This past year was full of headlines about the Trump administration, federal job cuts, and increased immigration enforcement. But through all of that national news, northern Santa Barbara County was still humming along, impacted by the new federal polices and national politics and continuing with business as usual. The biggest, most consistent headlines were about Sable Offshore Corporation and its attempts to restart the pipelines that have been shut down since the 2015 Refugio Oil spill. But there were also two large fires and a slew of local government tiffs. We don’t have space to review everything that happened, but here are a few of the highlights.
—Camillia Lanham
One battle after another
It took less than 24 hours for the monthlong Madre Fire—which burned 52,000 acres near New Cuyama in its first day alone—to grow into California’s largest of the year by acreage in July.
Contained at about 80,000 acres, the Madre Fire was dethroned in August by the Gifford Fire, which exceeded 80,000 acres within its first week. The fire was 100 percent contained in late September, and had burned 131,000 acres east of the Santa Maria Valley.
Both fires drew in thousands of firefighters from across several states, and impacted several areas along Highway 166. The crossover burn areas between the fires resulted in one silver lining for firefighters, according to Don Fregulia, an operations section chief for the incident management team that fought the Gifford Fire.
“Fortunately the Madre Fire’s helping us out quite a bit with containment here on the northeast side of the [Gifford] fire,” Fregulia said in August.
Throughout both fires, evacuation orders and warnings applied to areas in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, as well as parts of the Los Padres National Forest.
—Caleb Wiseblood
Sable fable
A Texas-based oil producer’s pursuit of reviving the Las Flores pipeline system—defunct since one of its lines burst and caused 2015’s Refugio oil spill—was consistent throughout 2025.
Sable Offshore faced opposition from environmental agencies and government entities alike, including the California Coastal Commission, which slapped Sable with an $18 million fine in April for violating state permit protocols. In September, the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office filed 21 criminal charges against Sable, including five felonies, all tied to polluting three local waterways. The county Board of Supervisors capped off the year by denying permit transfers that Sable applied for in order to resume oil production.
Fifth District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino, who voted to approve the permit transfers in February, described himself as a longtime supporter of the oil industry before casting his December vote.
“It’d be much more comfortable for me to side with the side that I’ve always been on. But you just didn’t give me that opportunity,” Lavagnino said. “If I’m going to follow the law and what our ordinance says, you gave me no other option.
“I know this is not the end of this,” he added. “This thing has gotten a life of its own.”
—Caleb
‘I will be found not guilty’
In November, Santa Barbara County District Attorney John T. Savrnoch filed eight felony charges against Lompoc 1st District Councilmember Steve Bridge.
During the week of his arraignment for embezzlement, identity theft, forgery, and other criminal counts, Bridge showed no signs of stepping down from the dais for the remainder of the year.
“I will be found not guilty. Therefore, I’ll continue to support and represent every member of the community and District 1,” Bridge said at the council’s Dec. 2 meeting. “I have not committed any crime.”
Bridge’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 15 in Santa Maria Superior Court. The charges against him include misuse of Lompoc city funds.
—Caleb
Chamber challenge
After the Lompoc Valley Chamber of Commerce announced that it would be forced to close on June 30 thanks to the city’s aim to reduce its contribution to the chamber’s annual budget from $108,000 to $60,000, the public protested.
“The chamber is more than an office. It’s a symbol of connection, a space for innovation, and a partner in our future,” Yasmin Dawson-Salim said at the June 17 City Council meeting, alongside dozens of other speakers.
The city acquiesced, but not before reworking its contract with the chamber and demanding compliance with things like conducting regular financial audits, which the chamber hadn’t been doing.
“We’re not fat over here on the money,” Councilmember Victor Vega said. “We’re trying to make this work and be so we’re not in the hole fiscally.”
—Camillia
Royal moves
Guadalupe’s Royal Theater renovation project held a groundbreaking ceremony in December after a rocky year in which one City Council member accused city staff and the project manager of misrepresenting costs.
“I don’t feel confident in the numbers you sent,” Councilmember Whitney Furness told Project Manager Tom Brandeberry in May. “I think that this project needs to be audited from top to bottom.”
During 2025, the council also formed a capital campaign committee to raise the remainder of the money needed to finish the project and appointed Furness to serve on it. She said it was difficult to enlist volunteers to join the committee “because nobody trusts this project is going to happen.”
But over a nine-month period, the group hadn’t held a single official hearing that met the Brown Act’s quorum standards, according to city staff, and in September, the council opted to disband that committee. In 2026, the council is planning to appoint members to an oversight committee and begin fundraising to fill in the remaining $3 million needed to meet the project’s estimated $13 million cost.
—Camillia
Wage rage
Santa Barbara County supervisors voted to increase their salaries by 48 percent in 2025, but not before dealing with public backlash from several constituents, via “a million emails,” 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino said.
