The city of Lompoc set the date!
On Sept. 17, Lompoc City Council members voted unanimously (I know! I fell off my perch, too.) to hold a sales tax election (I know! I fell off my perch twice, too.) on March 3, 2020.
Who knew Santa Maria was such a trend setter? City residents voted to increase their sales tax by 1 percent in 2018, and all of a sudden it’s the cool thing to do!
Guadalupe’s even trying to get in on that sales tax action! Well, maybe, I don’t know yet because the Sun’s print schedule is so goofy. I’m sitting here twittering away on Sept. 24, before Guadalupe City Council votes on whether to put a 1 percent sales tax measure on the ballot. And you, dearest of dear readers, won’t get to see my column until Sept. 26. Meanwhile, there will be a vote on that sales tax and it won’t be in the paper because this bad boy will get printed as the meeting is taking palce in Guadalupe.
Such a conundrum!
You know what else is a conundrum. ICE!
Brrr. I get cold just thinking about that agency. Immigration and Customs Enforcement—the long arm of Donald Trump’s whacked out version of an immigration policy.
Things got testy at the Sept. 17 Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meeting where Sheriff Bill Brown gave his annual presentation about the Sheriff’s Office’s interactions with ICE over inmates in the county jail. No surprises there!
I’m sure 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino’s head was exploding because he hates it when the board goes tit-for-tat over issues that involve national politics. Our favorite fighting officials, 3rd District Supervisor Joan Hartmann and 4th District Supervisor Peter Adam, got into a bit of a tiff.
Thank God. I love fireworks!
The sheriff decided to give everyone 10 examples of the 98 inmates ICE picked up after they were released from jail. You know the line: “They’re rapists, they’re murderers, and I’m sure some of them are good people.” Well, these 10 undocumented immigrants did commit some heinous violent crimes. And, honestly, good riddance!
But what about the other 88? That’s what Hartmann wanted to know. She was upset that the sheriff used those 10 cases to generalize the 98, going so far as to call it a “logical fallacy.”
“No doubt these crimes are horrendous. The issue is at the national level, these are being assigned and attributed to a whole group of people,” Hartmann said. True dat, you liberal crusader you.
Adam, for his part, defended a sheriff he isn’t especially fond of: “What the sheriff is saying is, there’s individuals that committed serious crimes and they’re illegal and ICE wants to take those people out and deport them and I think that’s perfectly legitimate and reasonable.”
Dammit. He’s right, too. So who do I bag on?
Oh, I know. Andy Caldwell! Yes, our favorite conservative commentator who’s running for Congress didn’t let me down! He scolded Hartmann for having the nerve to ask for more information and accused protesters of siding with child molesters and batterers over ICE.
I’m just going to leave that there and let you figure out what’s wrong with him.
The Canary thinks some loons are just obvious. Send comments to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 26 – Oct 3, 2019.