Things sure have changed since I began fluttering around newsrooms, chasing down leads, and covering local news.
For one, I don’t actually have to go to a bunch of local meetings—they stream online now! I’ve got to admit, it’s nice listening to county Supervisors Steve Lavagnino and Das Williams, or Peter Adam and Janet Wolf, argue about water wells from the comfort of my desk.
It definitely allows me to yell, “Ohhhh!” loudly when someone delivers a zinger, like when Adam said, “This all stems from the fact that you guys just don’t know how to drill a well, and I do.”
It doesn’t get more exciting than that, well, at least not in county government.
OK, let me amend that, it doesn’t get that exciting in county government meetings. If you’ve followed any of the wildfire coverage, it’s been like an action movie out there for county Fire Department and Sheriff’s Office personnel—flaming hillsides, falling trees, and helicopter water drops are all part of the game, and firefighters are posting photos and videos on social media.
City governments are linked up and online too, including Santa Maria. Did anyone catch Mayor Alice Patino’s “State of the City” address on July 12? Well, I didn’t catch it on July 12, because it was at 8 in the freakin’ morning! Of course, I watched it later on YouTube.
Turns out, Mayor Patino isn’t much of an early riser either, saying she “doesn’t like to talk before 11 a.m.”
But she must have hit the coffee hard that day, because she certainly had a lot to say, not all of it positive. The address happened at the Radisson, where Patino was talking to a crowd of mostly city government and business insiders.
The first official matter she addressed was Santa Maria’s new district elections, which she said the city was “forced” into.
“Economically, I understand it’s what we needed to do,” Patino said. “I don’t think it fits Santa Maria at all, and I was really dismayed that we had to go to district elections.”
She went on to say that district elections “wouldn’t change anything” in Santa Maria. So why the dismay? Maybe her feelings are still hurt for being called “not the right kind of Latino,” which she also mentioned during her address.
Patino also talked on Proposition 64, which legalized recreational cannabis in California. The proposition passed at 51 percent in Santa Maria, but at 62 percent countywide. She blamed the disparity on Santa Barbara.
She also went on to peddle some questionable information, saying cannabis “kills brain cells,” and expressed concern about some reports that Cuban drug cartels were empowered by cannabis legalization in Colorado. You know, as if we already didn’t have any problems with drug cartels.
Patino talked on the Operation Matador case and did spend some time talking about her task force on youth violence, but neglected to mention those doing some complaining of their own about it, like a Santa Barbara grand jury report and the One Community Action Coalition.
They claim the task force neglects the very community it’s trying to serve. Maybe that has something to do with how Patino is perceived by Latinos in Santa Maria? But what do I know, I’m only reading their social media feeds!
The Canary will always listen to someone complain. Send your thoughts to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 20-27, 2017.