COUNTY TO DUMP 'INCOMPETENT' ON NORTH COUNTY—CEQA SAYS 'NO PROBLEM'!

The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, in their infinite wisdom and with all the transparency of a lead balloon, recently trotted out an agenda item so dense it could stun a progressive activist into silence. Buried within its bureaucratic jargon is a plan to authorize a state program, the 'Incompetent to Stand Trial (IST) Diversion and Community-Based Restoration Infrastructure Program,' which sounds truly lovely until you realize it means moving individuals deemed mentally unfit for court into county facilities. Specifically, they're looking at Good Samaritan Shelter’s Life House II in Northern Santa Barbara County.

Now, common folk might wonder what precisely qualifies one as 'incompetent to stand trial' and why a county facility funded by your tax dollars is the ideal place for 'restoration.' But don't you worry your pretty little head about the details! The Supervisors have a blanket exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for this. Apparently, bringing a new cohort of the 'incompetent' into a community is merely an 'organizational, administrative, or fiscal activity of government' that will cause no 'direct or indirect physical changes in the environment.' Because, of course, people aren't 'physical changes,' they're just... paperwork.

This is just another ingenious move by our Board, eagerly waving through state-mandated social programs that offload the state's problems onto local communities, all while sidestepping genuine public input or environmental review. The public isn't meant to scrutinize these things; we're just meant to fund them and accept the 'restoration' of whoever the state decides needs diverting. The fact that the Supervisors can rubber-stamp such a significant social program under the guise of an 'administrative activity' without so much as a whimper from the environmental lobby speaks volumes about who truly pulls the strings in this county.

So, as the state dumps its 'incompetents' in North County, residents can rest easy knowing that while their property values and neighborhood safety might undergo 'incompetent' 'physical changes,' the official paperwork recorded by your Supervisors will claim absolute environmental bliss. Another day, another win for bureaucratic obfuscation and the ever-expanding reach of the state into local affairs, all while the good citizens (and their wallets) are left holding the bag.