[Updated: Wed., June 17, 2026, 3:27pm]
There was no shortage of bittersweet in the air at this Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. Faced with cutting $28 million and 300 positions from the county’s $1.6 billion budget, the supervisors had been preparing over the last seven months for this moment. So, too, did County Executive Officer Mona Miyasato. They took advantage of the time to buffer the blows inflicted by the combined onslaught of Donald Trump’s massive federal budget cuts, not-insubstantial state budget cuts, and chronic overspending by the Department of Public Health and the Department of Social Services — the two county departments most essential to those with little or no money.
By the time Miyasato and the county’s leadership team had rearranged the deck chairs on their Titanic, the 300 positions had been whittled down to only 60 living, breathing human beings who would actually lose their jobs. The remaining 240 positions were already vacant and would not be filled.
After tallying up the results of the six-hour board meeting, the supervisors were told that only 60 positions would be eliminated. It also turned out that, on Monday evening, a last-minute budget deal at the state legislature appears to have saved 17 public health nurse jobs from the budget axe. If Governor Gavin Newsom goes along, these changes will lighten the fiscal load felt by the state’s 58 counties because of federal cuts to social safety net programs.
Still, the layoffs weighed upon the supervisors. “You are not a number,” more than one of the supervisors said to the county employees assembled in the room or watching via social media. “You are part of the county family.” Miyasato echoed that theme, stressing how many laid-off workers might once again be part of the county “family.” She told a story of a former county planner who got laid off during the Great Recession, got rehired as an emergency worker, and then got laid off again. Today that person, Miyasato revealed, is now her right-hand bean counter and budget cruncher, Paul Clementi.
This is Miyasato’s last budget. She is stepping down later this summer after 12 years at the helm. Up on the fourth floor of the county administration building, Miyasato is not merely respected; she is revered. Her departure will alter the fundamental chemistry of how county government functions here in Santa Barbara. So too, though less dramatically, will be the departure of Supervisor Steve Lavagnino — famous for his comedic wit and open-hearted reach-across-the-aisle style — who is stepping down after 16 years.
In preparing this budget, Miyasato asked department heads to cut their budgets by about 5 percent. Then, she asked them for a wish list of positions they wanted restored and why. With the savings accrued from this across-the-board exercise, she proposed putting $7.4 million into the two social safety-net departments in order to minimize the knife-to-the-bone bleeding that would otherwise have taken place. She proposed setting aside another $9.5 million for a hedge against the cuts that will be required next year. And finally, she set aside $3.5 million to be used by the five supervisors for their individual pet projects. As several supervisors remarked, Miyasato clearly knows them well.
But there will be pain. And disruption. Two of the public health department’s three pharmacies will close. The county is opening a 24-hour informational hotline to help patients forced to make new arrangements. How well that works is yet to be seen.
About 800 patients who rely upon the public health department for specialty care treatment will now be forced to find new providers. Local hospitals fear their emergency rooms will be strained with new patients — many poor and suffering from acute medical conditions requiring complicated and costly treatments. Public health authorities believe they have identified new providers to take these patients on. It’s still too soon to say.
Of all the department heads, Sheriff Bill Brown was the most recalcitrant. His department was already woefully understaffed, he explained. He asked for 30 positions to be restored. He did not get them. Given the festering tension that exists between Brown and the board, that’s not surprising.
Former supervisor Mike Stoker — who now represents the Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association — chided the supervisors for not making public safety the number-one priority.
Supervisor Lavagnino pointed out that public safety consumes one-half of the county’s general fund, and that the sheriff’s department alone consumes fully one-third. Child welfare, he said, should also be regarded as part of public safety. A kid who grows up in an unsafe home, he said, will become a law enforcement problem later.
Supervisor Laura Capps — who challenged Brown the most directly over his proposal to cut eight officers from the Isla Vista Foot Patrol — argued that by holding law enforcement executives such as Brown to fiscal account the supervisors are fostering trust in law enforcement.
To an unusual degree, the supervisors — from all over the political spectrum — have managed to avoid much of the performative friction that characterizes many governmental bodies. Many of the supervisors credited Miyasato for allowing that to happen. Miyasato, in turn, returned the compliment. She made a point to stay on for one last budget, she said, knowing how hairy it would be.
“If anyone does anything crazy,” she remembered thinking, “I’d be really pissed. But you didn’t.”
She praised the supervisors, the members of her executive team, the department heads.
“It’s not just me,” she said. “It’s everyone here in the audience.”
Editor’s Note: The Board of Supervisors was faced with cutting 300 positions, not 399, and the public health department will be closing two, not all, of its three pharmacies.
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