Santa Barbara County

Volume 5

Issue 4

Big Bad Government To The Rescue?

2

Jerry Brown Saving The World While California Burns

3

If Only We Could Fix Potholes With Vitriol!

5

Where Will Our Children And Grandchildren Live?

7

No Truth On Board This Train Of Thought

9

The Gospel According To The Clueless

11

A Day Without Victims

12

The Right Kind Of Mexican

13

Public Employees — Ever More Untouchable

14

The Delinquent Supervisor

16

Inside the April

Issue:

April

2017

COLAB

PO Box 7523

Santa Maria, CA 93456

Phone:

805-929-3148

E-mail:

Andy@colabsbc.org

Big Bad Government To The Rescue?

By Andy Caldwell

Volume 5 Issue 4 COLAB Magazine Page 2

Regarding the recent hearing on tenants’ rights

before the Santa Barbara city council, let us recognize that Santa Barbara is unaffordable for a variety of rea-sons. You could sum up the major reasons by way of two laws: the law of supply and demand, and the law of unintended consequences. Having said that, some of the additional cost drivers are the result of intended consequences of community rules, values and priori-ties!

Regarding the law of supply and demand, because of the natural beauty of the community, I don’t believe there is a reasonable or permanent solution to ad-dress the demand side of the equation. Santa Barba-ra is one of the most desirable communities in our state and nation and therefore, we could never build enough housing to accommodate everybody who would like to live here. Moreover, we have severe limitations on the ability to serve our current popula-tion, including the fact that 90% of the water supply must be imported from outside the area, and that is not going to change anytime soon because our repre-sentatives refuse to do what is necessary to increase our supply in a meaningful way.

Further, our community is home to UCSB and City College. Unlike Westmont College, neither of these institutions have built enough housing to accommo-date the demand they create. Whereas, this is typical of the UC system, it is not typical of community colleg-es per se. Typically, community colleges draw from residents who already live in the area versus Santa Barbara City College’s somewhat unique tradition of attracting students from throughout the state, nation

and the world!

Now, regarding the law of unintended consequences, to protect the scenic values of the community, the city has height ordinances that limit the wherewithal of property owners to circumvent the exorbitant cost of land by building up. The availability of land is further exacerbated by the penchant of the community to support acquisition of properties by non-profit land trusts setting aside the properties as open space in perpetuity. I have never quite understood this phe-nomenon as the city is bordered by the biggest open space in the world, that being the Pacific Ocean on one side, and the Los Padres Forest on the oth-er. And, it’s not like there is a shortage of parks scat-tered throughout the community, albeit, I don’t blame people for not wanting to hang out with the homeless in the parks, but that is another story!

The truth is, Santa Barbara can’t have it all except by machinations that defy market conditions and the con-stitutional rights of property owners. Hence, the ap-peal to the City Council from Daraka Larimore-Hall, chairman of the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party asking for the “big bad institutions of govern-ment” (his words, not mine!) to protect renters from landlords. Every policy the dems would implement have had nothing less than disastrous impacts wher-ever they have been tried. The truth is, making vic-tims of landlords will not increase the affordability or availability of rental properties in the community. First Published in the Santa Barbara News Press

104 Cuyama Lane Nipomo, CA 93444

805-739-5354 / www.sudsvendor.com

Jerry Brown Saving The World While California Burns

By Katy Grimes

destroy the state… If so, he’s doing a bang-up job (she says ironically). Jerry is malevolent, lethal, and frankly malignant. And the Dems in the Legislature are just as bad in this Democrat-controlled state.

But none of this could happen without the help of the media. If any of the Capitol reporters were actual watchdogs, Jerry Brown would never have been reelected in 2010.

Here is another gross display of media swooning, and an example of a stretch in reasoning?

“California voters rejected Donald Trump during the election, and the state’s leaders continue to push back on his initiatives. On issues from health care to immigration, California’s governor and Democratic leaders oppose the new president,” Maureen Chow-dhury and Christopher Cadelago wrote in the Sacra-mento Bee under a photo.

In the body of the article, this is what actually hap-pened:

“The California Air Resources Board voted (Continued on page 17)

Page 3 Volume 5 Issue 4 COLAB Magazine

California legislative knuckleheads really don’t

know how stupid they look, do they?

“As a symbol of California’s commitment to the envi-ronment and combatting climate change, the Depart-ment of General Services (DGS), in cooperation with the Joint Rules Committee, will turn off the State Capi-tol dome lights for one hour (from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.) this Saturday, March 25th, to observe Earth Hour.”

We’re going to turn the dome lights off, but leave all the internal ones on. That makes sense…

They’re too busy saving the world while the state burns.

And Jerry Brown “is mulling ways to prevent the end of the world,” according to the SacBee. “I think the world is getting closer to the brink of destruction,” Gov. Brownsaid. “It’s bad. And there is goofing off on a bunch of sidebar activity, in my opinion. What we have to do is everything possible to at least start talk-ing.”

While California drowns in debt, its public schools are failing and ranked with some of the lowest reading scores in the country, criminals are being let out of prison and jails and crime is spiking, water is cut off to our farmers*, illegal aliens and “refugees” are arriving in droves as Democrats are trying to pass legislation making California a sanctuary state, one dam we know of may blow apart (who knows about the rest…),bridges are falling down, highways are crum-bling, and Democrats flout federal election laws by allowing millions of illegals to vote, Jerry and his cor-rupt Democrats in the statehouse (and feckless Reps) are introducing bills at lightening speed to add regula-tions, massive tax increases, more gun control, re-stricting more freedoms, all while prattling on about climate change and nuclear war.

My analogy: Our house is falling down, the roof is leaking, the power and water has been turned off, the foundation is leaning, and Democrats want to borrow money at a high interest rate to put in a new swim-ming pool.

And Governor Moonbeam is mulling ways to prevent the end of the world, because everything he says and does is so brilliant. Well, Jerry thinks so.

Brown is an ignoble narcissist… unless he is trying to

Nothing But The Truth?

