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Extracted from Consolidated Report

This investigation was originally published as part of a larger consolidated report containing multiple investigations. View the consolidated PDF for the complete document.

Santa Barbara County Grand Jury • 2019-2020

Santa Barbara County Courthouse

Published: June 30, 2019 4 pages

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⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.

⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.

Findings 9 findings

The current Contract does not fully address future water management problems such as will arise from climate and other rapid environmental changes.

Public understanding and effective operation of the Cachuma Project would be enhanced if key terms in the Contract were defined and used more precisely.

The roles and responsibilities of SBCWA and the Member Units are not clearly defined in the current Contract.

The current Water Year, October 1 to September 30, makes diversion recommendations and decisions difficult because it comes just before the rainy season, when the quantity of water in Cachuma for the next few months is highly unpredictable.

Provisions in the 2020 Contract will need more frequent updating than those in previous Contracts due to rapid climate change altering the natural conditions affecting water supply.

Under the 1995 Contract, Article 9(g), the required five-year meetings cannot result in increased water diversion to Member Units.

Member Units and SBCWA have expressed support for formal, quantitative methods of decision-making under uncertainty which can identify sources of disagreement, and thus facilitate compromise solutions.

SBCWA and the Member Units agree that meetings of their technical staffs are valuable but disagree over the organizational concerns of past meetings, such as claims of infrequency, non-attendance, non- response and cancellation without notice.

The websites of the Member Units and SBCWA lack clarity and detail on the Cachuma Project.

Recommendations 14

R1

That the Directors of the Member Units and the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, acting as Directors of the SBCWA, pursue the upcoming 2020 contract negotiations as an opportunity to create a completely new contract.
R2

That the Directors of the Member Units and the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, acting as Directors of the SBCWA, require that key terms in the new Contract are defined clearly and used in a consistent manner.
R3

That the Directors of the Member Units and the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, acting as Directors of the SBCWA, ensure their roles and responsibilities are clearly defined in the new Contract.
R3a

That the Board of Supervisors direct the Department of Behavioral Wellness to establish and implement measurable response times, and to track and evaluate the efficacy of their crisis response services.
R3b

That the Board of Supervisors direct the Department of Behavioral Wellness to require its contracted partner SAFTY to respond in the field for face-to-face evaluations more quickly and frequently.
R4

That the Directors of the Member Units and the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, acting as Directors of the SBCWA, strongly urge in negotiations for the new Cachuma Project Contract that the Water Year should run from May 1 to April 30, or a similar period, to allow diversion requests to be made soon after the usual winter rain period.
R5

That the Directors of the Member Units and the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, acting as Directors of the SBCWA, propose to the Bureau of Reclamation that the new Cachuma Project Contract require a meeting between them and the Bureau every five years, with a public agenda, to consider changes to Contract provisions which have become outdated.
R6

That the Directors of the Member Units and the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, acting as Directors of the SBCWA, propose to the Bureau of Reclamation that the required five-year meetings allow changes to the operations of the new Contract, including increased diversions, provided they are consistent with Federal law, State law, and Project Water Rights, and do not negatively affect the environment or the groundwater quality downstream of Bradbury Dam.
R6a

That the Cities of Santa Barbara and Goleta, the County of Santa Barbara, and Santa Barbara County Association of Governments encourage Union Pacific Railroad to install and monitor video surveillance cameras on poles every mile within the High Fatality Zone.
R6b

That County of Santa Barbara and the Cities of Santa Barbara and Goleta, together with Union Pacific Railroad, establish a schedule to monitor the video surveillance cameras between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.
R6c

That the Board of Supervisors direct the Department of Behavioral Wellness to integrate the funding of the Children’s Triage Program into the Department of Behavioral Wellness budget on an ongoing basis.
R7

That the Directors of the Member Units and the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, acting as Directors of the SBCWA, establish a format for quantitative decision-making under uncertainty; and seek to narrow their differences on such components as probabilities of future rainfall patterns and criteria for desirable outcomes.
R8

That each year the Directors of the Member Units and the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, acting as Directors of the SBCWA, determine a schedule of multiple meetings of key technical staff to discuss Cachuma Project operations, including upcoming diversions, and to report major points of potential agreement or disagreement to their Boards.
R9

That the Directors of the Member Units and the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, acting as Directors of the SBCWA, set up and maintain a specific website for detailed information on the Cachuma Project's history, structure, governance, and operations, with links to additional historical documents and records.