One morning last week, Karen Jones cracked a bad egg and shrieked, throwing the raw brown goop in the air. “I skipped breakfast,” the Santa Ynez Valley resident announced at a recent public hearing about the county’s tentative land-use deal with the Chumash. “Sometimes it is better to do nothing than to do something foolish.”
The metaphor was an indication of the resentment and bitterness that has built up for years in the Santa Ynez Valley. Valley residents have adopted a “just say no” approach to the tribe’s plans to expand the existing roughly 138-acre reservation. This tentative agreement surrounds Camp 4, the 1,400-acre property east of Highway 154.
County supervisors Joan Hartmann and Das Williams met privately with Chumash chair Ken Kahn and vice chair Raul Armenta for six months after years of public negotiations failed.