By Andy Caldwell

Obama and Hillary Clinton issued statements that were deliberately false. Perhaps the most egregious had to do with the murder of our ambassador to Lib-ya. Obama and Clinton, et al, all repeated the same talking point that the Benghazi attack was the result of a video that outraged Muslims. They even repeated the lie to the grieving families who came to receive the remains of their loved ones when the bodies were flown home.

I would much rather have people leading this country that speak honestly, candidly and extemporaneously, knowing full well that they may make mistakes and be misunderstood, for there is always the opportunity to correct and clarify the record. That, rather than hav-ing to listen to professional politicians who are trained to lie and intent on deception. First Published in the Santa Barbara News Press

Page 4 Volume 5 Issue 4 COLAB Magazine

The left in America and their sycophants in the me-

dia are having a field day excoriating President Trump and some of his representatives for having misspoken. They would have us believe that the ad-ministration does not know what it is talking about or is deliberately trying to mislead the people.

For instance, there was the occasion when Kellyanne Conway spoke of the Bowling Green terrorist at-tack. The truth is, there has never been a terrorist attack in Bowling Green. However, there were two people from Bowling Green who were arrested for plotting against American interests. Then there was President Donald Trump’s reference to keeping Amer-ica safe versus “what was happening in Sweden last night”. In reality, no particular incident had occurred in Sweden the night before. What the President was referring to was a report on problems in Sweden that was aired on television the night before.

So, what is going on here? Donald Trump often speaks extemporaneously, meaning he does not stick to a script that has been carefully prepared and vet-ted. As a result, he does not come across as very articulate, nor is he always precise. I can’t speak to the faux pas of the rest of his administration except to say when they are being interviewed, on more occa-sions than not, the media is playing a game of gotcha with them, purposely trying to make them slip up.

I am neither shocked nor disappointed in the fact that President Trump shoots from the lip because what I really loathe, and what America should really be afraid of, is the antithesis of extemporaneous speak-ing. That has to do with our experience with the Obama administration, the Clintons, and the left in general.

President Obama, rarely, if ever, spoke without a tele-prompter. As a result, his remarks were never truly candid. And, do you remember Bill Clinton waving his finger in the face of America declaring “I did not have sex with that woman”? Or, the Wikileaks disclosure that Hillary Clinton was so choreographed, that her speaking notes included instructions on when to smile? What I am saying here is that you really don’t know who these people are and what they really think because they are simply performing from a script.

On occasions, too numerous to count, President

If Only We Could Fix Potholes With Vitriol!

By Andy Caldwell

area, Supervisor Janet Wolf went apoplectic! She went off on the company, considered exemplary by county staff, citing past violations which have abso-lutely nothing to do with the easements. Contextually, the pipelines in question are better maintained than our county roads! Further, how can it be lost on Su-pervisor Wolf that we need oil byproducts to fix our failing roads?

Supervisor Wolf is inclined to demand 100% compli-ance with all regulations involving industry. Yet, as Supervisor Lavagnino pointed out, the problem here is not that companies fail to comply, as much as, our regulatory standards are nearly impossible to comply with! Regarding these pollution standards, do you know that when you remove the gas nozzle after filling your gas tank, or use products such as nail polish, that you are emitting air pollution? That same level of pollution, if it is coming from a valve or a flange on a pipeline in an oil field, will result in a notice of violation to a company.

It is, therefore, the height of arrogance and duplicity for politicians to demand 100% compliance on mainte-nance of private infrastructure while these same offi-cials are failing miserably to maintain public infrastruc-ture. Despite Supervisor Wolf’s admonition for us to “get over it”, we can’t allow her predilection to berate industry for its imperfections go unchallenged, as there is no denying government and society’s all too convenient double standards with regard to pollution and maintenance of infrastructure. First Published in the Santa Barbara News Press

Page 5 Volume 5 Issue 4 COLAB Magazine

Crisscrossing every street in your neighborhood

are pipelines and conduits, including gas, electrical, water and sewer lines, which can pose a danger un-der certain circumstances. Every one of these con-veyances, if they are owned by private franchises, are permitted by way of a public easement- a basic rental agreement meaning the companies who install, oper-ate and maintain this vital infrastructure must pay lo-cal municipalities for the use of the space under public roads and right of ways.

The most dangerous pipelines are natural gas pipe-lines. Relatedly, this is why we have carbon detectors in our homes, and why water heaters are required to be strapped to walls. In the event of an earthquake, typically more damage will ensue from natural gas fires than the earthquake. Yet, with few exceptions, the use of natural gas is so safe we take its presence and convenience in our homes for granted.

Now, consider the water lines and sewer lines owned and operated by government that have been allowed to fall into a state of disrepair. Santa Barbara has had more than its fair share of breaks! Moreover, consid-er the dams, streets, freeways and bridges that are not being maintained by government. The truth is, hundreds of billions of dollars of infrastructure is crum-bling because our government scarcely maintains what we have built.

Last week, when an oil and gas operation filed for a routine twenty-year agreement with the county to al-low the continued use of an easement under a county road that bifurcates their 110-year-old production

Who Can Best Raise A Child?

By Andy Caldwell

on the liberal do-gooders in our State govern-ment. For instance, another provision recognizes the right of children to form healthy attachments with adults responsible for their care and well-being. This provision, coupled with the rest of the bill, could be used to take kids away from inner city hellholes where the kids are bereft of responsible parents, competent schools, and safe neighborhoods.

This bill has more to do with expanding the power of nanny statists than it is about the rights of chil-dren. Unfortunately, our State legislature will never force Senator Pan to delineate exactly which prob-lems he is attempting to address or who will make the judgement calls and create the standards by which kids should be raised. And, as usual, you can bet that conservative parents will be in the cross-hair of this legislation if it becomes law.

The left can’t bear to think that parents know what is best for their children and have their best interests in mind without government imposition and interfer-ence. This bill is going to radically inflate and distort what constitutes child abuse and neglect in order to conform to a diabolical progressive notion of how to raise children, including such things as whether the child is getting the right amount of exercise, and the right food, values and religion!

