well represented in statewide discussions,” she said.
• Ojai Valley resident Helena Pasquarella recently announced her candidacy for the 24th Congressional District seat, which oversees all of Santa Barbara County and parts of San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties. In a March 10 statement, Pasquarella, a Peace and Freedom Party candidate, criticized the district’s current representative, U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara), for “not representing all of his constituents.” “Salud Carbajal has ignored his constituents, 70 percent of whom do not want the U.S. government to continue funding the genocide in Gaza with our tax dollars,” Pasquarella said. “Carbajal lacks the leadership and moral character to remain in office because he is beholden to the military weapons manufacturers on the Central Coast, and American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), among the many other PACs that contributed to his $2 million campaign fund in 2024.” Pasquarella described her campaign plan as aiming “to connect with apathetic voters and make them realize that their votes do matter,” she said. “If we can motivate the 35 percent of voters who do not participate in electoral politics to join us in this movement for social justice and change, we can show the rest of the country what power of the people actually is,” Pasquarella stated. “Just look at what Zohran Mamdani did in New York.”
• On March 11, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced $1.18 billion in funding allocated as part of the Bond Behavioral Health Infrastructure Program awards made possible by Proposition 1, which was passed by voters in 2024. Santa Barbara County’s Department of Behavioral Wellness was awarded $20 million to help construct two 16-bed social rehabilitation facilities in Santa Maria. The governor announced that 66 projects across the state received conditional funding in this second round. “Proposition 1 is doing exactly what we promised it would do: transforming California’s behavioral health system. In just two years, we didn’t just meet our goal of creating 6,800 treatment beds, we exceeded it. That means we’re finally closing the gap that’s left too many communities without the care they need,” he said in the announcement. According to his office, the two rounds of funding have gone to 177 projects in 333 facilities across the state to create 6,919 residential treatment beds and 27,561 outpatient treatment slots. The county’s proposed facilities are expected to complete construction in June 2029, according to the governor’s office.
This article appears in March 19 – March 26, 2026.