COUNTY 'ACCOUNTABILITY': WE ALMOST GOT CAUGHT, BUT WE'RE FIXING IT!

It warms the heart to see our local government, in conjunction with its ever-watchful media enablers at the Santa Barbara Independent, bravely face the harsh reality that, sometimes, bureaucracy moves at the speed of molasses. Yes, folks, after what was undoubtedly a rigorous internal 'study' — likely conducted by the same folks who missed the 'follow-up' memo — the County has heroically declared that its inspectors were, in fact, doing their job. They identified deficiencies! What a groundbreaking discovery!

The big revelation, according to the official blurb parroted by the Independent, is that while inspections were 'timely,' the 'follow-ups and enforcement' in a mere *ten* cases were not. Just ten! In a county bursting at the seams with housing regulations and mandates, only ten instances of bureaucratic inertia were found? That’s not a problem; that’s a miracle of underreporting, or perhaps a masterclass in controlled information release. One has to wonder what else they 'successfully corrected' by simply not mentioning it.

But fear not, taxpayers! We're assured they've 'successfully corrected that.' One can only imagine the flurry of urgent memos, the emergency task forces convened, and the monumental effort expended to ensure that from now on, *all* paperwork will eventually find its way into the proper 'pending' pile. It seems accountability, for our progressive overlords, means admitting a tiny fraction of their systemic inefficiencies and then praising themselves for acknowledging it. Meanwhile, property owners trying to navigate this labyrinth continue to deal with permits that take eons and rules that shift with the political winds. Perhaps if they spent less time documenting their own 'accountability' and more time actually being accountable, things might move a little faster than snail mail.