Andy Caldwell is the executive director of COLAB

Page 6 Volume 5 Issue 4 COLAB Magazine

Hillary Clinton once asserted, “It takes a village to

raise a child”. Not to be outdone, California State Senator Richard Pan believes it takes an entire state government to raise a child considering his bill, SB 18- The Bill of Rights for Children and Youth in Califor-nia.

Our society has a multitude of laws to serve and pro-tect children including numerous programs which pro-vide food, housing, and health services to children and their families, along with prohibitions against vari-ous forms of child abuse, neglect, mandatory school attendance, prohibitions against child labor and the like. Nonetheless, Sen. Pan doesn’t believe govern-ment has enough authority in our families.

Upon first reading of the bill, one would think that it is well intentioned. It applies to all children regardless of religion, gender, immigration status, national origin, sexual orientation and culture. But, as always, the devil is in the details! For instance, the first provision states that children have “The rights to parents, guardians, or caregivers who act in their best inter-est”. Stop right there and consider who is going to make the judgement call about what is in a child’s best interest? The phrase “best interest of the child” is often invoked in divorce custody proceedings when spouses disagree over what is best for the child. However, thanks to SB18, this provision could be used to counter parents who agree with one anoth-er while either the state government or the child has another opinion on the matter!

Other provisions of the bill recognize the right of chil-dren to social and emotional well-being, the right to optimal cognitive, physical and social development, along with appropriate, quality education. Again, who is going to make the judgement call as to the stand-ards of these provisions? Certainly, not the par-ents! This bill interposes State authority for the exact purpose of intervening in the home to counter parental authority and discretion as it exists today. Moreover, all the buzzwords in these provisions could be used to undermine school choice, religious freedom, and even family tradition and culture if, in the opinion of our state government, they have a better idea of how to raise kids.

The irony here is that this bill could backfire big time

Health Sanitation Services

(805) 922-2121

Where Will Our Children And Grandchildren Live?

By Mike Brown

environmentalists, public officials, media, and the rest of the “intelligentsia,” most of whose members are already both smugly and snugly housed in affluent sprawl communities.

Along these lines, Los Angeles is often demonized as the poster child for bad sprawl development. The photo to the right shows Hollywood in 1905 and the road that ultimately became the legendary Sunset Boulevard. The view is toward the west and what would eventually become Beverly Hills, Bel Air, and Brentwood. Perhaps the view reached all the way to the Pacific on a clear day.

The nostalgic scene, evocative of the plein air paintings of the era, has evolved over the last 112 years into an intense commercial strip surrounded by some of the most fantastically expensive sprawl housing on the planet. The photo above displays

(Continued on page 18)

Page 7 Volume 5 Issue 4 COLAB Magazine

Long-term Santa Barbara County homebuilder and

philanthropist Mike Towbes has wryly pointed out that opposition to development of new housing is usually based either on dislike of urban sprawl or on dislike of density. Taken to their logical extremes, and if bans on both are incorporated into local land use polices occur simultaneously, not much can ever be built.

Ironically and disingenuously, San Luis Obispo County’s overall no-sprawl scheme of land use, so-called “smart growth” plan, mandates that new homes be largely developed in the county’s seven incorporated cities (over which the county board has no land use authority).

As a sop to the idea of building homes, previous SLO County Board of Supervisors majorities gave lip service to new development but required that it be restricted to the four village areas of Nipomo, Oceano, Templeton, and San Miguel. A subsequent County study indicated that an investment of $400 million in roads, utilities, drainage, and other public facilities would be required to allow development in the four villages.

The underlying theory is that sprawl is inefficient from the standpoint of providing municipal services, is unsightly and harmful to natural resources, and, most importantly, generates too much climate changing greenhouse gas because of all the driving that low density development promotes.

For the past six decades, urban sprawl has been opposed by academics, city and regional planners,

Volume 5 Issue 4 COLAB Magazine Page 8

Although there has been some improvement over

the years, the fact remains that the county’s planning and development department is not consumer-friendly by design. This has to do with certain politicians who are well served by a byzantine and expensive laby-rinth of process. Rules and regulations preventing change and controlling growth makes their job easier to just say “no” to applicants!

Accordingly, I never blame staff for the entirety of the related problems with our land use process. Moreo-ver, the State of California has been a willing partner, providing plenty of red tape in the form of the Califor-nia Environmental Quality Act, which serves to create costly environmental review, project-killing conditions of approval, and the opportunity for endless legal challenges.

Historically, the county used discretionary funds to partially offset the cost of obtaining permits, but that is about to end. The Board of Supervisors is now requir-ing applicants to pay 100% of the costs associated with providing services funded by permit fees. There are several major problems with this approach.

The primary concern is that the Board of Supervisors will no longer have much of any incentive to keep the costs to a reasonable level or assure that the depart-ment is providing reasonable services in a timely manner. Accordingly, the department intends to charge consumers $226 an hour for services ren-dered, with no penalties whatsoever for failing to meet their own standards for permit processing. For exam-ple, permits that should be available within a matter of days can instead take weeks or months! The public has no reason to believe that issues related to effi-ciency, timeliness and certainty will be addressed de-spite this $2.8 million fee increase!

Now, planners on average don’t make much more than $40 an hour which means the rest of $226 an hour will be going to overhead charges, pensions, and benefits. In fact, the main reason the county is want-ing to pass all the costs to consumers is because the supervisors do not have the political will to control the costs associated with salaries, benefits and pen-sions. At best, they have tried to ride out one pension crisis after another, instead of taking the actions nec-essary to tame the beast. Pension costs have sky-rocketed and things are only going to get worse until the entire compensation model for government em-

ployees undergoes a paradigm shift. Nevertheless, to free up money for other programs, the board is more than willing to approve the proposal to make consum-ers pay inordinately more.

