There’s more to a big story than one article. Covering a gigantic issue takes more time than one story does, more digging, more questions, more stories, more than the first few hundred words that are written about it.
The good stories are the ones with nuance and depth, the ones with subjects that encompass more than just a singular issue, the ones with enough controversy to stir the community into conversation. Those are the yarns we want to knit into something everyone can understand, into something Northern Santa Barbara County can relate to, care about, and want to learn more about, as an inspiration, as a safety net, as a red flag, as a light bulb, as a call to action.
In nearly 52 issues, we’ve covered the gamut of 2014 happenings, but there are a few epic tales we’ve chronicled that stick out as the stories that will be remembered in the future.
DRY, DRIER, DRIEST
When was the drought not news in 2014? Even now that’s it raining, that word—“drought”—is still making headlines. Well, it’s not a word that will disappear from California newspapers for a while, and this year, the Sun made an effort to understand what it means for local agricultural producers and city dwellers. We spoke with cattle farmers, growers, and well drillers; we talked state water and groundwater, solutions and legislation; and we spoke with the folks responsible for keeping water flowing into Southern Santa Barbara County out of the very low reservoir levels of Lake Cachuma. Those levels were so low at the beginning of 2014 that the Cachuma Operations and Maintenance Board made plans to outfit the reservoir with pumps to help push water into the gravity-fed tunnels that take Cachuma water to South County. Those pumps are in place now, and it’s been raining. But don’t count that drought out just yet. We need a lot more than a couple of inches of rain to make up for three years without it.
A VERY BAD DAY
It’s unfortunate, but it happened. In November, Ernest Righetti High School had one of those days a high school wishes never happened. A day when law enforcement vehicles line the street and local media and beyond is set up outside the school, interviewing parents and students as they leave campus, trying to get the story out there as quickly as possible. There were food fights and fist fights, student disruption, riot-like conditions, and an altercation between some students and a law enforcement officer. Righetti was locked down. That was Nov. 19. On Nov. 21, the school sent students home early because of rumors swirling around via social media and text messages that the school was in for more potential violence. As a result, the district implemented a program to teach students what it means to use social media responsibly.
RECREATION KING
The Lompoc Valley erupted this year over talk of unpermitted recreational fields and facilities on agriculturally zoned land owned by Jim Mosby, just outside of Lompoc city limits. In February, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to deny a petition to rezone the property and a conditional use permit. Mosby sued the county in response, and the judge granted him a stay, allowing him to continue operating on the property. But, there’s more. Members of the Lompoc City Council gave their two cents on the discussion both officially, through a letter, and unofficially, by speaking to supervisors during the February hearing. Because of the way in which council members and Mayor John Linn weighed in on the topic, several Lompoc residents accused the City Council of violating California’s
open meeting law—the Brown Act. The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office opened an investigation into the allegations in July and cleared the council of wrongdoing in November. But that announcement came after elections, too late to make a difference for Linn, who was voted out of office. Councilmember Bob Lingl was elected to take Linn’s place.
FINALLY!
After two years of disappointing outcomes in her bid for a City Council seat, Etta Waterfield had success in the 2014 election, leaving her spot on the Santa Maria Planning Commission to take a seat on a different dias. Waterfield was sworn in on Dec. 23 alongside incumbent Councilmember Jack Boysen.
WAITING FOR WATER
It was a fraught and arid year for water resource management in the parched unincorporated area of Nipomo. As the area’s groundwater pumping remained dangerously high in comparison to the usage of its neighbors, local water purveyors urged maximum possible conservation from ratepayers. In another effort to halt the decline in groundwater levels, the Nipomo Community Services District (NCSD) pushed ahead with construction on its multi-million-dollar supplemental water project. The NCSD Board of Directors approved a controversial water rate hike on Nov. 21 to pay for the new water, which, looking ahead, is expected to begin flowing through the pipeline between Santa Maria and Nipomo starting in July 2015.
RALLYING CRY
The Santa Maria City Council approved a building permit for an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in March, voting 3-2 during a special meeting at the Santa Maria Fairpark packed with thousands of city residents opposed to the decision. The building is currently under construction, and many of the city’s residents are not happy about it.
NOT ONE MORE
Marred by tragedy in May, Isla Vista mourned the loss of six UC Santa Barbara students who were shot and stabbed in a spree that left 13 other people injured and the suspect dead. National media attention turned to the small town, and the father of victim Chris Martinez asked the nation to change things: “Too many have died. We should say to ourselves, ‘Not one more.’” In response, legislators penned bills on both the national and state levels. California passed a bill that enables families or law enforcement to ask judges for a gun restraining-order on a person who could be a significant danger to themselves or others and requirements for law enforcement agencies to search the state’s gun database before conducting a welfare check on someone.
ARBITRATION
Lawyers, law enforcement agents, and city officials participated in a reinstatement hearing in June and July for former Santa Maria Police Lt. Dan Ast, who claims he was wrongfully terminated by the department for his involvement in the shooting of fellow officer Albert Covarrubias Jr. A decision on the hearing is expected to be made early in 2015.
XPANSION PLANS
The Chumash Casino Resort is on its way to becoming a 12-story hotel with a rooftop pool and an expanded casino area. Despite concerns the project raised within the county, the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash is pushing forward with its plans. Chairman Vincent Armenta said the tribe looked at every option it could, but the only space the reservation had to grow was vertical. In October, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced a finding of no significant impact with the tribe’s plans for Camp 4, putting the Chumash one step closer to their goal of putting the land into trust with the federal government. The federal government granted that fee-to-trust status on a different tribally owned parcel in July, 14 years after the original application was filed. The 6.9 acres of land in Santa Ynez, across from the casino, will eventually be home to a museum and cultural center.
MONEY WOES
Guadalupe’s financial issues plagued the city’s run-up to this year’s election, dominating debates, paper headlines, and making an appearance on the ballot in the form of three measures designed to invigorate the berg’s revenue stream and even out the general fund’s balance sheet. Voters passed the tax measures and changed the makeup of the Guadalupe City Council in response, electing two ex-council members and making an existing council member the new mayor.
P WINS
It dragged on for months. Months! The arguments from both sides of the Measure P debate were repetitive and almost unbearable. Environmental groups railed against hydraulic fracturing and other “questionable” oil drilling techniques, begging Santa Barbara County to think of themselves, the environment, and most importantly the water. “Ban it!” they cried. The oil industry fought back, sinking millions of dollars into the campaign against Measure P—a voter-initiative to ban high intensity oil drilling techniques in unincorporated areas of the county—saying it would damage the economy, destroy job growth, and deplete the county’s revenue potential. Big projects are in the hopper, and more want to start. Oh, the potential. “Don’t kill it!” the industry cried. And when the time came, on that fateful Nov. 4 election day, it was a windfall for No on P supporters, who out-voted the other side by nearly 70 percent.
FISH OUT OF WATER
Dan Smith’s daughter poses with a Santa Ynez River steelhead caught in the early 1940s, before Bradbury Dam was completed to form the Lake Cachuma Reservoir. Those steelhead are now on the endangered species list, and hundreds of them died this year and last because of a lack of water flow in Hilton Creek. California Trout sued the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in October because it responded too slowly to an issue that caused those deaths and hasn’t started constructing the backup system yet. Agency-owned/managed pumps that push a constant flow of water out of Lake Cachuma and into Hilton Creek broke down on several instances in 2013 and 2014, breaking down permanently in June 2014. In total, the incidences killed more than 350 steelhead. The Bureau fixed the pumps in June.
Contact Managing Editor Camillia Lanham at clanham@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 25, 2014 – Jan 1, 2015.
