As we welcome in our shiny new year, let’s take a brief inventory of some of the events that happened in Santa Barbara this past year. For the first time in more than a quarter of a century, we welcomed someone from outside the city ranks into the position of City Administrator. Kelly McAdoo, who had been the city manager in the city of Hayward, California, joined us in May. Kelly’s extensive background and fresh perspective have already paid dividends within our organization, and her goals and challenges for Santa Barbara present a worthy “to-do” list.
I have had the pleasure of working with Congressman Carbajal’s staff in securing FEMA funding as well as cooperation from Caltrans to address our chronic flooding issues during extreme storm events. State Senator Limon and Assemblymember Hart have been a constant presence in our quarterly All-County Mayors’ Conclaves and are tuned in to our local concerns and issues.
We opened a multi-agency navigation center on Chapala Street to help address the issue of directing folks off of the streets and out of the public parks into the appropriate available services. Council approved an “Affordable Housing Trust Fund” to provide opportunities to address our local housing needs.