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This has been an especially difficult last couple of weeks as we continue to fight the COVID-19 pandemic while being forced to confront the reality of systemic racism with the murders of several Black lives over the last few months – George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Tony McDade. This isn’t the first time there have been protests in the streets over the taking of Black lives and a lot of the anger and pain you see is because of the reality for Black Americans knowing this won’t be the last time they have to protest in the streets to get justice and make change – and knowing that the next time the protest might be for them. We must take this time where we are already being forced out of the norm and out of our routine to look within our collective soul as a country and address the pain and discomfort of racism that has existed since the founding of our country.
My colleague Supervisor Gregg Hart and I are sponsoring a Hearing on Racial Equity in the Criminal Justice System on Thursday, June 11th at 1pm. This will be only the beginning of this conversation. We want to hear directly from community members on what they experience and their hopes for the future. All of our County Supervisors will be present in addition to our separately-elected Public Safety officials Sheriff Bill Brown and District Attorney Joyce Dudley, our Courts-appointed Chief Probation Officer Tanja Heitman, and our Public Defender Tracy Macuga. I look forward to hearing from each of them about their plan moving forward and also what their vision is for a more equitable and just public justice system.
In addition to this hearing, Supervisor Hart and I have authored a resolution recognizing Juneteenth which will be presented at our June 16th meeting and we have both committed funds to the celebration this year and yesterday during our budget hearing, our board allocated 500 thousand dollars to fund initiatives to create equity in our criminal justice system.
This is a very personal issue for me. Growing up as a Brown man in Santa Barbara had challenges. I faced instances of racism myself and I can’t imagine how hard it is to be a Black person in Santa Barbara. Many people are under the assumption we don’t have much of a Black population here and that simply isn’t true. We have a historic and strong Black community – dating all the way back to Jerry Forney, considered Santa Barbara’s first Black resident, who was brought here as a slave back in 1881 and refused to go back to North Carolina with his master. Instead, he plotted to bring 500 slaves from that state to Santa Barbara. That is the spirit that lives in our Santa Barbara Black community. And the most dangerous thing in this community is for them to be unseen by our institutions and greater population because that is how racism and white supremacy fester into something far more deadly than the damage already being done to our Black community members’ physical, mental, and emotional health.
I do believe our local criminal justice system and public institutions have good intentions of being better than what we see on the national stage, but we still need to change. Good intentions are not good enough. We need real systemic change and we cannot waste the moment we are in. Black Lives Matter.
You can watch live at https://www.countyofsb.org/ceo/csbtv/livestream.sbcand also please consider calling in or writing in public comment to be read into the record (instructions on how to do that below).
Speaking during public comment: Call (805) 568-2240 and give your name, phone number, and item you wish to speak on (D-4, Hearing on Racial Equity and the Criminal Justice System) and the clerk will call you at the appropriate time to speak.
Email: sbcob@countyofsb.org and state you want your comments read into the record (limit to 250 words) by 5pm on Wednesday the 10th.
And now for your COVID-19 update:
As soon as this Friday, June 12th, the State will allow many more business sectors, most of which are part of the Stage 3 process, to reopen. These sectors include:
- Day Camps
- Movie Theaters and Family Entertainment Centers – Bowling alleys, arcades, miniature golf, batting cages, etc.
- Restaurants, wineries and bars
- Zoos and museums
- Gyms and Fitness Centers
- Hotels (for tourism and individual travel)
- Cardrooms and racetracks
- Campgrounds and outdoor recreation
- Casinos
- Music, Film and TV Production
- Professional Sports (without live audience)
The following sectors, businesses, establishments, or activities are not permitted to operate in the State of California at this time:
- Personal services such as nail salons, tattoo parlors, body waxing
- Indoor playgrounds such as bounce centers, ball pits and laser tag
- Live theater
- Saunas and steam rooms
- Nightclubs
- Concert venues
- Festivals
- Theme parks
- Higher education
Prior to reopening, businesses must review State and local guidance, fill out a COVID-19 Prevention Plan, and self-certify that they can open safely. All details necessary to reopen will be available on the RecoverySBC website on Friday.
The Santa Barbara County Health Officer issued a revised Health Officer Order which includes these details and more. We will continue into the reopening process only if our infection monitoring metrics remain stable, and the State has developed criteria that allow for careful monitoring of indicators such as testing capacity and positivity rate, hospitalization stabilization, contact tracing, etc. In order to continue to meet these criteria and keep our community safe (and businesses open), it is imperative that we continue practicing social distancing, wearing face coverings, and frequent hand washing.
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