Today’s newsletter is presented by Esparza Law Group.
I am almost never surprised by anything that happens at City Hall anymore. I’ve seen it all. Some of it gets reported, some of it stays in your back pocket for the right time and place.
But this week’s meeting in Santa Barbara certainly shocked me. Some members of the Santa Barbara City Council, with a straight face, expressed surprise at learning that the city was burning through its budget reserves. I have sat in the front row at City Hall on many a Tuesday over the past year, and I can tell you I wasn’t surprised. I have reported on the city’s spending every week.
Our top story today documents the City Council’s meltdown over spending all of its budget reserves — and all the political histrionics that were on full display. It’s an election year, and councilmembers Kristen Sneddon and Eric Friedman will be battling to become mayor; spending and the budget will likely be a central theme.
To be fair, it’s not novel for the council to spend down its budget reserves as a quick way to balance its budget. I have been reporting on these decisions for two decades. Check out this story from 2005:
But what’s different about then and now is the council making it all the way to budget approval day and then acting stunned that the reserves are gone. That’s certainly rich.
GRADUATIONS: Our energetic and ambitious team of Sara Miller McCune News-Press Summer Fellows covered Dos Pueblos, Santa Barbara and San Marcos high schools’ graduations on Wednesday. Their photos and stories are spectacular. I sent three of our interns back to the high schools they attended to cover graduations. Aston Smith covered DP, Viviana Ruiz reported on Santa Barbara High and Roman Trovato covered San Marcos.
There’s just something special about local reporters covering stories happening at the high schools they attended. The News-Press is lucky to have these young journalists reporting on their hometowns.
TRAGEDY IN SANTA MARIA: Five teens were killed and an adult seriously injured in a car crash Sunday in Santa Maria. News-Press reporter and summer fellow Kaitlin Sweeney, who also grew up in Santa Barbara, covered the aftermath. She also reported on a vigil and memorial, capturing some compelling moments. She also got video of the Santa Maria Police Department attempting to break up the gathering. Our condolences to the family members of those who died. It’s an unimaginable loss.
Today’s newsletter features a wealth of stories on a variety of topics. Check out all the highlights below. We’re breaking internal records over here in terms of stories published, article reads and social media views. This week has been our largest single-week for reader traffic, and our trend line daily is vertical. Keep reading and watching.
BTW: Meet our news team by visiting us on Instagram. Our reporters are introducing themselves and explaining what they do. Aston Smith has been capturing short interviews with the team.
Joshua Molina
News-Press Editor
The Santa Barbara City Council is in a position now where it might not pass a budget by June 30, the state-mandated deadline.
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Joshua Molina is editor of the News-Press and an award-winning journalist with more than 25 years of reporting across the South Coast. He is a professor of journalism at Santa Barbara City College and host of local news show SB Talks with Josh Molina. More by Joshua Molina • Santa Barbara News-Press
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