There are a thousand and one stories in the Naked City. This one requires a raincoat. That’s because the pissing match that’s engulfed City Hall since the beginning of the year shows no sign of abatement. If anything, it’s picking up steam. Umbrellas will soon be needed.
Santa Barbara Mayor Cathy Murillo was just named in a legal complaint filed with California Attorney General Xavier Becerra by supporters of Councilmember Jason Dominguez. Since January 9, when Murillo was first sworn in as the city’s first Latina mayor, she and Dominguez — who represents the city’s Eastside district — have been engaged in a sharply worded exchange of elbows that shows no sign of easing up. Both want to represent City Hall on the most powerful cabal of elected government officials in the county, the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments, otherwise known as SBCAG. This agency is so omnipotent, it can and does meet in public, safe in the knowledge no one knows what the hell it is doing. What it does is really important: It dispenses millions of dollars in road-repair money, it manages the freeway-widening process, and it determines just how many more housing units the county decides need to be built in order to meet natural demand. In other words, everything.
On all these issues, Murillo and Dominguez differ substantially.