Transcription
Hi again everybody, and welcome to a new edition of Newsmakers. I'm Jerry Roberts. It is Thursday, September 25th. I am joined by my two friends and colleagues, Nick Welsh, executive editor and angry poodle of the Santa Barbara News Press, and Josh Molina, man of many hats, political writer for Newshalk and host of the global smash hit podcast Santa Barbara Talks.
>> I just want to interject that I'm not with the News Press. Did I say the News Press?
>> I must have that on my mind. Uh, well, that's a fair interjection. Uh, award-winning columnist and executive editor of the of the Santa Barbara Independent, soon to be in direct direct competition with the News. All right, enough of that.
So Josh, you had this interesting story about what I'm having come to town in 2002 will ever refer to as the Fes Parker, the uh also known as the Hilton Beachfront Resort or something uh on the waterfront. Um, and there was a dispute about whether they're going to be allowed to uh build what, 73 new rooms and not have any parking. And um, it all went back to some shaggy dog story about a a development agreement. But uh, what, what did the council decide about that?
>> It's very complicated. I'm going to spare you all the details. Uh, anyone who wants to know can go research it or read the media >> story.
>> You can read your story.
>> Yes. Um, because it is complicated. But essentially, what happened is that the Hilton, formerly the Double Tree and formerly Fes Parker's Red Lion Inn when it was built, wants to get rid of tennis courts and parking and add 73 new hotel rooms. And this is the iconic beachfront hotel right by the um, rainbow statue, the the chrome statue out there uh on the waterfront. Okay.
>> With a beautiful lawn.
>> With the lawn, which is technically most of it's a public park and anyone can use it. And so this is this destination. It was Santa Barbara's big iconic conference event. Uh, there's weddings there. And so they want to add rooms and the planning commission approved this. The there was an appeal by a union, and they unite here and they appealed it and said, "Whoa, wait a minute. This is not allowed. This development agreement that allowed them the possibility to add rooms down the road. This thing expired and they've also violated the terms because as part of building this hotel a while ago, and by the way, this is where it gets complicated. A separate hotel across the street, which has not been built yet. They built a hostel. It was called the Wayf Farer and it was intended to provide low-cost accommodations along the waterfront in the coastal zone. They built it. It was a low-cost hostel for a few years, but then it was sold to another company who has rebranded it as the Moxy, not the kids museum, but the Moxy with a Y. And these rooms, some of them can cost seasonally up to $600 a night. Hardly.
>> That's relatively low cost.
>> Yeah. But hardly affordable for anybody traveling who needs low-cost accommodation.
>> Pack and opponent.
>> So this appeal was basically saying this development agreement is a sham and also we don't have these affordable accommodations. So the union appealed it. The the Fes Parker, the I should say the Hilton uses non-unionized workers to they plan to to do this work. So that was
>> So non-unionized workers as the hotel workers or as the construction workers?
>> As the construction workers. Yes. And and so so there was this big appeal saying you can't do this. And essentially, the city council said, you know, the Fes Parker team, the Eli Parker, the son of the legendary Fes Parker, his sister, they're running the business said, "You can't really hold these people accountable just because this low-cost hostel is not low cost. It was sold." The thing that came out of it and what Megan Harmon, council member, said, and a couple of the others was in 2016 when we amended this development agreement and approved this hostel, we probably should have put some sort of restriction that says it's a low-cost hostel in perpetuity, right?
>> Because because I guess hostel prices range quite a bit. So, it's it's technically a hostel, but not really because each room has its own bathroom. And typically what a hostel is, it's, you know, shared space. So, that was sort of the big deal. At the end of the day, the tennis courts at the Hilton are gone. Some of the parking is gone, the tennis shop, and we're going to see another >> get built with non-union labor.
>> Yes. And we're going to see another level of hotel rooms. And you'll be able to see it from Cabrillo Boulevard. So, that's that's the issue.
>> Are they adding parking or taking away parking?
>> They're taking away parking, but they are adding bike parking, Jerry.
>> Oh, >> that. All right, Jerry.
>> Oh, okay. Well, that concludes our show for today.
