Money, money, money. Everything costs something, and some things cost a helluva lot.
Take the Alamo and Whittier fires, which have already racked up tens of millions of dollars in costs. Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in Santa Barbara County to help address the crises, funneling emergency personnel and truckloads of state cash our way. I’m sure even Ross Mayfield (page 14) could appreciate ole Moonbeam’s spending, in this case anyway.
We can all agree that in the case of public safety, more money is always better. And when the horizon is wreathed in flame, that’s not the time to start pinching pennies.
But what about when a public safety agency is already stretched thin? If you listen to Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown, the Sheriff’s Office is kind of like a coupon-clipping parent with 12 kids who’s applying for food stamps. He closed the Santa Maria Branch Jail earlier this month because he couldn’t make ends meet. There’s still plenty of cost to come from that, it’s just passed on to North County law enforcement that have to drive hours to book suspects in county jail.
So you’d think that when the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors considered consolidating fire and medical response dispatch services outside the Sheriff’s Office, the Sheriff would jump at the opportunity. It would free up time and funding for his department, for sure—but he wasn’t having it.
Brown doesn’t want to give up control of dispatch services, which is fine, but he also pointed out that the commander at the Sheriff’s Office that oversees the dispatch department is also in charge of human resources, training, and air support.
So which is it Bill? Do you have it covered or do you need help? You definitely keep asking for more money, and if you don’t get it, you don’t mind slashing it from other areas (cough, North County).
And maybe, just maybe, the county wouldn’t be considering this option if Brown had actually done something about the problem already—it’s not an issue that just came out of nowhere.
You know what else people have complained about for years and costs boatloads of money? Health care! There was quite the scene in Washington on July 25 when the U.S. Senate voted 51-50 to start debating the Republicans’ bill that would “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka Obamacare.
How nice of the Republicans to allow debate on the bill they’ve largely constructed in secret! Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) actually left his hospital bed after recent surgery and brain cancer diagnosis to give his “yes” vote, condemning untold thousands of Americans fighting the disease to uncertainty about their care.
Thousands of local families rely on the ACA, and representatives like Salud Carbajal are at least trying to do something, no matter how unlikely it is their legislation will pass. Isn’t this also a matter of public safety deserving of funding?
A wildfire is a force of nature somewhat out of our control, but legislators do have control over the lives of tens of millions of Americans in this case. When the ACA was openly debated before it passed, Republicans scaremongered about the bill, saying “death panels” were a likely result, but the only death panel I see currently is the Republican-controlled Congress.
The Canary believes health care is a human right. Send your thoughts to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 27 – Aug 3, 2017.