“I realize that 90 percent of the people yelling at me had no idea what my job position was,” Lavagnino said at a board hearing in February.
Coalition of Labor, Agriculture, and Business Executive Director Andy Caldwell told supervisors that he reached out to between 70,000 and 80,000 county residents about his objection to the raises—which boosted a supervisor’s salary from about $115,000 to $171,000. He described their role as a part-time job, where they could work as much or as little as they want. Caldwell also said the raises amount to “a slap in the face” to people struggling with inflation.
“What was in there was misleading at best,” Lavagnino said about Caldwell’s messaging.
At the February hearing, Lavagnino described his colleagues as putting in way more than 40 hours a week, attending events, taking constituent calls, serving on a variety of commissions and committees, visiting proposed project sites, and poring over information before their meetings.
—Caleb
ICE out of 805
In November, a pair of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement actions in and around Santa Maria riled immigration rights advocates, who protested the Nov. 13 operation at a property on the corner of Telephone Road and Cambridge Way. “On that day, ICE agents took a baby and a pregnant mother but refused to report on that because they knew it wouldn’t fit their narrative,” advocate Cesar Vasquez later told the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. “They also took 10 other individuals that they failed to report.”
The Board of Supervisors have heard from advocates like Vasquez all year in response to stepped-up immigration enforcement operations and anti-immigration rhetoric from the Trump administration. Hoping to get a clearer picture of what ICE was doing in Santa Barbara County, supervisors asked the Sheriff’s Office in September to publicly disclose its interactions with the agency on a regular basis, but the Sheriff’s Office declined.
The request followed July 10 raids at Glass House Farms in Carpinteria and Camarillo, which resulted in hundreds of arrests, one death, and clashes between protesters and federal agents. Supervisors expressed frustration at the lack of information available about the raids and arrests.
—Camillia
Turning a new leaf
In June, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to disband the county Sheriff’s Office cannabis compliance team, which would have cost the county $3 million-plus to keep up and running in the 2025-26 fiscal year.
County Sheriff Bill Brown told the Sun that the team’s dissolution wouldn’t stop his department from investigating, citing, or arresting those who grow or sell marijuana illegally as well as licensed cannabis growers who fall out of compliance with local and state laws.
The cannabis compliance team was funded by cannabis tax revenue, which the Board of Supervisors decided to reallocate to support new county initiatives, including a $240,000 allocation to help the Immigrant Legal Defense Center—which has offices in Santa Maria and Santa Barbara—hire two therapists.
The team’s members were transferred to other units, such as the new felony warrant detective who joined the Special Investigations Unit in June.
The detective is focused on locating and arresting those who have outstanding warrants for the most violent felonies and has so far investigated six high-profile targets, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
—Caleb
Commonsense conflicts
When Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1108 into state law this year, it affirmed the findings of a Santa Barbara County grand jury report that inspired the legislation.
In 2024, the jury called the county Sheriff’s Office’s investigations of in-custody deaths into question because the department also simultaneously acts as the county’s coroner. When the jury suggested creating a separate medical examiner’s unit or outsourcing in-custody death investigations, neither request was implemented.
California is one of only three states that allow sheriffs to oversee medical investigations of deaths that occur within county jails. In less than two years, that will no longer be the case thanks to the FACTS (Forensic Accountability, Custodial Transparency, and Safety) Act.
“To me and the grand jury, it’s kind of a commonsense thing,” said Assemblymember Gregg Hart (D-Santa Barbara), who authored the bill.
The FACTS Act calls for independent medical investigations of in-custody deaths in county jails and state prisons to prevent actual or perceived conflicts of interest.
—Caleb
Crucial care
This fall, the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department updated the Board of Supervisors about impacts of changes to federal law on county clinics, patients, and staff.
In mid-September, the county announced that 7,500 patients would lose access to care at county clinics in 2026 because of “unsatisfactory immigration status.” The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had reinterpreted a law, leading the government to designate the county’s five health care clinics as federal public benefits. County Public Health would lose funding if its clinics continued to see these patients.
However, an injunction in place on the federal policy change stalled the county’s preemptive plans. It’s unclear when the injunction will be resolved.
At a meeting in early October, the county Board of Supervisors heard hours’ worth of feedback from members of local unions and the immigrant community. Under the county’s plan, thousands of patients would need to change primary care providers and some union members would lose their jobs. After considering the issue, the supervisors delayed making a decision to transfer patients and enforce layoffs.
At the Nov. 18 board meeting, Public Health Director Mouhanad Hammami told the board that his department paused the layoffs and patient transfers. Until the injunction has been settled, patients will continue to be seen at their normal clinics.
—Madison White
Reach the Sun Staff by emailing news@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in January 1 – January 8, 2026.