At the budget hearings in June, Cathy Fisher, who is Santa Barbara County's Agricultural Commissioner, was the only department head to request layoffs. She asked that all three scientist positions be eliminated from her department — the Plant Pathologist, the Entomologist, and the Weed Specialist — who already do the work of a dozen. What was remarkable was that her department's $5 million budget was expanded by $322,000, with 75 percent of the increase going to administration costs, not to the staff who literally do the work in the fields.
With globalization, increases in trade, and population growth, the risk of new, serious invasive plant pests and diseases arriving in the county has never been higher, yet Commissioner Fisher is cutting her best first detectors who have PhDs. During the drought and current massive die-off of native and landscape trees, requests for service and advice from the County Ag Department have never been higher. No one else in the county has their knowledge or can do their expert work.
Commissioner Fisher claimed various different and contradictory things during the budget process. First she said that the positions would go to half-time, then be eliminated in six months, because there was no work. When that was obviously unsupported by the facts, her plan was changed to say there was work, but it could be done more "efficiently" by state employees in Sacramento. Many more objections were raised as to how sending everything to Sacramento, and waiting days or weeks for answers, could be more efficient or not actually cost growers a lot of money. Finally, she said that she would create a new combination job where one person would do the work of both Plant Pathologist and Entomologist, one person would be demoted to Ag Biologist, and the Weed Specialist, a job currently vacant, would remain unfunded.