>> But, but I'm hearing I mean, two things. One, I mean, think the union makes a good point, but they they miss on the technicalities that matter in a court of law. Um, and I think this was also a shakedown by the union. Uh, to get a contract so that I understand it's not just the construction workers, but the uh employees of the hotel uh to be unionized, which to be fair, I know shakedown is a pejorative term. If it was unionized, it might help you know, keep the the wages up a little bit more than they would otherwise go. And I think that when people talk about the high cost of housing in Santa Barbara, the high cost of living in Santa Barbara, part of the problem is that the relative wages are low, and part of the reason for that is the lack of any powerful union presence. But it was a shakedown nonetheless. And I think what we really find is that all these conditions that we impose on big developments in hopes of making them affordable and accessible to common mortals, we really write in a sloppy way. So they messed up in terms of how they wrote that. They should have had that language. And the other thing is there's supposed to be open space on the lawn. There's supposed to be open space uh at the Red Lion. And really, the only extent that it was ever used as open space to the public was a whole bunch of planning walks used to get together there and drink Greyhounds and play poker once a year on on the Fes Parker lawn. Did you cover that? Did you cover that when you
>> Huh?
>> Did you cover those meetings?
>> I went.
>> Here's here's a question though. Nick raises an interesting point. Um, uh, Rick Caruso, owner of the Miramar and uh, you heard it here first, California's next governor. um, when he was trying to get through his latest machination over there, he uh set aside I don't remember what, 10, 15 units of housing for employees of the hotel, affordable housing. H how come this very housing-oriented council didn't try to hold up the developer for that?
>> Well, that's it's a different scenario in Montecito. That was I mean, some might argue that the housing is a little bit of a sham that it was really a project.
>> Caruso's housing. I mean.
>> Caruso's housing to build these very extremely high-end luxury retail boutique shops and as part to sweeten that we're going to do some employee housing for our workers. Why didn't they bring that up? Um, I think that they would have gotten laughed out of the chambers by the city attorney. It wasn't
>> By Sarah Connect and Tava Ostringer. They said there's no way you can do that. Um, you know, Fes Parker has a long and that family a long history of ties to the city. I mean, that whole waterfront, even if it's not actively used in front of the the hotel, it's passive open space, right? It's not development. They could have built a little bit closer. And
>> There Parker has gotten more beloved since he has died. He was a very contentious and he could not take yes for an answer at times. And uh, he and City Hall bumped heads. He was a formidable and compelling person. There's absolutely no doubt. Um, but he
>> Did you have a did you have a skin cap when you were a boy?
>> Um,
>> I'm a little too young for I like to say I'm too young for that.
>> Yeah, that's probably right. Yeah. Well, my I remember mine fine. I should have held on to it, but um, okay. And then I guess the last question I concerns me. So, they're going to tear up the tennis courts. Is no one coming to the resort riding their bike playing tennis anymore? Are they going to put in pickleball courts?
>> There was no talk of replacing with pickleball or tennis courts. Um, it's kind of a dead space in back of that hotel.
>> Nobody plays tennis back there.
>> Nobody, and it just like it's just kind of silent. There's a parking doesn't fill up back there. It's it's this that space could be revitalized and made more vibrant. And I think that's what they're hoping for. When I took my photo, there was one person hitting tennis balls from a machine. Um, but other than that, it was pretty quiet.
>> Well, we'll have to get.
>> One last point. What was really striking was about it was unanimous against, and uh, that is unusual. Um, the fact that Wendy Santa Maria is a union organizer by profession. Uh, the fact that she did not go along with it speaks I would say volumes to uh, the case.
>> Yeah, I think it speaks volumes of Mayor Randy Rouse's ability to build consensus. But
>> Well, I will say to Nick.
>> Who was somebody must have been absent, right? Who who wasn't there?
>> Oscar, the mayor said he had a family emergency. Tava Austringer, city assistant, city administrator, she bluntly, in no uncertain terms, looked at all six of them there and said,
>> "Don't mess around.
