Tag archives: Steve Lavagnino
Public trust in government is at a 50-year low. According to an ambitious Harvard Business School study, the problem in our contentious duopoly is the lack of competition and resulting lack of accountability. Santa Barbara is the poster child for what this study raged against — a system that no longer focuses on the public […]
On October 7, in a 3-2 vote, our County Board of Supervisors voted to give themselves an optional 3% pay raise. Supervisor Joan Hartmann justified her vote by explaining that “this job is a very demanding one with a lot of responsibilities that are very diverse.” Das Williams and Steve Lavagnino expressed similar justifications for […]
Our County… Our Black Hole So, Bari Weiss (NYT Op-ed writer/editor) recently resigned. What I found sad about her departure was her self-described truth: “Twitter is not on the masthead of the NYT… but it has become its ultimate editor.” This unfortunate reality is even more acute in Santa Barbara where the flames of legitimate […]
Purely Political Mr. James Buckley is a True Believer. When Donald Trump descended the escalator and announced his candidacy for president of USA, he declared that he is racist, misogynist, and antiimmigrant. For good measure he declared soon after, that he can kill somebody on Fifth Avenue, and it would not change any vote from […]
Das Williams, Santa Barbara’s First District Supervisor, suddenly found himself under a harsh, almost Perry Mason-style cross examination during a July 13 interview with Steve Chiotakis, host of KCRW’S Greater L.A. radio talk show. “Your campaign contributions come from pot lobbyists trying to grow weed,” Chiotakis scoffed at one point. “And look, it’s legal, yeah, […]
On June 30, Santa Barbara’s Grand Jury released an historic, scathing report detailing alleged official malfeasance by the Board of Supervisors as it sought to regulate cannabis over the past three years, particularly in Carpinteria but also in North County wine country. By law, the report mentioned no names and took no stand on the […]
