Attendees:

Others present:
Exec. Director Public Works:     Phil Demery
Assistant to Gail Marshall:     John Buttny
Resident, EMID:     Sue Schwartz

He introduced the first speaker, Third District Supervisor Gail Marshall.
Ms. Marshall spoke for approximately 45 minutes and mentioned the following:

1. She is a friend of special districts.
2. The new State budget with its large deficit will mean a $7,000,000-$8,000,000 loss to Santa Barbara County resulting in these projected reductions: $500,000 to the General Fund; $1,700,000 to Mental Health; $4,400,000 to Social Services; $1,100,000 to Public Safety; and $1,000,000 to Public Works, with a possible additional $1,500,000 which would affect bridge retrofitting.
3. The new SBCAG Director Jim Kemp is ready to hire a Housing Director to put jobs and housing together.
4. The Board of Supervisors has appointed Diane Meester as Interim Planning and Development Director while conducting a nationwide search for a permanent appointee to this position.
5. Regarding the upcoming Recall Election on November 5^th: she pointed out that:
   • She was elected with a 55% majority, with 13,000 votes; the Recall Petition has only 9,300 valid signatures on it (not more people than voted for her as has been stated by the Recall proponents).
   • She has not broken any promises or done anything illegal, and there has not been any impropriety in her behavior.
   • This Recall is about who controls the County.
6. There are staffing problems in the Sheriff’s Department due to budgetary constraints.
7. The road repair backlog in the Third District is due to this being the largest of the 5 districts.
8. She is in favor of self reliance for the Chumash, but they need to keep promises they made in regard to offsite impacts of their casino development.
9. The 4^th floor remodel in the County Administration Building, was begun before she took office, so she cannot be held responsible for it if people feel it is an inappropriate expense.
10. She will continue to support agriculture to preserve open space which adds to the quality of life in our area.

Larry Meyer inquired of Phil Demery, Director of the Public Works Department, what the rules were regarding their road repair projects which sometimes occur immediately after a Special District does work in the street and paves it over afterward.

Correction: Mr. Meyer inquired about co-ordinating efforts to insure that district could perform planned trench work in roadbeds prior to the County scheduled repaving or refinishing of these roads.

Mr. Demery said that there is a quarterly schedule of repairs on their website: cosb.org/pwd/roads, and also stated that if a special district needs to do repairs or an installation it can do so by boring underneath a newly slurry sealed road way if the work is within 100 feet of either side of a newly paved road. Mr. Demery emphasized that there were narrow windows of time in which road repairs could be done due to weather, and in Isla Vista they try to do work in the summer when most of the students were gone.

Mitch Bernstein said that his Vector Control District needs to inventory County owned areas in their district.

S David Schwartz said that Jim Kemp, of SBCAG, would be the speaker at the October meeting and suggested that a representative of Special Districts Assn. should be on SBCAG. Mr. Demery responded that a good place to have such a representative would be on SBCAG’s Technical Advisory Committee.

After a break of about 15 minutes, the second speaker, retired County Sheriff Jim Thomas began his talk at 7:30 pm. At the outset he stated that he was very bothered and offerned by the fact that Mrs. Marshall would not appear in the same room with him.

He spoke for approximately for 1 hour and 15 minutes and mentioned the following:

1. The community fears crossing the county; but if he were elected as a Supervisor, there would be no need to fear him; he enjoys diversity.
2. A Recall election is a system to hold elected officials accountable.
3. He has read the minutes of the Board of Supervisors’ meetings since 1996 and found 95 three to two votes, not including LAFCO, SBCAG or Executive Sessions; he pointed out that Mrs. Marshall voted only one time with North County Supervisors.
4. Ranchers and farmers in the North County are desperate because they cannot develop their land and are dealing with restrictive Oak Tree and grading ordinances. He would have respect for these people.
5. He loves open space.
6. There are 2 steps in the voting in the Recall Election: if 50% +1 vote is to keep Gail in office, that’s it, but if 50% + 1 vote is to recall her, she’s out and he’s in, no matter how few votes he receives.
7. His philosophy of government is that basics such as police and fire protection must be set up first and the people’s input needs to be heard.
8. In response to a question from Steve Amerikaner regarding the housing problem, Mr. Thomas said solutions should include higher salaries and granny flats.
9. Communities that want growth should be allowed to grow; but those that do not want should be allowed to hold the line, keeping in mind that real estate values will increase in the latter.
10. In regard to employee commuting, he said that the Sheriff’s Department schedules employee shifts to encourage carpooling. He supports widening Highway 101 at Montecito.
11. He signed a petition to put the county split on the ballot so that fact finding could be done; he does not necessarily support the split.
12. In response to a comment from Steve Amerikaner regarding the County treating Special Districts’ projects like private projects and the need for the former to be expedited, Mr. Thomas said all projects need expediting. After November 5^th a management audit will be done of the Planning and Development Department, since the County is felt to be not people or business friendly.
13. In response to a suggestion by Mitch Bernstein for more small Planning Commission (as has been done in Montecito) Mr. Thomas said that perhaps separate Planning Commissions in the North and South County would be helpful.
14. Regarding the Chumash Casino:
• They are a sovereign nation, but the County Sheriff does their law enforcement, and they have a very low crime rate.
• The new hotel is a mistake, but the new restaurant is okay.
• Because they do not have to charge transit occupancy tax, they have an unfair competitive edge over the local businesses who supported their plans.
• He supports Mike Brown’s idea to try to get them to keep their buildings compatible with the architecture of the area.   i.e. "Old West" theme.
15. The deficit in the State’s budget will mean an addition $10,000 loss to the Sheriff’s Department.

The Business Meeting began at 8:45 pm

Minutes of August 26^th meeting: approved as written.

Treasurer’s Report: Per Treasurer Chuck Arnold there is $2250 in the checking account; $6163 in the savings account. He requested permission to purge files of everything older than 2 years. This will be decided by the Executive Board, per President John Fox.

LAFCO matters:   Re payment by Lompoc Healthcare District (LHD): Mr. Raggio summed up the letter he sent to the Association regarding the governor’s signing AB 1948, which would modify healthcare districts’ contribution to LAFCO to "net income " rather than "net revenue." This would lower Lompoc Healthcare District’s contribution for this fiscal year to $5137.60. The letter asked that LAFCO’s contingency fund be tapped to cover the rest of their current assessment. This was referred to the Association’s Executive Board, along with whether LHD should receive a credit toward next year’s assessment or a refund.

Bob Braitman asked if the Association still were interested in having Executive Directors from other LAFCOs as speakers. This was referred to the Executive Board.

Respectfully submitted,

Sue Schwartz
Acting Secretary