Depend on Gullap-Moore for SBCC Board Trustee

I am proud to support and endorse Dr. Charlotte Gullap-Moore for Santa Barbara City College Board Trustee TA#1. I have known Charlotte for more than four years, and in that time, I have found her to be an earnest community advocate, an honest person, and always stands up for the disenfranchised in the community. We could use a few more folks like that in politics these days. 

I have worked with Charlotte on a number of projects in the community, including as a board member on the Santa Barbara Women’s Political Committee. Charlotte excels at bringing people together to focus on issues, build consensus, and implement solutions.

She will bring an invaluable perspective on improving inclusion and equity culture on the college campus. Her experience as both a faculty lecturer of nursing and as a board-certified Adult Nurse Practitioner, will give beneficial insight to the rest of the board with healthy and ethical practices governing the execution of our programs and policies. As many of you know by now, California education is under attack. Many in our state would prefer that our colleges become part of the current political culture-polarization, but we can’t let that happen. Our students deserve better, and the future of our state depends on it. We need Dr. Charlotte Gullap-Moore on the Santa Barbara City College Board. 

Wendy Eley Jackson

Common Sense on Santa Claus

How about addressing the Santa Claus, Carpinteria, Cannabis outlet issue with a positive slant, aka common sense. 

This is NOT about a radical NO vote against Cannabis, as in time we might reasonably come to accept proven medicinal benefits drawn from nature as a good thing. However, given the fact that for decades Cannabis was stigmatized/vilified in every manner and form in the U.S. with thousands prosecuted and jailed for its use, transportation, or possession – it is rather counter intuitive, surreal, if not amusing to now see Cannabis exonerated from the blacklist and be championed as a wishful/ hopeful new tax revenue stream for the county. Yes, Santa Barbara County! One that boasts multimillion dollar homes contributing to the pot of a one billion-plus per year income from property tax alone. That in itself should warrant priority consideration for our county’s resident homeowners, especially when it comes to help mitigate the inconveniences courtesy of this industrious agro-experiment known for its stink, or, by reconsidering the accommodation of one of its product outlets to an appropriate location that would NOT disrupt the fragile harmony of place of the ocean-side residential and recreational areas of: Toro Canyon, Santa Claus Lane, Padaro Lane, Sandpoint Road, and its respective beaches – all in proximity of suggested Santa Claus Lane ROOTS Cannabis outlet project – also disconcerting, the idea that the Cannabis industry expand indiscriminately in communities known for their traditional qualities, use, and distinctions, and whose attributes are at the very core of its residents’ choice to live there, quality of life, attraction, and low-key home artisanal commerce . 

This should not become a political tug of war but an opportunity for Santa Barbara supervisors led by Mr. Das Williams to do the right thing for their county, one that over generations has prospered organically in many other ways to benefit its international and renowned image as a world-class destination and residential haven.

Medicinal Cannabis? Why not? How about such outlets be treated and presented as such in context and in locations that would benefit that industry and the community it pretends to serve? A win/win – not as drive-through “pit stops” for whatever effect and purpose cannabis derivatives (CBD/THC Gummies, tinctures etc.) may provide – some of which are whimsically and powerfully mind altering (I’ll admit, by personal experience) and when consumed out of a safe context, become a potential danger to their users and those around them. In Santa Claus’ case, thinking of the already precarious 101, frontage road traffic, and beach front activities. 

In a nutshell, it’s all about county administrators’ common sense, their vision for the future, respecting their constituents and homeowners’ comfort zones, and not least, the preservation of these low-key nooks and their positive attributes acquired over generations, and cautiously opening the doors to new ways while not getting too intoxicated – meanwhile, let us beware and not skip up on potential banana peels! 

Mr. Williams, County Supervisors – Thank you for your attention and reconsideration. 

John Edward Heaton 
Carpinteria resident

Grateful Rosanne Crawford is Running

As a mother of four daughters, I am so grateful that Rosanne Crawford is running for the Santa Barbara Board of Education! We need more people, like Rosanne, on the school board who strongly believe in improving literacy outcomes and keeping the school board accountable. We all know it is wrong when the current school board resisted videotaping their meetings for the public. I know Rosanne Crawford will make school board meetings more accessible and transparent.  

Tatiana Fenkner