County oversight group releases round up of previous session’s reports and agency responses
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. – On Thursday, March 6, the 2024-2025 Santa Barbara County Grand Jury released the consolidated responses to the nine reports issued during the previous session.
Every county in California has a Grand Jury made up of citizens who investigate and report on the operations of local government agencies.
The reports are sent to local agencies and those agencies are required to respond to the Grand Jury's findings and recommendations.
If you have something you would the Santa Barbara County Grand Jury to investigate, visit www.sbcgj.org and file a complaint online or you can mail you complaints to:
Santa Barbara County Grand Jury
1100 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
The last session's reports and the responses from local government agencies are detailed below in chronological order.
Lompoc Tourism Improvement District Management Agreement 2019-2028
A Santa Babara County Grand Jury report released on March 22,2024, detailed that over the prior five years, more than $500,000 was under-reported by Visit Lompoc LLC in required annual reports submitted to the City of Lompoc.
That same report noted there was also $800,000 transferred to Money Market accounts that may earn a higher level of interest, but were not accounted for in required reports to the City Council.
Per California's Property and Business Improvement District Law of 1994, that money can only be spent on tourism enhancement projects and can not be used for general purposes.
The City of Lompoc ultimately declined to implement any of the Grand Jury recommendations arguing that Lompoc is only a "passthrough" for funds collected from the local hospitality industry and that those funds are exclusively dedicated to the Lompoc Tourism Improvement District shared the Grand Jury.
In response to your News Channel's coverage of the Grand Jury report back in March, a statement was provided by Visit Lompoc's Special Counsel Michael Colantuono that read in part, "The Grand Jury has its own ideas about how Visit Lompoc should keep its books and what it should report to the City. We are happy to consider those suggestions in dialog with the City. But it is simply wrong to say there are “discrepancies” in Visit Lompoc’s books or that any funds are “unaccounted for.” Every penny is accounted for even if annual reports focus on what Visit Lompoc spends, not what it is saving or why."
Potential Perceived Conflict of Interest for Death in Custody Investigations
While the Santa Barbara Grand Jury report released on April 15, 2024, identified an inherent risk of a conflict of interest regarding in-custody death investigations in the County, it did not find specific cases of abuse.
The report did find, "a real or perceived conflict of interest in investigating and conducting pathological exams related to deaths in custody that can be avoided or mitigated by having a separate Medical Examiner's office...or outsourcing those specific cases to an independent agency".
To wit, the current Santa Barbara County in-custody death system can lead to the County Sheriff's Office as the single source of information as an article about an in-custody death at a Santa Barbara County jail from September of 2023 demonstrates stating, "Detectives with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office are conducting multiple investigations into the in-custody death at the Sheriff's Office-operated facility, including a Coroner investigation [itself a part of the Sheriff's Office] detail Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office."
The Sheriff's Office disagreed with the findings of any conflict of interest by the Grand Jury and pointed out the experience of the Sheriff-Coroner staff ensured impartial investigations which fall outside of the Custody Division's chain of command.
The April 15, 2024, Grand Jury report recommended an independent investigation into all in-custody deaths that the Sheriff-Coroner noted has been implemented as the County's District Attorney's Office investigates all use-of-force or restraint by officers and that this may be expanded to all in-custody deaths.
Wellpath Contract Services Provided to Santa Barbara County and the Sheriff's Office
On April 19, 2024, a Grand Jury report highlighted four areas for discussion as a contract was negotiated between Wellpath/California Forensic Medical Group and the County Board of Supervisors.
Those four areas were a lack of accountability regarding staff vacancies, lack of 24/7 mental health coverage, accounting shortfalls, and a lack of timely reporting stated the Grand Jury.
In response to the Grand Jury assessment, the Board of Supervisors committed to staffing increases and created two new positions in the Public Health Department dedicated to working with Wellpath at County jails. Those medical advisors will assess Wellpath staff performance and compliance.
The County Board of Supervisors also directed staff with Behavioral Wellness to have mobile crisis units respond to situations at local jails and placed responsibility on the Sheriff's Office to ensure on-time annual reports while declining to implement the Grand Jury recommendation to penalize Wellpath for late reports explained the Grand Jury.
Civil Grand Jury Compensation
A Grand Jury report issued on May 30, 2024, recommended that compensation and per diem payments be increased for participants in the oversight organization.
The County Board of Supervisors declined to raise compensation noting that it had raised jury compensation in 2001 to a higher level than 42 of California's other grand jury pay levels, but agreed that commuting from North County does add to the budget expenses due to miles travelled to attend.
The Grand Jury also recommended the Board raise the per diem from $25 a day to $50 a day based on perdiem received by participants in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
The Board of Supervisors noted that 42 other similarly sized or smaller counties would be more appropriate for comparison and did not agree that the increase in per diem would expand the applicant pool to the Grand Jury which meets during normal working hours 20 hours per week, an inherent reduction in the pool of people who can apply to serve.
The Board of Supervisors also declined to budget a North County office for Grand Jury use and instead, recommended the Grand Jury should find a room for virtual participation in North County.
A potential Grand Jury office in North County is something the County government and Court are actively looking to create added the Grand Jury report.