Perhaps, the most nefarious detail about the concept of 100% cost recovery is that consumers will be charged for the cost of an employee’s holiday, vaca-tion time, sick leave and even time off due to inju-ry! In other words, applicants will be paying for all the staff costs of departmental employees who are absent from work on average one to two months out of the year. Moreover, if some busy body neighbor or pro-fessional activist makes a stink about a project, the applicant ends up with more charges! And, the coun-ty is committed to providing a subsidy ($240,000 per year) to the people who appeal permits rather than the people trying to invest in our community! Talk about insult to injury!

This plan should not move forward until a thorough effort has been made to create permit streamlining and departmental efficiencies to ensure consumers are not getting gouged. Finally, serious consideration should be given to determine whether outside con-tractors could perform these functions to avoid these significant overcharges and we should reconsider whether work performed by licensed contractors and engineers should even require a permit in the first place. First Published in the Santa Barbara News Press

County Subsidizes Appeals And Punishes Investment

By Andy Caldwell

805-937-6151

No Truth On Board This Train Of Thought

By Andy Caldwell

VAFB? Moreover, do you know that nuclear bombs are transported across country by truck?

Another consideration? Passenger rail poses direct threats to public safety, yet these supervisors want more of it! The dangers include accidents by way of derailments and collisions on tracks, and pedestrians getting run over by trains. Nevertheless, these Supervisors haven’t demanded an end to passenger rail or erected fences along the rail corridor.

Let it not be lost on the public as it is with these three supervisors, that with a $35 million deficit, the oil industry is the source of the highest paying jobs and tax revenue in the county. This project is very important to our local oil producers and the staff report completely ignored these facts. Moreover, California is dependent on oil imports to fuel the economy and satisfy consumer demands, something that even Governor Jerry Brown has recognized.

Oil must come here by way of rail, ship, truck or pipeline unless, of course, we produce what we need locally. Yet, we have seen the Board object to all these modes of transport at one time or another, and they are certainly opposed to local production. That indicates we have ideologues and activists sitting on the dais rather than problem solvers and we are being ill-served as a result. First Published in the Santa Barbara News Press

Page 9 Volume 5 Issue 4 COLAB Magazine

I have sat through over 1,000 county supervisors

meetings, but rarely have I seen a better Kabuki Theater performance than I witnessed last week. Supervisors Joan Hartmann, Das Williams and Janet Wolf alone were on the stage. Supervisor Steve Lavagnino was in Washington, D.C. on county business and Supervisor Peter Adam left the dais instead of participating in the kangaroo court. The subject matter had to do with an oil refinery operation in San Luis Obispo County which applied for a permit to bring in more oil by way of additional rail car delivery.

The staff report for this item was simply appalling. It lacked details, perspective, history and context. It was simply a cover story for a foregone conclusion. Supervisors Hartmann, Williams and Wolf would have us believe they opposed the project due to safety concerns having to do with transporting oil by rail car even though it is done all the time. The truth is, they simply want oil operations to cease here locally as they attempt to justify the same with phony excuses, faux concerns, and flawed logic.

The staff report referenced two non-local rail car accidents that involved oil transport. One of the accidents was caused by a broken bolt on the track while the other was caused by the failure of the crew to set the brakes on the train which they left parked on a hill overnight! The point is, the cargo itself was not the cause of the accident, and there could have been any number of other products being hauled on either train that could have proven equally hazardous.

Absolutely everything we use in our society is hauled at one time or another by either truck or rail. The oil refinery in SLO currently has product delivered by rail, truck and pipeline. Contextually, the 101 freeway runs along our coast line and right through our cities parallel to the railroad tracks posing the same threat as rail! For these supervisors to object to oil transport without ever bothering to consider what else is transported by way of truck and track through the midst of populated areas reeks of willful ignorance. Along these lines, one of the public commentators mentioned the dangers of an oil train passing through VAFB. I then raised the question, how do you think we get rocket fuel to

RINOcare Won’t Fix Obamacare

By Andy Caldwell

that people suffering from poor lifestyle choices (e.g., obese, drug and alcohol abuse), chronic conditions and diseases are going to have to expect to pay more based on risk. However, replacing current work-provided insurance with ubiquitous tax free health savings accounts could be a game changer. That is, if health savings accounts are construed to allow patients to directly negotiate with and pay cash to care providers for treatment, this would introduce personal accountability and competition to the system. Why not trust consumers with skin in the game to negotiate with competing providers who publish their charges? Doing so would serve to eliminate much of the cottage industry of middlemen who siphon upwards of 90% of the dollars spent!

Other considerations would include streamlining the process to bring new drugs to market, shielding drug manufacturers and doctors from outrageous liability and malpractice lawsuits, and creating a safety net for people with catastrophic ailments. First Published in the Santa Barbara News Press

Page 10 Volume 5 Issue 4 COLAB Magazine

Upon implementation of the so-called Affordable

Care Act, which was passed without a single republican vote, President Obama promised two very important things: premiums would go down and we could keep our doctor. These promises were false and, subsequently, Obamacare is imploding.

Unfortunately, the Republican party has come up short on its promise to repeal and replace Obamacare. One of the primary reasons has to do with the entitlement nature of the American people. Once they have been given something for free, or nearly free, they believe their rights will be violated if the benefit is rescinded. The republican party doesn’t want to be the messenger shot for highlighting the unfortunate reality that nothing in life is free.

Obamacare served to redistribute wealth in the form of health care premiums, mandates and taxes, making everybody a loser. We discovered the difference between having insurance and getting treatment. In other words, having an insurance card does not guarantee we can find a doctor or clinic that will take us in! We also suffered premium increases and out of pocket costs which skyrocketed, meaning most of our insurance plans now only provide catastrophic coverage.

We must acknowledge something very important regarding the uninsured and the poor that was true before Obamacare and is still true now. They may not have had health insurance but that does not mean they went without health care. As an example, our county spends over $50 million every year operating community health care centers for the poor and uninsured.

To understand how prevalent county care is, nearly half of all the babies born in the county are birthed at county clinics. The county serves tens of thousands of patients annually. Relatedly, the reason hospital emergency rooms are often full of people with non-emergency conditions is because everyone knows they must treat people regardless of their ability to pay. The point here is that eliminating Obamacare will not eliminate health care for those without insurance or the ability to pay.

