At the end of 2021, it’s hard to believe that the COVID-19 pandemic is still here, ever-changing and continuing to test communities, their governing bodies, businesses, schools, and residents. But while it was an ever-present part of the past year, instead of simply struggling to keep up with the pandemic, we were challenged to adjust for the changes that a year-plus of uncertainty brought with it: business closures, widening gaps in the social services safety net, an increase in homelessness, more turbulent politics, and shortages in both goods and the people who provide services. Northern Santa Barbara County is now on the other side of a second year with COVID-19, and the Sun looks back at some of the bigger news events of 2021.
COVID-19’s still here
HEALTH CARE HEROES As COVID-19 surges came and went this year, health care workers kept our community afloat.FILE PHOTO COURTESY OF DIGNITY HEALTH
After the dumpster fire of a year that was 2020, everyone hoped that 2021 would be better—particularly, that COVID-19 would get better. In some ways, it did: Vaccines made it safer to live life again, and California’s economy officially reopened in June 2021. But the year started out on a low when both SLO and Santa Barbara counties saw the most new cases in one month, ever, in January. The first month of the year also saw the highest hospitalizations and deaths of the pandemic on the Central Coast and across the state. Amid the surge, health care workers had a glimmer of hope: They began to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in late December 2020 and throughout January 2021. As the winter surge came and went, and vaccines became more widely available, average citizens soon had the option to get inoculated in the spring—but not everyone wanted to. April saw the most vaccines put into arms to date across the Central Coast, but by early May, demand for vaccinations began to wane. Then, as cases began to surge again in July, Delta became the dominant variant. Health care workers found themselves reliving the trauma of the previous winter surge, now treating patients who were sicker than ever before due to Delta—an outcome they said was largely preventable with vaccines. As children 5 years and older became eligible in early November, a new vaccine debate ensued, with parents split over whether or not to give their kids the jab. With the Omicron variant now on the rise, at-home COVID-19 tests were selling out in minutes as people scrambled to test negative before holiday gatherings. As of Dec. 21, SLO County had lost 370 community members, and Santa Barbara County had lost 557, to the virus.
Santa Barbara County turned to an Independent Redistricting Commission to hash out the every-10-year redistricting process for the county’s five Board of Supervisors districts. But that didn’t prevent politics from clouding the process, with complaints from both liberals and conservatives marring the commissioner appointment process, a slew of commissioner resignations, and a lawsuit filed against the county for the commission’s choice of consultant. The year-long redistricting process included several public meetings, enabled community members to draw their own draft maps, and the commission ultimately selected a map that satisfied legal requirements—like equal population—and considered populations of interest—like Latino and indigenous populations. The final adopted map, which was selected on Dec. 15, puts the Cuyama Valley and its overdrafted water basin in the 1st District; splits Goleta between the 2nd and 3rd districts; keeps the Santa Ynez Valley, Lompoc, and part of the coastline in the 3rd District; puts Vandenberg Space Force Base in the 4th District; and groups Guadalupe with Santa Maria in the 5th District.
—Taylor O’Connor
What’s your emergency?
AT YOUR SERVICE Santa Barbara County Fire wants to add another station in Orcutt, where resources are stretched thin for a growing community.FILE PHOTO BY JAYSON MELLOM
A years-long conversation about dispatch services in Santa Barbara County had a breakthrough this year when design plans for a new regional fire dispatch center were approved in July. All dispatch services are currently handled by the Sheriff’s Office. The center “would alleviate this issue of calls that arrive on the borders, because it’s what we call borderless dispatching,” county fire Public Information Officer Capt. Daniel Bertucelli told the Sun. “The closest, most appropriate piece of equipment would respond to any given call that comes in.” But the Sheriff’s Office isn’t thrilled about the change. County Sheriff Dispatch Manager Susan Farley believes it’s a more expensive solution than necessary to fix dispatch issues. For some former local firefighters, the regional dispatch center would provide a much-needed step in the right direction to improve response times, but they’d also like to see another fire station in places like Orcutt, where existing stations are stretched thin to cover a growing population. The final piece to get the dispatch center moving forward was getting all the local cities on board, which happened in November. If all goes to plan, the center is expected to go live in January 2024.
The county’s got a brand new jail
POMP FOR CIRCUMSTANCE In November, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown spoke at the ribbon cutting celebrating the near-future opening of the North County Jail.FILE PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SANTA BARBARA COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
In early 2021, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office announced that crimes in 2020 trended 10 percent higher than the preceding three-year county average, attributing the problem to an emergency order aimed at decreasing jail and prison populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. But even through the state’s efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the county’s Main Jail still felt the pandemic’s effects with outbreaks in February, September, and December—numbers reached as high as 87 active cases during the December surge. Inmates will soon be dispersed across two jail facilities, alleviating some of the limitations of the Main Jail, as the North County Jail finally opened its doors after a five-year delay. The new facility will house up to 376 inmates and cost about $120 million; the original project was supposed to cost $80 million, and the county is responsible for the remaining $40 million. Project delays included weather, regulatory compliance issues, management losses, and overall supply chain issues.
