City Council votes unanimously to continue program through December while exploring whether to make it permanent
Since March 2020, the City of Carpinteria has issued 28 permits for businesses and other organizations to expand their operations outside or into public street rights-of-way. (Jade Martinez-Pogue / Noozhawk photo) By Jade Martinez-Pogue, Noozhawk Staff Writer | @MartinezPogue
May 16, 2021
| 9:30 p.m.
With Santa Barbara County gaining increasing control over the COVID-19 pandemic, the Carpinteria City Council voted last week to extend an emergency ordinance allowing local businesses to expand operations into street rights-of-way.
“Many local businesses were forced to close for a number of months over the past year and, when open, business activities have been severely restricted,” City Manager Dave Durflinger wrote in a staff report to the council.
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The cities have asked for additional information from the county to analyze the data leading to the higher costs.
In addition to the new higher rate for next year, the cities balked at so-called “true-up” costs for 2019-20, through which the county seeks the difference between the estimated and actual costs for service.
“The sheriff’s department has applied those true-up costs but has included major issue here in the current year billing that patrol hours are a part of the true-up billing. Of course, that’s not the case; it’s not part of the contract. That affects the current year and going forward,” Durflinger said.