Going forward, the cost of insurance must be based on risk or it is not truly insurance! What that means is

Friday, April 7th

Michael McDonald

Friday, April 14th

Coco Martin and the Funtastic 4

Friday, April 21st

America

Friday, April 28th

Colin & Brad

Volume 5 Issue 4 COLAB Magazine Page 11

An organization of social justice warriors in our

community goes by the name of CLUE- Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice. Their latest cause has to do with illegal immigration. First, they rallied against President Trump’s temporary immigration ban and the construction of a wall along our border with Mexico. Then, they cosponsored a workshop on how churches can offer sanctuary to illegal aliens, presum-ably, those trying to hide from ICE. Lastly, they sup-ported an effort to prepare people for immigration en-forcement actions.

This last event featured presentations by the Mexican Consulate, Congressman Salud Carbajal, Assembly member Monique Limon, SB Council member Cathy Murillo, the Reverend Julia Hamilton from the Unitari-an Society, and Jacqueline Inda representing the Re-storative Justice Education Center among oth-ers. What belies any credence that these people are doing the Lord’s work was a declaration in the meet-ing notice that stated, “Please be assured that every top official in every institution is here to stand against hate and for all migrant families and communities”.

The fact that members of CLUE hold their meetings in church sanctuaries gives no credence to the proposi-tion that their efforts occupy the moral high ground. Quite the opposite. As it pertains to the members of CLUE who claim our Judeo-Christian her-itage as their world view, I would maintain that the trendy left political causes they support are antithetical to sound biblical precepts.

Let’s consider CLUE’s campaign for social and eco-nomic justice. CLUE’s version of “justice” comes at

The Gospel According To The Clueless

By Andy Caldwell

Full Service Culinary and Bar Catering

The Premier Caterer in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties

Since 1983 “Locally Owned by Martin & Debi Testa”

805-739-0809 www.TestaCatering.com

the expense of the requirement for personal responsi-bility. This is nothing less than a prescription for seri-ous character flaws and in the case of illegal immigra-tion, criminal acts. To equate the standard enforce-ment of universal immigration laws as acts of hate is simply bearing false witness. Moreover, America did not make these people poor or oppressed! Their cur-rent circumstances are in large part the repercussions of their own decision to break the law by coming here without authorization.

CLUE needs to come to terms with the fact that the bible charges people of faith to take care of the poor, not the government! That is, the legitimate poor are to be taken care of by means of charity which is vol-untary in nature not by means of coerced giving in the form of taxes. Further, the biblical reference to the poor to be helped by charitable giving is typically lim-ited to the disabled, widows without any family mem-bers to support them, and orphans, but not the able bodied. It is therefore altogether too convenient that churches in America today want to reach into the pocket of the taxpayer, rather than their own pocket, to fulfill this charge to care for the poor!

Finally, CLUE allies itself with several elitist radical environmentalists who are targeting agriculture and oil in our county. If they are successful in their efforts, the result will be nothing less than fewer jobs for the people they claim to be helping, along with higher prices for food and energy, something the poor can scarcely afford.

First Published in the Santa Barbara News Press

A Day Without Victims

By Andy Caldwell

society. Their assumption is that every woman’s place is in the marketplace. Yet, there are reams of polling data, surveys and the like that indicate most women feel neither happy, fulfilled or content compet-ing and living solely in the rat race! Hence, on their own volition, they freely limit their overall earning po-tential to pursue something more fulfilling and reward-ing, typically in the home.

Furthermore, most poverty in America can be traced to the subsequent breakdown of the family including single and divorced women trying to raise kids on their own. The leading indicator of poverty is young women having babies without having completed their schooling or bothering to get married. This phenome-non of family disintegration also explains most juve-nile crime, not to mention the concurrent and dastard-ly failure of men and fathers.

First Published in the Santa Barbara News Press

Page 12 Volume 5 Issue 4 COLAB Magazine

Today a strike has been called, “a day without

women”, reflecting a sentimentality that is quite pa-thetic. It all has to do with an inordinate and exagger-ated claim of victimization and narratives about wars against this and that. Various components of the democratic party would have us believe conservatives and capitalists are waging a war on women, the envi-ronment, immigrants, blacks, Muslims, the poor, etc., etc.. How I wish we could have a day without so-called victims instead!

Our DNA as Americans is that of pilgrims, pioneers, adventurers, innovators, entrepreneurs, risk takers, and warriors. Our forefathers did not rely on playing the victim card even though our history is replete with various people groups having been treated with bias and deprived of justice. This history of injustice in-cluded women, blacks, Italians, Irish, Asians and dust bowl Okies to name just a few. Instead of playing the victim, these Americans armed themselves with facts, principles, reason, and a lot of grit, overcoming im-pediments to freedom and success by way of determi-nation, suffering, and hard work. In short, they earned the respect that was due them without whining about it. Today, however, we have false classes of victims spinning narratives to evade culpability for their own choices.

Let’s take the so-called war on women as one exam-ple. The left would have us believe that women are being held back in the marketplace including being paid less than men. However, when one examines the facts, the disparities in pay disappear altogeth-er. Often, by choice, women tend to take time off to have and raise kids. To that end, they also tend to want to work less hours and take less demanding jobs.

The point here is that is a good thing! The worth of women should not be measured by a pay check be-cause having children and raising them is invalua-ble. Consider Tocqueville’s observations and com-mentaries. He observed that America became great because of the role of women in marriage, the family and the community. Specifically, they kept men in check and inculcated values in our children.

The feminists are waging a war against these suc-cessful traditions as they serve to destroy the fabric of

Walker Wilson & Hughen,

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The Right Kind Of Mexican

By Andy Caldwell

council remarked during the hearing, it is “because she is not the right kind of Mexican”! She went on to say she has never witnessed such blatant prejudice in her life.

