In baseball, ties famously go to the baserunner, but in county government it’s forced a legal fight in the courts. The oil company Sable Offshore is insisting that when the County Board of Supervisors voted 2-2 on whether or not to allow another oil company, Exxon, to transfer its permits to Sable, the tie goes to Sable. Accordingly, Sable — much in the limelight recently — just filed a lawsuit against the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors in federal court to make that point. Joining Sable in this dispute is ExxonMobil, the oil giant that sold Sable its three offshore platforms, its 120-mile pipeline, and its onshore oil storage and processing facilities known as the Santa Ynez Unit two years ago.
The supervisors deadlocked 2-2 two months ago when voting on whether to approve or deny the transfer of permits from Exxon — which date back to 1987 — to Sable. Without a simple majority, the county counsel informed the board that the permit transfer could not go forward. (Supervisor Joan Hartmann has recused herself from the deliberations because the pipeline in question runs adjacent to her Buellton property, close enough that, under state law, it constitutes a conflict of interest.)
Sable, however, is arguing that last fall, before the supervisors voted, the Planning Commission had considered the matter and voted 3-1 to allow the transfer and that, when the supervisors had a tie vote, the Planning Commission’s vote would trump the County Board of Supervisors. That was not what the supervisors were told. They were instructed that the board’s tie vote meant that no transfer was permitted.