The Santa Barbara Local Agency Formation Committee (LAFCO) met to review a report on Assemblymember Das Williams’ introduction of Assembly Bill 3 (AB 3) to the California State Assembly on Dec. 1 to propose the creation of a Community Services District (CSD) in Isla Vista. Alex Nagase/Daily Nexus
The Santa Barbara Local Agency Formation Committee (LAFCO) met at the Board of Supervisors Hearing Room at the Santa Barbara County Administration in Santa Barbara to review a report on the proposed formation of a Community Services District (CSD) in Isla Vista.
California Assemblymember Das Williams introduced Assembly Bill 3 (AB 3) to the California State Assembly on Dec. 1 to propose the creation of an I.V. CSD to provide infrastructure and services to I.V. residents. Students, I.V. residents and community members and stakeholders attended the meeting to voice their opinion on the importance of AB 3 and push for LAFCO’s support of the bill. LAFCO assigned commissioners Doreen Farr, Greg Geyer and Jeff Moorhouse to work with Williams on the bill and report to LAFCO on the progress being made.
Williams said he believes LAFCO should play a role in the process of getting AB 3 passed, in addition to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors.
“I think the beginning is right now. I have asked for meetings with a number of individual board members and I would ask for meetings with all of them,” Williams said. “But in addition to individual meetings I would think LAFCO with your staff and board members should be a part of our stakeholder process.”
Williams said the formation of a CSD in I.V. would assist the Board of Supervisors in the work they are doing to improve I.V.
“I would say CSD could speed up the great work that board member Farr and others on the Board of Supervisors have done to provide safety lighting in Isla Vista, which is an integral part of the sexual assault issue out in Isla Vista,” Williams said.
District Six Representative on the Santa Barbara City College Board of Trustees Jonathan Abboud said I.V. needs self-governance because its dense population makes it unlike other unincorporated areas.
“Isla Vista is a very unique place with probably one of the most dense communities on this side of the Mississippi and this CSD doesn’t go through the traditional LAFCO process because it is custom-tailored for Isla Vista,” Abboud said. “There are very specific things that are different for Isla Vista that don’t apply to a general unincorporated area. We waited for 40 years. Do we need to wait for another tragedy to get things going?”
According to Williams, the CSD would also help address the issue of insufficient law enforcement in I.V. in relation to a recent increase in population.
“The second possibility would be to address the fact that while the population of Isla Vista has risen 25 percent, the amount of boots on the ground of law forcing officers has remained … relatively constant,” Williams said.
Thirty-year I.V. resident Thomas Dixon spoke at the meeting and said he supported AB 3 because he does not approve of manner which I.V. is currently governed.
“The whole country is aware of Isla Vista being a problem community. [Isla Vistans] should have the power to at least control some of that,” Dixon said. “If you just obstruct the community service district and don’t come up with something better you’re just kicking the can down the road. We can’t just simply live with the status quo, that simply is not acceptable.”
Williams said the CSD could also play a role in providing structure and control in the midst of the I.V. party culture, by modeling tactics used at other public universities.
“Cal Poly, which had a huge public safety issue around partying in their community, addressed it by hiring some students to be the face of Public Safety to address parties that were getting out of control,” Williams said.
Williams also said the role of the university in the establishment of self-governance in I.V. has taken a positive turn.
“The role of the university — that is the one thing that changed and I view as an opportunity,” Williams said. “I have been very critical in the past, as have many residents … and the fact is that this process, this trustee report, is a huge change on the part of the attitude of the university — a willingness to say ‘We’re a part of the problem, we’re also a part of the solution’ and an opportunity that we have not had in 40 years, and I ask that we try to seize upon that opportunity.”
LAFCO is supposed to independently review changes in governmental jurisdictions like forming the CSD, or a City of Isla Vista. Instead what this story shows is the opposite, the Assemblyman is asking this supposed independent and unbiased agency to advocate for a IV CSD. Additionally this isn’t democratic self determination but something imposed from above. Where is the petition for this? I got 1,300 personally for IV/UCSB Cityhood. Why hasn’t the IVRPD put this proposal before LAFCO if the IV community supports it? I think it’s just a scheme to stick IV taxpayers [i.e., the students] to force them to… Read more »
Michael, what you conveniently forget in your rant is the reality IV does not and would not generate enough revenue from property and sales taxes to sustain city hood. As a public agency, UCSB does not pay property taxes on its land-it is exempt under state law. So the idea of including UCSB in a City of IV makes no financial sense at all.
Dan, Thanks for your comment. You wrote “Michael, what you conveniently forget in your rant is the reality IV does not and would not generate enough revenue from property and sales taxes to sustain city hood. As a public agency, UCSB does not pay property taxes on its land-it is exempt under state law. So the idea of including UCSB in a City of IV makes no financial sense at all.” Says who?? There is is plenty of tax base for a City if UCSB is included. …and while UCSB doesn’t generate property tax there’s millions in sales and use… Read more »
Michael, I wish you’d do some research before making sweeping statements, such as the one about “millions” in sales taxes and where they end up. I did some checking on the Board of Equalization website. A breakdown of the statewide sales tax rate of 7.5 percent (different jurisdictions have slightly different rates if they’re funding transportation projects or special districts via sales tax) shows that all but 1 percent goes to the state NOT the county. Translation, of the 7.5 percent rate, 6.5 percent goes to the state. As for property taxes, the federal, state, and local governments are exempt… Read more »
Dan you wrote “Michael, I wish you’d do some research before making sweeping statements, such as the one about “millions” in sales taxes and where they end up. I did some checking on the Board of Equalization website. ..A breakdown of the statewide sales tax rate of 7.5 percent (different jurisdictions have slightly different rates if they’re funding transportation projects or special districts via sales tax) shows that all but 1 percent goes to the state NOT the county. Translation, of the 7.5 percent rate, 6.5 percent goes to the state…As for property taxes, the federal, state, and local governments… Read more »
Thank you Dan for your support of the CSD. Myself and others are working to see this become a reality. If you would like to help out, please email me at IslaVistaCSD@gmail.com.