Councilwoman Watterfield’s diagnosis hit the mark. It reminded me of Santa Barbara’s Latino Action Voter Alliance, whose stated mission was to elect Latinos to local office. They nonetheless opposed Joe Centeno in his bid to become a county supervisor. They in-stead endorsed his opponent who happened to be a lily-white progressive! Then there was the prominent Hispanic activist who told the press that Abel Maldo-nado, the son of a former Bracero, can’t represent Mexicans because he is a republican! That sums it up!

What we have here is nothing less than an effort to politically deconstruct communities that have success-fully assimilated as evidenced by the fact that they are represented by a majority of minority politicians. That is because racial divide and rancor, rather than assim-ilation, is the goal of CAUSE. CAUSE aims to create a class of victims and train them to rage against the status quo regardless of the circumstances. While CAUSE rages on, Santa Maria continues to be led by Latinos who themselves had a very rough start in life only to become successful, respected members of the community. Why not emulate, instead of protest, their success? Because then there would be no CAUSE.

First Published in the Santa Barbara News Press

Page 13 Volume 5 Issue 4 COLAB Magazine

One of the most deleterious and ironic impacts

community organizers have on the community is the fomentation of rancor, bitterness, and division. They use division in the community as a unifying principle among the people they are exploiting by creating ene-mies of “the others”. In the end, the community is less unified but the organizers are empowered and that is all that matters.

One current manifestation of this divide and conquer strategy is the quest for district elections in local mu-nicipalities. Santa Barbara was forced to change from at-large elections to district elections, and so has San-ta Maria, and soon it will be Goleta’s turn. One of the organizations involved in this effort is CAUSE.

CAUSE is not a genuine grassroots organization that sprung up to represent local citizens, instead it is a directed organization funded by leftist foundations who seek to radically transform California. CAUSE is routinely given $90,000 per year by the McCune Foundation to raise up and train community organiz-ers, primarily in the North County. Likewise, the Fund for Santa Barbara has been good for another $20,000 or so per year. Whereas CAUSE claims its goal is to promote and empower Latinos, the ugly truth is some-thing different altogether.

Santa Maria is a working-class community with a huge Latino population that includes an enormous number of illegal aliens. Accordingly, there are fewer voters in Santa Maria than in any other district in the county. Regardless, three of the current city council members are Latino and three of the last four Mayors were Latino. Furthermore, Santa Maria is the only district in the county who elected a Latino Supervisor, Joe Centeno, to the Board of Supervisors. And, final-ly, Abel Maldonado was a councilman, mayor, assem-blyman, state senator and Lt. Governor who got his start in Santa Maria. All in all, Santa Maria, has prov-en itself quite progressive when it comes to electing Latinos to office. Nonetheless, CAUSE and its allies feel a need to organize in Santa Maria. Why is that?

Specifically, why on earth would Santa Barbara City Councilman, Jason Dominguez, threaten litigation against Santa Maria over minority representation on the city’s council? As Santa Maria City Councilwom-an, Etta Watterfield, one of the three Latinos on the

Public Employees — Ever More Untouchable

By Steven Greenhut

costs.

There are numerous problems with the plan. Califor-nia never has enough cash to maintain its crumbling infrastructure, yet would somehow come up with hun-dreds of millions of dollars more (the Legislative Ana-lyst has yet to figure the exact cost) each year to backfill this new exemption. That will drive tax increas-es. The state already earmarks 43 percent of the gen-eral-fund budget to public-school education, so this would crowd out everything else.

Furthermore, there are so many other sensible ways to deal with any teacher shortage. Teachers unions are busy harassing and hobbling charter schools, which manage to do a far better job in even impover-ished areas than the traditional school systems. Poli-cies that promoted charters and other forms of school choice would be more effective at filling the gap. Re-member: The goal should be educational outcomes, not number of teachers on a payroll.

School administrations have become behemoths. “General fund spending by school districts on teacher salaries rose by 15 percent, or $3 billion, from the 2010-11 school year to 2015-16. During the same pe-riod, administrator pay grew by 27 percent, or $700 million,” according to a new analysis by the Sacramento Bee. How about first getting control of administrative budgets, thus leaving more dollars available for teacher pay? Never mind that teacher pay ought to be a matter for local districts, not the state Legislature.

And then there are all of those union restrictions. Ide-as such as merit pay or eliminating the “last in, first out” system of layoffs would help stretch public-school budgets and assure that the best teachers get placed where they are needed most.

Public schools have become a laughingstock for their “rubber rooms,” where teachers deemed unfit for classroom work sit and collect their pay and benefits as their appeals wind through the system. How about reforming the layoff process?

Local school districts squander a large portion of their school-facilities bonds by passing Project Labor Agreements that hike spending costs (by around 30

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Page 14 Volume 5 Issue 4 COLAB Magazine

One of the most obnoxious trends in the nation,

and one that is particularly acute in California, is the continued push to enshrine public employees as a special, privileged caste of Americans, exempt from the rules and obligations that apply to the rest of us.

As I documented in my 2009 book, Plunder!, public employees often now receive the kind of pay, benefits and protections more fitting for France, where civil service is the highest calling. In the United States, we traditionally valued entrepreneurship and freedom above pencil-pushing and bureaucracy. But times have changed.

In California, a raft of public-employee groups can re-tire at age 50 with nearly — and sometimes beyond — their final pay. They are basically immune from fir-ing and often from prosecution, even for the most hor-rific behavior. Their unions rule our state Capitol with an iron fist. It’s no wonder the total average firefighter compensation here tops $175,000 a year — and pub-lic employees in California earn double their private-sector counterparts.

Try going to most city halls on, say, a Friday afternoon to get a permit for some project you’re building with your own funds. Forget about it. It’s likely closed, giv-en that the convenience and comfort of public-sector workers is more important than the convenience of the people they are supposed to serve. Do they work for us, or do we work for them? You know the answer.

We really aren’t in it together, despite the blather from public-employee unions. As liabilities for pensions and retiree medical-care soar — topping $1 trillion in Cali-fornia alone, according to some pretty reasonable es-timates — the average working person will need to work longer to pay the tab, given these benefits are backed by the taxpayers.

