Santa Barbara County’s 2015 legislative platform includes advocacy positions on 34 items that stirred up a variety of differing political opinions on Jan. 13 during the regular Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meeting.
Both 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino and 4th District Supervisor Peter Adam lamented the fact that the platform was voted on as a whole package.
“I get the sense coming up here that it’s a take it or leave it. I wish we could do this as a point-by-point vote,” Adam said, adding that he opposed some of the components of the platform and liked others.
The North County supervisors were the sole dissenting votes on the platform, which passed 3-2.
Andy Caldwell, with the Coalition for Labor, Agriculture, and Business, spoke up during public comment, saying that the area’s representatives from the state and federal levels were notably absent, including U.S. Rep. Lois Capps, state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, and state Assembly members Das Williams and Katcho Achadjian.
“Everyone should be on the same page,” Caldwell said.
The platform includes such items as funding requests for ocean water testing, law enforcement activities related to pesticide, county library services, and the Williamson Act; proposals for legislation that would improve local governance in unincorporated areas; and advocacy for such items as access to quality health services, comprehensive immigration reform, and changing the way tribal gaming compacts and land use are governed.
The tribal piece seemed to hit home with the board, which recently voted to appeal federal approval of casino expansion on the Chumash Reservation and appeal a federal notice of decision to place a 1,400-acre parcel of the Santa Ynez Valley into trust with the federal government for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians.
Adam said he thinks that the whole reservation system needs to be reviewed and revisited.
“I think it’s inadvisable to have sovereign land in the middle of our nation,” he said.
Carbajal responded: “To re-examine the existence of reservations and sovereign governments in our nation … is appalling to me. It goes to our acknowledgement of the unfortunate policies that our nation has had toward native Americans for many years and the atrocities that we’ve committed.”
Adam responded back: “If we don’t [re]examine anything, how do we know we’re doing anything right? I think that’s just a good way to live life.”
Third District Supervisor Doreen Farr wrapped up the discussion by saying tribal issues are becoming a bigger discussion throughout the state, including recognition of new tribes, existing impacts of casinos, expansion of casinos, and fee-to-trust land.
“The concerns about these issues are strengthening throughout the state of California,” she explained. “Santa Barbara County is right in the middle of all of these issues.”
This article appears in Jan 15-22, 2015.