GOING HALFSIES:

In a last-minute move engineered by Santa Barbara City
Councilmember Das Williams, the City Council voted to increase
harbor slip fees by 2.5 percent, rather than the 5 percent
initially proposed to subsidize pesticide-free maintenance in city
parks. The council’s 4-to-3 vote came in the face of vehement
opposition from boat owners who packed the Council Chambers Monday
evening. The $96,000 raised by the slip fee increase will enable
the Waterfront Department to pay the landscape maintenance costs
for waterfront parking lots, previously borne by the City’s Parks
and Recreation Department. This newly available Parks Department
funding will pay for the labor intensive Integrated Pest Management
(IPM) program, a pesticide-free method of maintaining city parks
that has been pushed by Williams and fellow Councilmember Helene
Schneider.