Watch: SB Landlords Push Back on Rent Control; Supes Drown in Red Ink; SBUSD OKs 7th Period; Recalling Ukraine's Heroism
On a new episode of Newsmakers TV, our All-Star Panel of Top Local Journalists offers analysis, insight and commentary on SB's biggest news stories of the week.
It was Sean Connery, playing a ruthless Chicago cop in the 1987 film adaptation of “The Untouchables,” who launched a million future internet themes by wielding a shotgun against a stiletto-armed Mafioso, then insulting his weaponry choice.
“Brings a knife to a gun fight,” Connery sneers at the terrified thug.
The late Sir Sean’s great scene as Officer Jim Malone came to mind this week, with word that Santa Barbara’s besieged landlords have hired their own version of a nasty copper to up the stakes in their donnybrook against City Hall, in the person of A. Barry Cappello, the city’s most practiced practitioner in the arts of legal brawling.
Flanked by real estate community representatives, Cappello appeared on the steps of said city hall this week to announce impending litigation to challenge the temporary rent freeze, imposed last year by city council’s 4-3 liberal majority, and also perhaps the more sweeping plan to enact a permanent “rent stabilization” ordinance.
On this week’s episode of Newsmakers TV, Josh Molina reprises his reporting on the latest development in the long-running rent control saga, excavating some deep policy and political implications, including Cappello’s key role in birthing the system of council district elections that opened the door for rent control in the first place.
Nick Welsh checks in with a deep dive on the projected $66 million budget shortfall the Board of Supervisors is facing, with a look at the departments facing the biggest potential cuts and the ongoing feud between several members and Sheriff Bill Brown over his chronic lax financial management.
And Callie Fausey returns to explain the big fight at the Santa Barbara Unified School District over extending the school day, for students at its four junior highs, with a seventh period to allow expansion of elective courses, and also discusses her coverage of a heartbreaking local memorial on the anniversary of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Plus: Gregg vs Bill, Round 13.
All this and more, right here, right now on Newsmakers TV.
Check out Episode 550 via YouTube below or by clicking through this link. Our podcast is available on Apple, Spotify, or on Soundcloud here. TVSB, Channel 17, airs the show every weeknight at 5 p.m. and at 9 a.m. on weekends. KCSB, 91.9 FM, broadcasts the program at 5:30 p.m. on weekends
Images: Separated at birth? Sean Connery as Officer Jim Malone (Instagram) and A. Barry Cappello (Santa Barbara Independent).