Proposal to Split Santa Barbara County Colors Supervisorial Contests

A plan to split Santa Barbara County in half, headed for a countywide vote within the next three years, is shaping up as a key issue in this year’s two supervisorial races.

But the proposal has become such an emotional issue to many residents, especially those in the county’s most northern cities, that some of the candidates are choosing their words carefully.

They are emphasizing the need to bring unity to county government after years of divisiveness, a goal that the strongest proponents of northern secession dismiss as impossible.

Advocates of creating a new county -- it would be called Mission County and run roughly from the Gaviota Pass to the San Luis Obispo County border -- say the cultural, political and economic differences between north and south are simply too great to be overcome by any change in political leadership.

Talk of splitting the county has surfaced sporadically over the years. But the level of hostility increased dramatically last year after an unsuccessful recall drive against liberal Supervisor Gail Marshall of Solvang, accused by northern critics of voting almost always with the county’s two liberal southern supervisors against the more conservative north.

Soon after the recall drive failed, leaders of the secession movement pushed forward with a petition drive that ultimately produced 32,212 signatures. On Dec. 10, county officials ruled that 21,426 signatures were valid, several hundred more than the 20,779 required to put the issue to a vote.

The Board of Supervisors will be formally presented with the verification results at a meeting Jan. 6. The next step is forwarding the results to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who will appoint a five-member commission to study the pros and cons of any split.

The governor has four months to pick the commission, to be composed of two representatives from the north, two from the south and one from outside the county. The commission could take a year to reach its conclusions, primarily focusing on the economic questions connected to secession, but can’t keep the issue off the ballot.

The timing is significant. If the commission moves quickly, the proposal could go to Santa Barbara County voters as early as the next general election in November. But Joe Holland, the county’s clerk, recorder and assessor, said the process will most likely take until March 2006.

Meanwhile, 1st District Supervisor Naomi Schwartz and 3rd District Supervisor Marshall have both decided against seeking reelection. First to announce for Schwartz’s seat was her longtime chief aide, Salud Carbajal. But now a second candidate has emerged, John Gostovich of Carpinteria.

In the 3rd District, former Assemblyman Brooks Firestone of Los Olivos was also quick to announce. The moderate Republican and prominent north county vintner presented himself as the candidate who could bridge the gap between north and south.

Firestone has now been joined by other rivals. One is rancher Slick Gardner, recently the target of county investigations into allegations that he had starved his horses. Another is Steven Pappas, a Los Olivos businessman. The third challenger is John Buttny of Santa Ynez, a longtime aide to Marshall whose liberal and radical past, including membership in the radical ‘60s Weathermen movement, was one of the issues in last year’s recall effort.

Political strategists say Buttny could be a serious challenger to Firestone if he wins the vote in liberal UC Santa Barbara and Goleta, both in the south. Two-thirds of the 3rd District’s voters live in the southern part of the county, and that was the source of Marshall’s strength.

Buttny doesn’t duck the past, saying his political foes took their best shot at his Weathermen past during the recall vote and failed to shock the voters. He is outspoken in discussing the need to defeat any county split vote.

“I’m strongly opposed to splitting the county,” he said. “We need to have more understanding of each other. For one thing, we could try to change the economics of agriculture in this county, where the north feeds the south, to make sure more northern products go to the south county. If people start listening to each other, that might help.”

Jim Diani, a leader of the Citizens for County Organization, which led the signature drive, said it doesn’t matter who wins the next supervisorial election. The differences between the rural, conservative north and the liberal, wealthy and cosmopolitan south are simply too much to overcome, he believes.

Diani said much still depends on the economic data that will be revealed during the commission study, expected to begin around May. His goal has been to give the voters a chance to decide.

Meanwhile, Firestone and Carbajal have been careful in their approach to the secession issue.

When announcing his candidacy, Firestone emphasized the need for unity, but stopped short of openly opposing a split. Carbajal took a similar position, saying the issue was one for voters to decide.

Just as Buttny has been more outspoken in the north, Gostovich is more outspoken in the south.

“I don’t support the split,” the liberal Democrat said. “It’s a symptom of how local government has pushed the people around in this county. I’m running because I have never seen a local government so tough on its citizens. It’s fundamentally broken.”