Santa Barbara County Coroner Facility and Equipment: A Hazardous Environment
On June 13, 2024, a Grand Jury report detailed that the condition of the County Coroner's building that houses the Coroner's Bureau posed, "a significant health risk to the nine staff members of the Coroner's Bureau" and that both the Sheriff's Office, which operates the facility, and the County's General Services Department had, "been remiss in their oversight and willingness to address safety and health issues" at the facility for over a decade.
The Coroner's Bureau facility was constructed by an inmate labor crew in the early 1970s and Santa Barbara County Grand Jury reports in 2013, 2015, and 2020 made recommendations for capital improvements.
In the two months after the June 2024 report was issued, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office made all of the Grand Jury's recommended repairs, but both the Sheriff's Office and the Board of Supervisors did not agree to an independent contractor to do the work and instead used the County's General Services Department.
Detention Facilities in Santa Barbara County
A Grand Jury report issued on June 17, 2024, after Detention facilities were visited in-person found that a cell door at the Cuyama Sheriff's Substation needed repair and that small cells and poor ventilation were noted at the Santa Barbara County Superior Court Holding Facility.
According to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office, the Cuyama Substation has been officially certified and the County law enforcement agency acknowledged that the Figueroa Courthouse single cells - while useful to separate certain inmates - would be part of an potential changes set to be analyzed between the Sheriff's Office and the General Services Department.
Individuals in Crisis
The Grand Jury report for individuals in crisis issued on June 21, 2024, found that the origin of not allowing County law enforcement to write Welfare and Institutions Code section 5150 holds for people experiencing acute mental health crisis was a money saving step after the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978 and recommended that officers receive training to reissue 5150 holds.
Since the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, the County Behavioral Wellness Department has assumed the responsibility of intervening in emergency situations through its Mobile Crisis Teams explained the Grand Jury report.
Due to recent staff shortages, the County Behavioral Wellness Department's responses have been less timely and the Grand Jury report encouraged the addition of training for officers to file 5150 holds.
The County of Board of Supervisors agreed with the policy of allowing law enforcement, but noted that training on that is already part of Academy training and put into effect through the Co-Response teams that are made up of one law enforcement officer and one Behavioral Wellness Department employee.
The County pointed to a study that showed local Co-Response teams had a low volume of calls and declined to increase the number of units explained the Grand Jury report.
In response to the Grand Jury report, the City of Lompoc did add training for its police officers regarding the assessment of 5150 holds, but the cities of Santa Barbara and Santa Maria did not respond stated the Grand Jury report.
Homeless Encampments in Santa Barbara: Becoming Part of the Community Again
In 2021, the County of Santa Barbara adopted a Homeless Encampment Resolution Strategy and when the plan was scheduled for a renewal in June of 2024, the Grand Jury issued a report assessing the countywide actions the same month.
The Grand Jury's report detailed that while a constellation of issues still existed for those facing homelessness, "the biggest challenge to encampment resolution is the lack of affordable housing".
While the County Board of Supervisors agreed with the Grand Jury's findings and had implemented the recommendations, local municipalities raised issues with providing more sanitation measures including portable bathrooms or porta-potties.
The cities of Goleta and Carpitneria specifically stated that adding more portable bathrooms to encampments would enable homeless people to stay in a, "de facto shelter" instead of moving stated the Grand Jury report.
The City of Santa Barbara also declined to add additional bathrooms as it would suggest a sponsored encampment and pointed out that the city uniquely has several day centers for unhoused people as well as many parks with bathroom facilities shared the Grand Jury report.
According to the Grand Jury report, cities had a unified front of opposition to the addition of sanitary facilities and fears of enabling the continuation of encampments while recognizing the essential role that having the facilities could have on public health and safety.
The City of Santa Maria did not respond to the report noted the Grand Jury report.
Deaths in Custody in Santa Barbara County Jails: Our County Jails Meet Many Needs
Following the deaths of six people at County-operated jails, the Grand Jury investigated and reported in June of 2024 that, "Santa Barbara County Jails have become the main mental health institution, the main drug treatment center, and even at times the primary provider of health care for incarcerated individuals. In a jail system that is chronically understaffed, attention to acute details is compromised."
The Grand Jury report analyzed each of the six in-custody deaths concluding, "These deaths in custody occurred in part due to insufficient observation, occasional lack of effective and timely communications between jail Custody Deputies and healthcare staff, and inadequate resources."
Of those six in-custody deaths, two were determined to have been suicides, two were classified as drug overdoses, and two were classified as multiple causes stated the Grand Jury report.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office -which is responsible for operating County jails and investigations into in-custody deaths- agreed with ten of the Grand Jury's 14 findings in the report shared the Grand Jury.
Both the Grand Jury and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office agreed that newly-booked inmates are particularly vulnerable and in one in-custody death, immediate supervision would have likely changed the outcome of the person's suicide.
In the five other cases, the Sheriff's Office noted deliberate evasion by inmates and disagreed over the intensity of harm done when an inmate was restrained due to outbursts detailed the Grand Jury.
The adoption of a new Wellpath contract in June of 2024, had a demonstrable impact on the implementation of the Grand Jury's recommendations and the Board of Supervisor's support for the Public Defender's pilot program at the Northern Branch Jail being implemented at the Main Jail will improve collaborative efforts to benefit inmates noted the Grand Jury.