Santa Barbara County experienced a 34 percent increase in unsheltered homelessness between 2020 and 2021. To help resolve this issue, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors approved the second phase of its Community Plan to Address Homelessness in February, with the goals of increasing access to affordable housing and strengthening systems aimed to help people get and stay in housing. Good Samaritan Shelter worked with Lompoc city and county officials to replicate a housing program it piloted in Isla Vista at its Lompoc shelter. The Pallet sheltering program provides temporary housing and wrap-around services for individuals who may be overwhelmed in group housing. In September, supervisors approved a Homeless Encampment Response Protocol, which provided increased clarity and coordination around clearing out encampments and requested $1.9 million from the one-time American Rescue Plan Act COVID-19 relief funds to implement the three-year strategy. The goal is to ensure that individuals cleared out of homeless encampments have access to housing and the services they need to stay in housing.
RALLYING FOR CHANGE Maria Miramontes, a TK and kindergarten teacher at Arellanes Elementary School in Santa Maria, and her son, Benjamin, held signs at a May 12 rally organized by the teachers union.FILE PHOTO BY MALEA MARTIN
Between hybrid learning and navigating how to safely return to the classroom, 2021 was a hard year for teachers. For Santa Maria elementary and middle school teachers, those challenges were compounded by tension with Santa Maria-Bonita School District leadership. It started when the district abruptly canceled negotiations with the Santa Maria Elementary Educators Association over how to return to in-person learning. District administrators said they needed more time to understand state policies, but the union felt like teachers’ voices were being excluded. In March, the district presented its plan for returning to in-person instruction at a board meeting, much to the surprise of teachers. “That was the first time teachers across the district have heard of any of this,” union President Jose Segura said at the time. That tension continued to manifest when the two parties began contract negotiations in May, soon finding themselves at an impasse. Hundreds of teachers took to the streets in mid-May, protesting having to work on expired contracts. Some teachers that day were also opposing a new district policy that barred them from teaching full novels in class. With the 2020-21 school year now underway and students back in the classroom full time, the union continues to keep a close eye on the district, most recently on the district’s search for a new superintendent, following Luke Ontiveros’s announcement that he will be retiring at the end of December.
Since before the COVID-19 pandemic began, Santa Barbara County has had a lack of mental health resources. In order to fill some of these gaps in 2021, the county’s Department of Behavioral Wellness requested more beds for non-crisis mental health services, the Marian Regional Medical Center worked to open a new mental health crisis unit on the Central Coast, and the Sheriff’s Office responded to a record number of calls with its Crisis Intervention Team. Currently, the county only has 16 psychiatric health facility beds (with a population of 440,000 people, it works out to three or four beds per 100,000 people) and Marian has yet to be able to open the crisis unit’s doors due to red tape. Doctors and mental health providers told the Sun that oftentimes, people get discharged from emergency rooms without a safety plan or mental health support, leaving it up to patients to seek help on their own. They added that mental health follow-up is extremely difficult for emergency room physicians, which makes it more likely that patients end up returning to emergency rooms.
REZONED The Hi-Way Drive-In could become the future site of a affordable housing development with the recent zoning changes approved by the Santa Maria City Council.FILE PHOTO BY CALEB WISEBLOOD
The Santa Maria Raceway—home of Stadium805—ceased its operations in August due to financial burdens and the 15-plus acre property was put on the market for $2.75 million, according to a its Facebook page. The raceway hosted stock car races for more than 40 years. Nick Duggan purchased the raceway in 2018 to expand the venue’s reach to concerts and other events. What followed was a challenging permitting process and a potential lawsuit from neighbors. The final straw came from county fines Duggan was required to pay for hosting concerts without a permit. Another Santa Maria staple community members may have to say goodbye to is the Hi-Way Drive-In—which could be sold to nonprofit housing developer People’s Self-Help Housing. The Santa Maria Planning Commission approved a zoning change in November to rezone the drive-in from a commercial to a residential property. Drive-in owner Bob Gran said the business “is not profitable anymore.” The City Council reviewed and approved the zoning change on Dec. 21.
Mother Amanda Pierce had been on child care waiting lists for eight months in 2021. She called 12 different day cares near her home in Lompoc and reached out to facilities in neighboring Vandenberg Village, but none had space. Pierce and her family were not alone. In four out of five households, at least one adult took on additional child care duties during the pandemic, according to the Santa Barbara County COVID-19 Impact Report, due to the cost of child care, lack of child care services, and distance learning. About 75 percent of the parents taking on additional child care responsibilities were women, the report said. It’s something felt across all sectors, including the military. Military families in places such as Vandenberg Space Force Base work long hours and on-base facilities have limited hours, leaving gaps in child care service. In response, U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) and Tony Gonzales (R-San Antonio) proposed the Childcare Expansion for Military Families Act: a bipartisan bill to improve and increase child care services for military families as well as ensure that children of military families have access to mental health resources.
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