Tell Santa Barbara City Council to pass a Polluters Pay Resolution!
We need your voice again!
Santa Barbara City Council will consider a resolution in support of a Polluters Pay California Climate Superfund on Tuesday, March 10 at the 2pm meeting in Council Chambers at City Hall, 735 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara.
This will be very similar to the vote that the Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors took last December, where Santa Barbara County joined cities and counties across the state in officially supporting a climate superfund bill in California. Passing these resolutions is not just symbolic - it puts real pressure on elected officials to get this legislation passed. In a time when climate progress and public health are increasingly under attack by the federal administration, this provides an important opportunity to demand our state hold fossil fuel companies accountable and generate funding to protect our communities against climate impacts and disasters. |
Take Action!
Let's fill the room and show the city we are behind them in passing a resolution!
If you plan to join us and give a comment in-person on Tuesday, please see the following tips:
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Limit your comments to 1-3 minutes
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Practice, plan ahead, and prepare – those 1-3 minutes go by quickly!
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Please speak slowly and clearly for language interpreters (if present)
PRIMARY ASK (be sure to include in your comment): Please vote to pass a resolution supporting the passage of a California Climate Superfund Act.
Also important to include: By passing a resolution and showing local support, Santa Barbara can help influence target legislators to pass the bill up in Sacramento.
Please plan to arrive at city hall no later than 2:30pm and wear red!
For more information, please email Lauren Leland at [email protected] or reply to this email. |
Proposed County Jail Expansion
Urge Board of Supervisors to reduce size of planned jail expansion
Thank you to the 40 participants who attend SBCAN's Roundtable on Friday, January 30 to focus on sustainable growth strategies for our county and reducing the jail population. Click here to view the recorded Roundtable.
From CLUE SB and the League of Women Voters SB
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors is considering approval of over $460 million (including long-term financing and staffing) to expand the North Branch Jail by 1½ Housing Units (384 beds).
We call on the Board to limit the addition to just one housing unit (256 beds)at a savings of approximately $147 million.
The Board’s current plan would more than double the capacity of the Santa Maria jail and lock the County into decades of financing and higher operational costs. Our County is facing $23 million in cuts to social and safety-net programs next fiscal year and a $66 million deficit over the next 5 years.
Our jails hold many non-violent residents (including those with mental health or substance use disorders) who do not need to be in jail to protect public safety. Our jails are not designed as treatment facilities. Expanding jail capacity instead of community rehabilitation services will not improve public safety.
Save approximately $147 million in construction, financing and operational costs.
- Enable closure of most of the outdated South County Main Jail.
- Enable funding to be redirected toward Board accepted jail population reduction measures, such as mental health counseling, addiction treatment, and other essential services.
- Choose crime prevention over incarceration to make Santa Barbara a safer place to live.
We respectfully but firmly call on our County Supervisors for their votes in support of a fiscally smarter, more affordable and humane choice. Build just one housing unit (256 beds) and defer or cancel other jail expansion.
Creativity Has No Expiration Date:
Local Author Deborah Brasket on Publishing Late in Life
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“Have you ever wondered if it’s too late to write that novel, become an artist, learn to skydive, or play the piano?” local author Deborah Brasket muses.
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Community members are invited to explore that question at a free event on Sunday, March 22 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Santa Maria Public Library, 420 S. Broadway in Santa Maria.
Join Brasket and Jeanne Sparks, co-executive director of Santa Barbara County Action Network, for a candid conversation about how Brasket came to publish her debut novel, When Things Go Missing, later in life. Brasket will share her journey, read from her book, answer questions, and sign copies.
The event is sponsored by SBCAN and Friends of the Santa Maria Public Library.
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When Things Go Missing is about the fragility and resilience of family life.
When the mother who has been holding her family together mysteriously disappears, it sets into motion a ripple of anger, grief, and regret that reshapes the lives of those left behind--her two troubled adult children and distant husband. Each embarks on their own journeys to fill the missing pieces in their lives and make their family whole again.
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The novel has been praised for its “gorgeous prose,” “grit and grace,” and for being a “propulsive page-turner that you cannot help getting swept up in.”
Brasket says, “When Things Go Missing is a love story long in the making. I dedicated it to all families who fall apart and struggle to find their way home again.”
She adds that while beginning her publishing career late in life, she doesn’t consider herself a “late bloomer.”
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“Like many women, I’ve been creating things my whole life: in my home and family, my career and community. Publishing novels is just the latest bloom. Creativity truly has no expiration date.”
