Measure M—the ballot initiative that Santa Barbara County Supervisor Peter Adam penned to tackle the county’s $300-million backlog of road and facility maintenance—sputtered to a halt just short of the finish line on June 3.
The final election night post to the county Registrar of Voters website at 11 p.m. showed that just more than 51 percent of voters nixed the initiative. However, the results won’t be finalized until later this month, once all of the absentee ballots have been counted.
“Obviously it’s disappointing,” Bob Nelson, Adam’s chief of staff, told the Sun in a phone call the morning of June 4.
He said the vast majority of the county’s absentee ballots would have to be cast in favor of Measure M for it to pass.
“It’s sad that the opposition chose to run an outright lie that Measure M was a tax,” he said.
Adam’s colleagues on the Board of Supervisors were strongly opposed to his initiative, which have would required officials to maintain all county-owned roads, parks, and public buildings at the “same or better” condition that existed at the time of the measure’s passage. Sheriff Bill Brown and supervisors Doreen Farr, Janet Wolf, Steve Lavagnino, and Salud Carbajal all campaigned against the measure; at one point, they were photographed holding signs that said, “No on M. No higher taxes.”
The ballot language, however, stated that the ordinance prohibited the supervisors from issuing debt unless voters separately approved it.
But an impartial analysis done by County Counsel Michael Ghizzoni said, “Absent new revenue sources, [implementing Measure M] would result in a major reallocating of county resources away from services they currently support.”
When the Sun ran into Adam at Sgt. Sandra Brown’s election night party and asked him about Measure M, he said, “Everyone wants to know the [funding] plan [for Measure M], like it’s some miraculous thing. The truth is, we’re going to have to talk it out and have the people come and give their ideas. … It’s going to be a negotiation.”
As of press time, the opposition maintained a lead of approximately 1,400 votes.
This article appears in Jun 5-12, 2014.