>> You cannot stop them from building this. We have to honor our word." So, um, you know, it's one thing for politics to happen, but it's another when they look this city turn in the eye and do something opposite on camera to what they said.
>> Dangerous.
>> A second. Yesterday was the first meeting of the Historic Landmarks Commission and the architects of the Polo housing project. I was not there, but I would say with that project, with 500, however many hundreds of housing it is, the city's word and the city being perceived and cast as a fickle, one day I'm for this and one day I'm against it, is a a luxury they cannot afford. And if you are Kelly Makadoo and Sarah Connect and the people running City Hall, you do not want any movable parts coming around to bite you in the ass when you're trying to get the mall rebuilt.
>> Yeah. And and in that connection, I I want to clarify from last week, we talked about this issue a lot that uh none of my comments were intended to be critical of the Yardy brothers and their uh building of uh affordable housing down there. They were all intended to be critical of their lobbyist, Ben Romo. So anyway,
>> Alive. We're doing apologies now. What is this?
>> Well, no. I just I thought it was a way to take another cheap shot at Romo. That was what uh. So, Nick, speaking of things that make my head hurt, um, Sable Oil has been uh I mean, there have been so many developments uh since last we spoke. Uh, we we talked a little bit about the criminal uh charges that have been brought by the district attorney, and uh, I had a whole thing with Greg about his bill that is going to pretty clearly say that the Coastal Commission has jurisdiction over this pipeline. But the thing we haven't talked about is uh the judge trying to cut the baby in half. Um, about the supervisor's 22 vote uh about whether Sable could or basically Exxon, I guess, could transfer uh the name and and so on to uh to Sable uh, which has them in court. Sable has now sued the county. Correct. And so she wants them to vote again. Can you sort that out a little bit?
>> Yeah. Okay. I'm a big fan of the cut the baby in half metaphor. I think
>> Yes. In fact, a a Google search shows that you have used it 11,800.
>> I say if you were going to do a
>> Last year.
>> If if you were to do a chat GPT impersonation of me, that the lead would have cut the baby in half and shaken the can down the road in the lead. But I I think that um the half that uh the environmentalist got in this one is the head, and the other half that Sable got was the the torso. And I think that it was a big victory for the county of Santa Barbara and for the enviros, even though Sable was help me and has helped me very emphatically otherwise. Sable was trying to argue that because the supervisors were tied two to two on the uh appeal of the planning commission's approval of the transfer of title and permits, that the tide reversed to the planning commission and therefore the transfer would go forward. And for Exxon, this is a big deal. They are still on the hook somehow uh for whatever happens with this project. So if there is a a big storm, Sable is on the hook and not Sable, Exxon. So they want this to transfer to forward. Um, the judge said no. If you read the language of the county's law, and the county is the only jurisdiction on the entire planet Earth that has a a law that says we h we have rights to approve the transfer of ownership and oil companies. Only only place on planet Earth where this exists. Uh, so it matters uh that uh the county supervisors at this stage of the game must not should but must either decide in favor against or modify uh what
>> By judge, by Georgia. So the judge is telling the legislative body, you must do this, directing them.
>> Yeah. It says you do not you do not have the luxury of uh kicking it back to the planning commission. You do not have the luxury of not deciding. So uh it's going to go it has to go back to the uh uh planning committee and it goes back to the supervisors within 60 days, which is sometime late November. And then if that doesn't work, if they can't resolve it, then then they have to go back within another 45 days. And they have to keep doing that and keep doing that and keep doing that until they decide.
>> Except in the meantime, since the 2 to 2 vote, of course, Supervisor Joan Hartman has famously discovered, oh, look on the mantle, a letter from the FPPC that
>> I am not refused after all. I can vote.
>> Then I'm allowed to vote. So it's going to be 32, right?
