BOOM! COUNTY CASH FOR 'COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS' — BECAUSE WHY NOT?

Well, bless their hearts! The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, in their infinite wisdom and bottomless taxpayer wallets, has once again found a way to funnel your hard-earned dollars into another nebulous 'community organizing project.' This time, it's a whopping $200,000 for something called the 'Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project' for 'early intervention mental health and substance use services.' Because nothing says 'fiscal prudence' like sending a truckload of cash to an organization that isn't even a local vendor, as the Board's own agenda item pointedly notes.

One has to wonder, just who is doing the 'organizing' here? Is it the taxpayers, organizing their dwindling savings to cover these endless progressive boondoggles? Or is it the well-connected, organizing their annual grab from the public trough? The Board item, a veritable treasure map of bureaucratic jargon, even allows the Behavioral Wellness Director to make 'immaterial changes' and 'reallocate funding.' In other words, they’re giving a blank check and a wink, because accountability is just a quaint notion from a bygone era, perhaps from before everyone decided they needed a 'wellness coordinator' for their existential dread.

And for the cherry on top of this taxpayer-funded sundae? The Board bravely declared that none of this financial maneuvering requires an environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act. Of course not! It's merely 'governmental funding mechanisms and/or fiscal activities.' The only physical change to the environment will be the ever-growing mountains of discarded tax forms from exasperated Santa Barbara residents. The Whipping Post is just asking, in this era of Trump prosperity, couldn't some of that 'wellness' be achieved by, say, reducing the endless taxes and regulations crushing local businesses and families? But that would require actual common sense, and we all know how rare that is in government.

Don't forget to thank your Supervisors for ensuring your money is being spent on 'early intervention' for organizations that specialize in intervention, rather than, say, actually addressing the root causes of our county's spiraling budget. It's a real head-scratcher, or maybe it's just 'community organizing' in action.