THURSDAY, JANUARY 15

Solidarity Concert & March

Thursday, January 15 at 4 PM
625 S. McClelland St, Santa Maria

Featuring LIVE performances by Los Jornaleros del Norte & La Autentica Vallarta!

The Fund for Santa Barbara has invited Los Jornaleros del Norte (The Day Laborer Band) from Los Angles and local group La Autentica Vallarta Band to share their music with the community.

LJDN was formed in 1996 after an ICE raid in Los Angeles at a health clinic. The Band has become a symbol for the most rejected sectors of society by reflecting the festive spirit and struggle of Latin American people.  La Autentica Vallarta is a very popular regional band, frequently performing their local Mexican music around Santa Maria venues.

The concert will start at Future Leaders of America (FLA) and will continue with the band on a flatbed truck.

Please join in and march along as it travels around the neighborhood.

Speak up for a Temporary Moratorium on Rent Increases in the City of Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara City Council Meeting
Tuesday, January 13
City Hall, 735 Anacapa St., Santa Barbara

The meeting starts at 2 p.m. The agenda item is #14. What time it will come up is uncertain.

As an organization that advocates for sustainable growth in our cities, Santa Barbara County Action Network advocates for affordable housing and tenant protections that protect our workforce and Santa Barbara's vitality.  We encourage you to give your own personal reasons for supporting this item. 

For those of you who may not have time to attend the meeting, we encourage you to send in a written comment TODAY by 5 PM to [email protected] and share this information with your neighbors and friends. 

You can use this template to advocate for your community: 

Good evening Mayor and Councilmembers,

My name is [Name], and I [live/work/own a business] in Santa Barbara.

I support affordable housing for our workforce and urge you to adopt the temporary rent increase moratorium and just-cause Ellis Act protections. Building housing takes years, but displacement happens quickly. Without these protections, working residents—[teachers, healthcare workers, service workers, longtime tenants]—can be forced out by sudden rent hikes or no-fault evictions.

This affects more than individuals: local businesses struggle to hire, commutes increase, and our community loses stability and diversity. These ordinances are temporary, reasonable, and give us time to develop long-term housing solutions.

I respectfully urge you to support these protections to keep Santa Barbara livable for the people who keep it running. Thank you.

The item is #14 on the Agenda: Tenant Protection – Temporary Rent Increase Moratorium Ordinance and Ordinance Adding Requirements for Just Cause “Ellis Act” Evictions [Ordinance Introduction; Ordinance Adoption]

Recommendation: That Council:

We are saddened by the killing of Renee Nicole Good by ICE in Minneapolis on Wednesday, January 7. The 37-year-old wife and mother of three loved to sing and studied creative writing. She was shot in the face by an ICE agent. We mourn her death and all of those that have died in ICE detention.

We encourage you to join peaceful "ICE OUT FOR GOOD" protests this weekend. We know of three in Santa Barbara County – in Lompoc, Santa Maria and Santa Barbara.

Check https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/ to find out if others become posted. If you know of others, please send information to us at [email protected].

Jeanne Sparks and Ken Hough
SBCAN Co-Executive Directors

We are grateful for the support you have given us and look forward to working with you in the new year.

Important events about ICE are already scheduled for January 2 and January 4 in Santa Maria.

We urge you to attend.

Photo by Santa Maria Times

MESSAGE FROM COUNCILWOMAN GLORIA SOTO  

Councilwoman Gloria Soto Hosting Press Conference on ICE Surge in Santa Maria

Help us keep our momentum going in the new year with a tax-deductible donation to Santa Barbara County Action Network now!

Help us improve lives through economic, environmental and social justice action.

Thanks to our supporters in 2025, we made a difference in:

• Advancing dialogue and action on important issues through our numerous Action Alerts and Roundtables
• Stronger Tenant Protections
• Public land for affordable housing
• Creation of a housing trust fund in the City of Santa Barbara
• Uniting 12 organizations and ending an effort to restart oil drilling on Sentinel Peak near Lompoc, which would have trucked oil 165 miles to Coalinga
• Getting the Board of Supervisors to vote against any new onshore oil and gas projects as well as starting a process to phase out existing oil and gas production
• Standing up for immigrants
• Advocating for livable wages for farmworkers, firefighters and caregivers
• Fighting unnecessary jail expansion
• Fighting the proposed Kroger/Albertson's merger
• Conducting a Trauma-Informed Workshop
• Restarting a process to create a wetland-bioswale project on the Orcutt-Solomon Creek to take pesticides and fertilizers out of the creek
• And more!

Please help us continue our work in 2026!

ITEM D3

FIVE-YEAR FORECAST

-- AND HOW THE PLANNED JAIL EXPANSION

IMPACTS THE COUNTY BUDGET

The Five-Year Forecast projects a $66 million deficit. The planned expansion of the North County Jail at a projected cost of $165 million would have a tremendous impact on the budget.

We hope you will speak up with us on Tuesday to urge the Board of Supervisors to reduce the size of the planned North County Jail expansion to potentially save $55 million.