ON THE RECORD (Continued from page 37)
Carpinteria Reacts: “It’s Disappointing and Frustrating”
As Principal Planner with Carpinteria’s Planning Department, Nick Bobroff is no stranger to Santa Barbara’s burgeoning cannabis controversy. Earlier this year, he prepared a report urging the County Planning Commission to require all cannabis farms to obtain Conditional Use Permits that would take into consideration any negative community impacts. Despite the Planning Commission’s unanimous vote in favor of Bobroff’s letter, Lavagnino and Williams led the board in refusing to apply his recommendations to Carpinteria, where most of the farms are located. “The Board ultimately decided to go in an entirely different direction, just focusing on inland parts of the county and disregarding what’s happening in Carpinteria and other coastal areas,” Bobroff complained. “It’s disappointing and frustrating.” He sees no evidence that the Board of Supervisors will change course on enabling cannabis operations anytime soon. “County staff appears to be planning to move full speed ahead,” he said.
A Question of Timing: A Deliberate Stonewalling?
If anyone has reason to feel vindicated by the Grand Jury’s report on cannabis, it’s Laura Capps, who ran unsuccessfully against Williams for First District Supervisor on March 3. Capps got the Journal’s endorsement, but not the Santa Barbara Independent’s. In a semi-apologetic editorial that read more like an endorsement for his opponent, the paper asserted that endorsing Williams was among the most “difficult decisions” it has “struggled to make” in its 34-year history. “Is his behavior over the past three years a good enough reason to toss him overboard? We don’t think so.” In a late-January debate with Williams hosted by the Journal, Capps highlighted what she called her opponent’s cozy relationship with cannabis lobbyists and his refusal to respond to complaints from communities such as Carpinteria.
Laughing Matters
R
onald Reagan often poked fun at his own age and reputation for laziness. “I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency,” he once quipped, “even if I’m in a Cabinet meeting.” Send us your best joke, we’ll decide if it’s funny. We can only print what we can print, so don’t blame us. Please send “jokes” to letters@ montecitojournal.net
“I’m doing this because I believe so strongly that we need a change in leadership,” she argued onstage. “I couldn’t stand watching what’s happening.” Several sources who spoke to the Journal pointed to the Grand Jury’s explosive claim that its investigation was stymied by stall tactics from county executives. To them, any stonewalling could have only helped Williams win his race against Capps. “The election was in March, and I must have gotten my summons a year and a half ago,” complained one Carpinteria resident who asked not to be identified by name but who Grand Jurors interviewed for the cannabis probe. “I thought they’d be putting out their report by the beginning of the year. This was a deliberate stonewalling.” For her part, Capps says she hopes the Grand Jury’s report will help speed reform of the county’s cannabis policy. “The non-partisan, independent Grand Jury deserves our thanks for their thorough investigation,” she said. “Among many discoveries, it’s alarming to learn that County leaders stalled this work for months prior to the election. Now, I hope they do the right thing and follow the Jury’s common-sense recommendations – especially protecting the health of children and neighbors and long overdue County ethics reform. It is time.” Next week: Are county supervisors involved in the cannabis controversy being probed in a separate investigation? •MJ
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