As public workers go, school teachers are on the low-er end of the pay scale and receive more modest (but still lucrative) pension promises, even if the latter are underfunded. But a new proposal by some Demo-cratic senators is one of the most dangerous I’ve ever seen. Senate Bill 807 would exempt teachers from paying the state income tax after five years on the job. It is designed to deal with a supposed teacher short-age. It also gives credits for tuition and credentialing

Public Employees — Ever More Untouchable Cont.

a plan to exacerbate that problem, by imposing a state-based death tax if the Trump administration and Republican Congress succeed in ditching national estate taxes.

The result is a budget process defined by wild boom-and-bust cycles as revenues follow the fortunes of a relatively small number of high-tech companies. But such progressivity also propels an endless cycle of government growth. Because lower-income California residents pay so little, they have no real concern about new spending plans. Someone else will pay the cost. Exempting whole categories of public employees from the income tax will exacerbate this situation.

In 1999, legislators passed a massive, retroactive pension increase for the California Highway Patrol. They knew the “3 percent at 50” plan would spread across the state. It did, and now California taxpayers are facing enormous liabilities. The income-tax plan is unlikely to get past a budget-minded governor this year, but this idea also will spread. Its introduction showcases a sad truth: Public workers are no longer our servants, but our masters.

Steven Greenhut is Senior Fellow and Western Region Director for the R Street Institute

Page 15 Volume 5 Issue 4 COLAB Magazine

percent) by earmarking all construction dollars to a smaller number of union contractors. In other words, there are myriad ways to meet the needs of current student populations, improve educational perfor-mance and stretch public-school budgets without coming up with another publicly funded boondoggle.

But the worst part of the tax-exemption plan revolves around the point I made earlier: It promotes the idea that certain groups of public employees are special, and don’t need to shoulder their share of the state’s tax burden. How long before it spreads to police offic-ers, firefighters, Department of Motor Vehicles work-ers, etc.?

If you listen to Democratic leaders and union officials, there are shortages of many types of public employ-ee, and the “Teacher Recruitment and Retention Act of 2017” will be the model other groups follow. No one will ask the obvious questions: Aren’t there too many agencies already? Don’t we have too many public em-ployees doing too little, or worse yet, doing too many things that shouldn’t be done in the first place?

California has the most steeply progressive tax sys-tem in the nation. A small percentage of entrepre-neurs pays the bulk of its income taxes. There’s even

(Continued from page 14)

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The Delinquent Supervisor

By Andy Caldwell

There are many other things the State refuses to do including reforming the California Environmental Qual-ity Act, lowering taxes, reducing the regulatory bur-den, instituting welfare reform, making our failing in-frastructure a priority, cooperating with the federal government on immigration reform, and holding felons in state prisons instead of dumping them into county jails. All told, our state has accumulated one trillion dollars in debt and deficits as a result of political mal-practice and fiscal malfeasance. Considering all this, instead of self-recrimination, Das Williams decides to excoriate the Sheriff?

Supervisor Williams hasn’t even sat through a county budget hearing yet. Nonetheless, after having served in the Assembly for six years, he tried to turn the table on the Sheriff after only having served for two months on the Board. This was simply pompous and ludi-crous considering the biggest cost-driver of county government is salaries, pensions and benefits which comprise 60% of the budget. The Board of Supervi-sors alone approves the contracts with public union members, including that of the deputy sheriffs. No other elected officials have any say in the matter.

Supervisor Williams is about to learn the hard way that what goes around comes around. Having moved down the hill for these next four years, he had better learn to dodge rocks while attempting to move a mountain of glass shards. Passing blame and casting dispersions on the little people is not going to help anyone. First Published in the Santa Barbara News Press

Page 16 Volume 5 Issue 4 COLAB Magazine

There is the saying that people who live in glass

houses shouldn’t throw stones. Well, that maxim isn’t strong enough to convey the dismay I felt while wit-nessing an exchange between rookie County Supervi-sor Das Williams and his fellow elected, Sheriff Bill Brown.

The Board is attempting to deal with a $35 million shortfall this year, up from $13 million just a few weeks ago, thanks to the revelation that the Social Services department is not going to be getting reim-bursements from state government as expected. This shortfall is just the beginning of five years of ever-increasing shortfalls primarily due to pension obliga-tions.

Now that you have the background, consider Das Wil-liams, the political equivalent of a juvenile delinquent, who for the past six years has been living on a moun-tain top in a glass factory. His residence was at the intersection of hubris and malfeasance and he took part in obliterating anything and everything within a stone’s throw. It is in this allegorical context that Su-pervisor Williams delivered a stinging rebuke and or-der to the Sheriff: “You need to get your budget under control!”

Let the hubris sink in! County government is primarily an extension of state government and to a lesser de-gree, the federal government. The majority of funds that make up the county budget are pass-through monies tied to mandates from the glass factory on the hill. The pattern, year after year, is that Sacramento hurls down mandates to counties while refusing to fund the same. Moreover, the State absolutely refus-es to truly balance its own budget, pay its own bills, and fulfill its contractual obligations. On top of all that, the policies that are crippling local government and hamstringing the private sector (from whence all funds flow) come from the State.

The single biggest impediment to cities, counties and school districts balancing their budgets is known as the California rule. The California rule makes it im-possible for public entities to lower their pension costs going forward for existing employees. This is bank-rupting government at all levels and only the legisla-ture has the power to do anything about it. This one issue alone has helped to create a $150 million hole in county finances.

Jerry Brown Saving The World While California Burns Cont.

Page 17 Volume 5 Issue 4 COLAB Magazine

unanimously to move ahead with progressively stricter tailpipe emissions regulations, along with a separate mandate that requires automakers to sell more zero-emissions vehicles.”

Unelected, largely anonymous appointees are some-how representative of the voters who rejected Donald Trump during the election. “California environmental regulators, taking a defiant stand against President Donald Trump on climate change, reaffirmed their commitment Thursday to tough standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars,” the Bee report-ed.