Josh, Did you notice Dan wrote “As a former IV resident (1969-70)”? That’s representing the young people who make up Isla Vista and UCSB constitutional rights [not]…Lets do the math if Dan was 20 when he lived in IV then he must be 20+30+14,…that’s 64. What percentage of the population do you think that are living in Isla Vista are 64?? Do you think students that live in the dorms on campus should be able to vote on self government or not? Enough said. Oh I forgot, you don’t answer direct questions do you, because your like Dan, your prejudice… Read more »
By the way I am 57 years old. But I’m not prejudice of young peoples’ rights like Dan and Josh are. They fear your youthful energy, because the first two time Isl Vistan’s exercised their rights to self government, the people voted to burn the Bank of America, to the ground. Not once, but twice. That fire is still smolders in the hearts of the UCSB administration, the UC Board of Regents, the County Board, the State legislature, and the Governors Office. But UCSB made me the physicist and engineer I am….and my Bank is still burning brightly. God bless.
Michael, I view the CSD as a starting point towards eventual city hood for IV. Since a CSD would derive little financial benefit from including UCSB within its boundaries it makes sense at this point in time not to include campus. Plus it avoids a potential that the university could veto the CSD if it got cold feet down the road. Josh, I will touch base with you soon!
Michael, You might not be aware with the Daily Nexus Comment Policy, so let me make you aware: “What is the dailynexus dotcom comment policy? We encourage all of our readers to submit comments on our Web site. Comments made on dailynexus dotcom are not pre-moderated, but can be removed if they violate the policy that follows. Any comment may be used in the print edition of the Nexus, and we ask that you keep your comments brief and on topic. We will delete comments that: • Attack, harass or threaten a named group or person unreasonably. • Contain advertising… Read more »
My point is that it is fine if you are attacking substance (whether I agree with you or not, like what you are saying or not, or whether you are making things up out of whole cloth), but stop attacking and harassing people unreasonably and stop sharing other people’s personal information (including where they may or may not live, and their personal emails).
Michael,
I also ask you to cease and desist all defamatory and libelous false statements about me, Dan, Das and anyone else.
There is always a delicate balance between one person’s right to freedom of speech and another’s right to protect their good name. It is often difficult to know which personal remarks are proper and which run afoul of defamation law. The term “defamation” is an all-encompassing term that covers any statement that hurts someone’s reputation. If the statement is made in writing and published, the defamation is called “libel.” If the hurtful statement is spoken, the statement is “slander.” The government can’t imprison someone for making a defamatory statement since it is not a crime. Instead, defamation is considered to… Read more »
Michael,
The point is that you have to stop making false statements about people on here.
Josh, Michael doesn’t bother me that much. If he can contribute meaningfully to the discussion, that’s cool. Otherwise on a scale of zero to 10, his relevance ranks a minus 10 and he’s tuned out by yours truly.
Thanks Dan, I love you too.
Michael Boyd put enormous and nearly successful efforts into establishing IV Cityhood. But drip drip drip drip drip Santa Barbara County, through many minor decisions, sort of like integral calculus, made sure that all the economic activity generated by IV residents occurs at Camino Real Marketplace and other commercial establishments outside IV. And then the City of Goleta grabbed all the taxes on that activity, ensuring the IV is always economically near the edge of fiscally sound cityhood. Of course, most cities in California are smaller in population than IV, and quite a few are poorer. A few support themselves… Read more »
I lived with Charlie’s significant other Mia for several months on Abrego Rd. He was God’s book keeper, and Isla Vista’s too. He was the one who taught me God was a She, not a He. The world wouldn’t have all the problems we have today with greed heads in charge if Charlie was still here, and maybe IV would be a City. I don’t know? But Charlie’s looking down on our world with his ledger book keeping track of all the revenue and expenses…and some day soon he going to hold you all to account. But don’t take it… Read more »
I just noticed my 1983 Peoples Order of the Burning Bank Award for collecting 1,3000 IV/UCSB Cityhood petition signatures is written in Charlie Jone’s own Calligraphy, he was a wonderful Calligrapher you know, and he used an Eagle feather Quill to do his Calligraphy…I remember seeing it. Now he has his Golden Eagle Quill pen in heaven. Peace.
Thanks for all the wonderful comments about Charlie Jones. I only met him two or three times, but I’ve noticed how deeply loved he was and is among many IV old timers (I’m only a 25 year resident). In my era the student reps of various stripes just wouldn’t show up much. Margaret Mead notwithstanding, the small group of committed individuals just didn’t coalesce post 1980’s. Of course the right of students to democratically choose a governing structure in IV has been ignored. One of many rights, including privacy, free assembly, unreasonable search & seizure, etc, that don’t always get… Read more »
GhostofCharlieJones,
Thank you for your kind compliments. I think that we realize that the problems in IV are so massive, and have been in place at least back to the 1920’s. We don’t expect to fix everything overnight. Rather, the strategy is to take small bites off the problem and slowly slowly continue to improve things, with an eventual goal of a healthy Isla Vista.