SLO County has an excellent planning commission: They work so long and hard and deal so well with very complex issues. Their chairperson leads with skill, humor, and continually amazes me. I was very disturbed to read the commentary in the July 23 New Times, “Remove Sarah Christie from the planning commission,” by Andy Caldwell. His opinion is the opposite of mine. He is the paid executive director of COLAB. This group claims to represents business and agriculture in Santa Barbara County—not SLO County. Why does COLAB pay Caldwell as their executive director to write a negative article about government that is not in Santa Barbara County? If I could find the businesses that pay COLAB and thus Caldwell, I would boycott them.
This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 6, 2009.