>> I I don't see how it is not. Um, and I think what I am hearing from the fourth floor of the county administration building is the impact of the criminal charges being filed against Sable by the DA is definitely making the supervisors feel much more emboldened,
>> stiffening their spines. And and really actually, what I heard one you know, one person say is so I was saying, I mean, one of the issues is, does Sable have enough insurance to cover the big mess? Now, Sable has $700 million worth of insurance, but the last oil spill 15 years ago will cost $850 million to clean up and they're still fighting with their insurance problem. And but the state law says they the county can only require $100 million. So I don't know how they do all that. But um, you know, I was asking, you know, somebody on the fourth floor, you know, had Sable tried to basically finesse it by saying, you need a billion dollars worth of insurance? I give you a billion dollars worth of insurance. Uh, the response I had was at this point, given the lawsuit against them, I don't know if there's any amount of insurance that would make us feel comfortable with Sable as an operator. So, if you add it all up, Greg's bill, the the DA's charges, the this apparently looming vote against them uh at the supervisors, the $11 million in fines from the Coastal, it would appear that the momentum, if not the the tide itself, has turned against Sable in terms of reopening these pipelines. But then I saw this letter signed by Salud yesterday along with um uh Adam Schiff and 14 or 15 other California members to the Trump administration saying keep your hands off. You know, you're not allowed to be involved in this project. Is is that just more the same or was that something new?
>> Well, here's the play that people are thinking about where the feds might interject. um, if you don't let us use the pipeline, we will barge the oil. We will take the oil and we will put it on barges and then we'll ship it someplace else. So we will bypass the existing pipeline. And so that would be a federal play. It's in federal waters. Uh, and that would be a a massive sort of reversal on the big fight.
>> The last hundred years.
>> Yeah. So that is where Salud and Schiff are um making noise.
>> Are areas has there been any specific concrete um evidence that they're planning to do that?
>> Um, I've only heard people on the fourth floor talk about it and say
>> Where would they where would they ship it to? Long Beach where?
>> Probably I mean.
>> That would be something.
>> Yeah.
>> Not good. Oh man. Really? That's terrible.
>> You heard it here first.
>> Yeah. Really? Okay. Wow. Okay.
>> It is a big W.
>> That took my breath away. All right. Hey, Josh, you had this piece uh about um the homeless navigation center known as FARO and the city. I can't help it. That's the worst acronym ever.
>> Oh, no. I have a better one.
>> Okay. Okay. Well, save it for Oh, by the way, Nick, while you were speaking, it's I I am, of course, the master of multitasking. And so, I did ask G chat GPT how many times you had used the phrase cut the baby in half in the last two years. And um, I had guessed 11,528. The the correct answer is three. So, not not bad. Twice in 2024 and once this year. So.
>> But you know, it's fall's only begun, so plenty of time.
>> Anyway, Josh, talk about uh what's going on with the contract for this and is there going to be a new vendor apparently?
>> Well, the city of Santa Barbara and Cali Makadoo, the city administrator, they have made this move to get a new provider or a new operator of the FARO Center, which is the homeless day center. This used to be a place at Alameda Park. People would go uh get their services met, clothing, food. They moved it out of there because there was a lot of neighborhood issues or complaints. So they finally found this place on Chapala to sort of a huge pomp and circumstance when they announced it, and this was going to be the big save, cure-all of everything. And they even celebrated it earlier this year at the State of the City. Well, the Jody House and some other tenants nearby have said that the clientele, the population is uh causing a lot of trouble. There's public urination, there's cursing, there's smoking, there's all sorts of behavior that is problematic to, you know, there's retail shops. The Jody House treats traumatic brain injuries. There's there's lots of stuff that's happening there. So the city said basically, uh, you're done. Uh, they canceled the contract and they said, "We're going to go out to to bid." Um, SP Act, um, basically said, "Wait, hold on. No." And they they got some legal help and they're trying to hold on to this. So that was kind of what happened. The latest move is the city has decided to go to a month-to-month contract with them and put out an RFP to find a new operator in January. Now, I guess it could be SBT, right? But I think that there's talk of other >> other providers, you know, City, Good Samaritan Shelter. Um, I think that's the play. I mean, it looks like uh, you know, if it were a person, time to look for another job kind of thing. The writing seems on the wall, but
>> I wouldn't, that is a very reasonable assumption, but I wouldn't go there quite so fast because a what I'm hearing is relationship between Jody House and the Federal Center are improved. The federal center is now taking in something like 26 people a day as opposed to 70. So some of the attendant noise and friction is way down. I think the uh uh operators of uh the the federal center have gotten a message and so they are being more responsive. And what I'm hearing is the problems are not so great as they were before and they will be allowed to bid. And the other question is what I'm hearing from the trees uh that Good Samaritan is probably, which like pretty much doing every other homeless thing in in Santa Barbara County, um, is not likely to put in a bid. And the other one that would be likely to be able to do it would be City. And City had management over the the Rose the Red Rose Inn on Outer State Street a couple years ago when that became a temporary homeless uh place. Uh, and it really I think operating homeless facilities is a lot easier said than done and it requires a skill set uh that few people have. And I I think an argument can be made that the federal center may be a little bit uh stuck in some sort of recalcitrant mindset, has gotten way way more uh responsive, and that they may wind up with it.