Brasket spent six years sailing around the world with her husband and children. When she returned home to the Central Coast, she earned her Master’s degree in English at Cal Poly and taught at Allan Hancock and Cuesta colleges before joining SBCAN. There she served as a board member, board president and then executive director.
After retirement, she settled among the golden hills and vineyards of Paso Robles to write the kinds of novels she loves to read. Her first novel When Things Go Missing was published in September 2025. Her second novel This Sea Within will be published in June 2026. Visit her website www.deborahjbrasket.com to learn more. Or contact her at [email protected]
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PROPOSED PT. SAL
MARINE PROTECTED AREA
SBCAN URGES YOU TO SUPPORT
PROPOSED PT. SAL MARINE PROTECTED AREA
We have an opportunity to expand Caifornia's Marine Protected Area network with the creation of an MPA at Pt. Sal, roughly 50 miles northwest of Pt. Conception.
Officials are developing their recommendations now on several proposed areas. The California Fish & Game Commission is expected to vote to approve or deny them in May 2026. Our state agencies need to hear loud and strong support from the public now!
SHOW YOUR SUPPORT:
Point Sal State Marine Conservation Area
- Point Sal is part of the ancestral territory of the Chumash people and holds great historical and cultural significance. The Point Sal State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA) proposal is co-sponsored by the Northern Chumash Tribal Council, and seeks to enhance Tribal co-stewardship.
- Designating this MPA would honor and strengthen Chumash stewardship of their ancestral waters, and elevate historical and present-day Chumash connections to the region.
- Point Sal is exceptionally rich ecologically, supporting diverse ocean wildlife and habitats—including kelp beds, rocky reefs, tidepools, sandy beaches, a migratory whale corridor, a critical larval retention zone, and a seabird and sea lion rookery.
- Point Sal is an important area for baby fish and invertebrates in their earliest phase of life. Protecting it would help maintain these populations and boost ecosystem health.
- Because Point Sal is remote and accessible only by trail, it remains relatively pristine and healthy. Safeguarding areas like Point Sal is increasingly important amid warming waters, shifting ocean conditions, and expanding uses such as aquaculture, offshore wind, and continued oil and gas activity.
- By adding Point Sal to the state’s MPA network, Central California’s coast will benefit from increased habitat connectivity, representation, and replication – all key to increasing biodiversity in our waters.
- Safeguarding this unique and relatively undisturbed area now will help bolster ocean health and promote climate resilience into the future.
- Click here for more information
Mishopshno State Marine Conservation Area
The California Fish & Game Commission will also consider a proposal to create a Marine Conservation Area at Carpinteria.
After hearing concerns from the commercial fishing sector, the SBCANboard decided not to take a position unless, or until, they could get more information.
The Natural Resources Defense Council gives these reasons to support it:
- Designating the Mishopshno SMCA would protect essential habitats—including sandy beaches, rocky reefs, and persistent kelp forests—that are showing signs of degradation.
- Mishopshno is the name of a thriving historical Chumash coastal village nearby where tomols were built, a traditional canoe used for hunting, transportation, and ceremonial voyages.
- Designating this MPA would honor and strengthen the Chumash peoples’ stewardship of the area and elevate their historical and present-day connection to the region.
- The Mishopshno MPA proposal is co-sponsored by the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, and seeks to support Tribal co-management and the continued use of marine resources for cultural and subsistence purposes for all Chumash people.
- The Mishopshno SMCA would protect one of the state’s last remaining persistent kelp forests. California’s iconic kelp forests are disappearing at an alarming rate, with losses exceeding 90% in parts of the state—threatening wildlife, coastal communities, and overall ocean health.
- Including this SMCA in the MPA network helps to improve connectivity between southern coastal ecosystems and increase the network’s representation of rocky intertidal and rocky reef habitat.
- Click here to download more information
SHOW YOUR SUPPORT:
NRDC: Benefits of Point Sal and Mishopshno MPAs
- California has the chance to build on its legacy by adding new MPAs, such as the proposed Mishopshno SMCA and Point Sal SMCA.
- As climate change, biodiversity loss, and a hostile federal administration threaten to undermine progress made, it is time to strengthen our commitment to ocean conservation and ensure that California’s ocean is prepared for the changes ahead.
- These MPA proposals present an opportunity to strengthen the network to better prepare for current and emerging threats, and to include more thoroughly the groups that were underrepresented during the initial implementation – particularly California Native American Tribes.
- California’s Fish and Game Commissioners should vote to approve these MPA proposals!
www.sbcan.org
[email protected]
Jeanne Sparks and Ken Hough, Co-Executive Directors
Jeanne Sparks
