Regarding Susan Keller letter, “In Response to the MPC Removal” (Montecito Journal, Feb. 9-16, 2023)

I must add my protest to Susan’s arbitrary removal from the Montecito Planning Commission (MPC). 

As a 20-year resident of Montecito, who recently had an issue important to us and our neighborhood before the MPC, Susan Keller was one of two commissioners who took the time to listen to us, actually visit the site, and to ask the hard questions we needed her to ask. That she would be summarily dismissed by others on the MPC panel because she “took up too much time,” is, to me, ludicrous. The growth and development issues facing Montecito are serious and should not be rushed through the process. A cursory treatment of these projects can threaten the peace and character of what Montecito is all about. 

That others on the panel, or on the County Board of Supervisors, can summarily dismiss her without any public process at all (!) is outrageous. She has been a public official for years, and one the community has relied on for judgment and understanding of the community. All the while, another MPC commissioner, who is not a resident of Montecito, stays on and helps with her dismissal. I thought that being a resident of Montecito was a requirement of serving on the MPC – so how is that being blatantly ignored? This whole affair seems to be a total defiance of a genuine public process – a disgrace.  

Valerie Aroyan, Montecito Resident