>> Right?
>> And and part of that, and what Nick says is true as far as I know too, but um, they've also re already moved to referral only. So, one of the reasons that they're treating fewer people is they're not allowing drop-ins anymore, which was part of the problem, the loitering, the lingering, and now you have to be referred by a um service provider. So, that has that has definitely reduced the problem.
>> Right. Good move by our high-powered all-star U city administrator, Kelly Makadoo. Um, hey, I apologize. I'm gonna have to run, but um because I did want to talk about this immigrant healthcare thing. Everybody should go read Nick's story um uh in the just out Independent about this. It's a another scandal of the Trump administration kicking a bunch of people off of healthcare and this
>> 7,500 patients.
>> Government.
>> Leaving local government to try to figure out what to do. But um, I heard some political gossip uh over the weekend and and I just had to ask you fellas about it. um uh since it concerns um uh the fourth district uh city council race next year, which is where I live. So, it's obviously of more importance than almost anything. Um, but uh, so, so Kristen Snedden's turned out. We all expect that she's going to run for mayor. Um, but is this, tell me, is this true? Jason Dominguez has moved to the GA run. Your your hero uh Devin Wardlaw, the tribune of the cannabis industry, is going to run, and Dale Francisco is going to run. Is that is that true?
>> Wow.
>> It all sounds plausible. The only one I know is Devin Wardlaw and then uh I believe there's a planning commissioner who's probably going to run who hasn't announced yet.
>> Well, she's a planning commissioner, isn't she?
>> Yeah, there's another one.
>> Oh, okay. All right. Um, have you heard any you haven't heard? I I've heard mumblings and rumblings of Jason Dominguez. I had not heard about Dale. Um, he might, you know, he might say, you know.
>> Well, running against those two, Dale would have a very good chance, I would think in that particular.
>> It's a hard. I mean, Dale is a I really like Dale, but he is a Republican uh at a time in history where being an R is just not going to help you with the voters, no matter how I mean, I think where Dale will have real resonance and strength is he really does represent, you know, uh, neighborhood control. Uh, it's it's a funny thing. He's a Republican.
>> I mean, he's a he's a throwback Republican Republican.
>> He is a he's not a Trumper, but he doesn't show out of his way as just a he.
>> Debating Annabeth Jackson on KYT, which I know everybody what's incredible ratings than Jimmy Kimmel, the Dale Francisco Annabeth Jackson set. I think that anyone who wants to win is going to need Kristen Snedden's endorsement because we must not forget how popular she is among her constituents. And I mean, if Jason Dominguez thinks he's going to win district 4, I mean, I I will I will be more stunned than Doss Williams losing to Roy Lee if that were to happen.
>> All right. I I just want to emphasize this all gossip, this silly season in politics, and there's a lot of scenarios and speculation going on, and that's it. It was just some gossip basically that I heard that I wanted to run by you two fellas cuz.
>> We don't gossip, Jerry. We're all about truth and facts and object.
>> That's your show, Josh. This is my show. All right, Nick Welsh, Josh Molina, thank you so much for uh taking the time to speak with us today, and thank you all for watching, and we'll see you next time on Newsmakers.
>> All righty. I do.