DRONE VAN DONATION: IS DIRECT RELIEF BUYING THE FIRE DEPT. A TOY FOR WORK OR PLAY?

Santa Barbara County’s Board of Supervisors recently gave its rubber stamp to a ‘generous’ donation of $91,100 from Direct Relief – a sum apparently earmarked for an all-wheel-drive Ford Transit Van, complete with a fancy build-out, for the Fire Department’s Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) operations. Yes, you read that right: a drone van. Because when the county budget is tight, what better use of ‘philanthropic’ dollars than kitting out a mobile command center for what amounts to a glorified toy department?

One has to wonder if this state-of-the-art vehicle is truly for emergency response, or if the Fire Department just needed a swanky new ride to ferry their gadgets to the next county fair drone demonstration. The Board, naturally, decided this wasn't an “environmental project” under CEQA, because clearly, spending nearly a hundred grand on a new van and its accoutrements couldn't possibly have any “significant physical impact.” It’s just “government fiscal activity,” folks, nothing to see here but the shifting of zeroes on a ledger.

This kind of maneuver leaves us scratching our heads at The Whipping Post. Is Direct Relief, a non-profit, truly in the business of equipping local government agencies with high-tech vehicles, or is this a backdoor way for a well-connected organization to cozy up to county officials? It's a classic case of the kind of 'donations' that make you wonder who benefits more – the public, or the optics of cooperation.

While the Supervisors patted themselves on the back for accepting this ‘gift,’ one might ponder if the actual emergency needs of the county are truly being met, or if we’re just getting more drones with more bells and whistles, all while our roads crumble and our public services gasp for truly fundamental funding. But hey, at least the drones will arrive in style.