However, nowhere in the article did the truth emerge: Emissions are down m ore than 90 percent over the last 20 years. A 2015 USC study found that child res-piratory disease is dramatically down in the Los Ange-les basin. “We saw pretty substantial improvements in lung function development in our most recent cohort of children,” said lead author W. James Gauderman, professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

So, what is cost and/or benefit for further regulation by the California Air Resources Board?

Distraction. Deflection. Control.

While California burns, Gov. Jerry Brown distracts by mulling ways to prevent the end of the world (and the media complies). And the Democrat-dominated Legislature, largely filled with people who have never held private sector jobs, continue to create a perma-nent poverty underclass, while at the same time creat-ing absolute dependency of the voters to state gov-ernment, and daring President Trump to withhold fed-eral funds.

*”Many farmers, farm workers and communities that

(Continued from page 3)

rely on the CVP for water supply received only a 20% allocation in 2013, no allocation in 2014 and 2015, and only a 5% allocation in 2016 despite a normal rainfall that year and available water in state reser-voirs,” according to Sen. Andy Vidak, who this week sent a letter to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior requesting that Central Valley Project con-tractors receive a 100% allocation of water this year. Katy Grimes, Investigative Reporter and Senior Cor-respondent at FLASHREPORT

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Where Will Our Children And Grandchildren Live? Cont.

real estate and highest rents in the United States are characteristic of properties in this picture.

Notwithstanding the apparent aversion to sprawl, many hundreds of thousands of people are living very well within the area depicted in the photo.

Many would not consider living anywhere else. Many are highly educated and successful. Most actually do not live in high rises. What is actually going on that allows people to live here, raise children, and actually enjoy life?

The fact is that the sprawl of the 1920’s, 30’s, and

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Page 18 Volume 5 Issue 3 COLAB Magazine

today’s Boulevard’s almost dystopian aspect, especially when viewed in the historical context. This is the “bad” LA, which we have been conditioned to revile. Note that the folks don’t seem to be abandoning their cars in droves.

The 1922 photo below depicts what was to become the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard (the storied US Route 66) and Westwood Boulevard. The open space seems to stretch to the horizon. Here three obviously enthusiastic and, as it turned out, prophetic developers are plotting the “sprawful” future.

The contemporary photo below is of Westwood Boulevard (the future boulevard promised on the sign), just to the south of the area in the historical picture.

The aerial photo, to the right, looks west from Century City to Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades. The corridor in the upper right quadrant of picture, which is lined by a string of high-rise apartments and condos, is Wilshire Boulevard. Some of the most expensive

(Continued from page 7)

Where Will Our Children And Grandchildren Live? Cont.

Page 19 Volume 5 Issue 4 COLAB Magazine

40’s, which led to today’s urban spatial pattern, has been highly successful. It has provided successive generations of residents with homes and, in many cases, well paying jobs, business ownership, educational choice, and huge upward mobility. Millions of people have inter-generationally passed through the accumulated “sprawl” housing stock between the 1920’s and the present day — almost 100 years.

The secret that the anti-sprawl elitists don’t want you to know is that most of the homes in the area are still single-family houses with a front yard, backyard, side yards and quiet privacy. The apartments and condos, and especially the high-rises (and traffic), are located on the ends of the blocks on collector and arterial streets. The long sides of the blocks are largely quiet residential streets with single-family homes that were built in the 20’s and 30’s (some more recently in Brentwood and Pacific Palisades in the 50’s and 60’s).

A typical quaint home of the era is shown in the recent photo below. It was built in 1938 for $12,000 and has 2 baths, three bedrooms, a dining room, a fire placed living room, and hardwood floors. It has a backyard with a patio, lawn area, fruit trees, and a two-car garage with access from the alley.

The street is lined with flowering trees. It is walking distance to an elementary school and biking distance to a junior high, a small but ample and unique

commercial area, and the beach. It is served by

(Continued from page 18)

frequent bus service on an arterial about half a block away. Within a 30-minute drive are UCLA, several world-class art museums, LAX, and some of the most diverse and eclectic shopping on the planet.

The home was part of the massive sprawl development of the 20’s and 30’s that took place on the west side of the LA area. The density and amenities are features that the proponents of “smart growth” say they support. But if today’s state and local land use laws had existed back then, it could never have been built. The land had been part of an orchard.

The dramatic sprawl shown in the aerials (remember this was all dirt fields as illustrated in the 1922 photo above) is regarded as negative, but what about the actual ground level reality? The fact is that the LA

Volume 5 Issue 4 COLAB Magazine Page 20

Where Will Our Children And Grandchildren Live? Cont.

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metro area (not just the city) is composed of hundreds of nodes with similar homes (often with very different styles) and served by nearby shopping and public services.

Today, many have very distinctive cultural heritages and characteristics that enrich everyone’s experience and choices. Still, the key feature is the single-family home with a yard and garage.

This is a tragedy because the state and local land use laws have become so draconian and destructive, and both permitting fees and development taxes are so confiscatory, that the history of the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s cannot be transposed or recreated elsewhere. As a result of the government-imposed scarcity, Zillow shows the home pictured above as having sold for $2.2 million a few years ago and estimates its current sales price to be $2.7 million.

One question is: Where are millions of immigrants who have come to California in recent decades to live? Another is how do we replicate the fantastic opportunities which early and mid-twentieth century sprawl conferred on tens of millions of families?

Do we deny the same opportunity to the new immigrants, which so many elected officials say must be protected and defended from deportation? Or do we simply make LA and Oakland denser with massive Soviet era prison-style concrete apartment blocks?

On a much smaller and more manageable scale, the question in SLO County is more related to where will our children and grandchildren be able to live? Will they have to move to Austin and Reno to have a home? And where will employees required by San Luis Obispo County businesses, educational institutions, and health care providers be able to live?

As a recent popular song about success, love, and young people struggling in LA asks, “City of Stars, will you shine for me?”

How about for our children and grandchildren? Mike Brown is the government affairs director of the Coalition of Labor Agriculture and Business (COLAB) of San Luis Obispo County. He had a 42 year career as a city manager and county executive officer in four states including California

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