Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO)

October 1st, 2026 meeting of the Santa Barbara Local Agency Formation Commission. Madam Clerk please call the roll.

Hartman moves approval. 0

second. Second by commissioner

Aye. Commissioner Kiriakou?

Aye, and can you confirm that our mics are working because Commissioner Johnson seconded pretty early before the second was heard.

We did not hear Commissioner Johnson but we can hear you fine.

Yeah I'm here. Can you hear me now?

Yes we can.

Okay and I did second that so it's up to the commissioners or

Commissioner Nelson. Excuse me, Commissioner Mosby.

Aye.

Chair Stark?

Aye.

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. The next matter is public comment. Now is the time for members of the public to speak on items that are not on our agenda.

public comment?

Yes, thank you. My name is Virginia Chang Karali and I'm here as a public comment speaker. Good afternoon commissioners. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. As I mentioned my name is Virginia Chang Karali and I am the current chair of San Mateo LAFCO and one of the special district representatives here. I am running for reelection for a two-year seat on the Cal LAFCO Board as a representative of the coastal region. I am honored to have the support and confidence of San Mateo LAFCO as their nominee for one of the two year Cal LAFCO board seats. I have the privilege and honor of serving on two special district boards in San Mateo County, as the Vice President of the San Mateo County Harbor Board of Commissioners and the President of the Menlo Park Fire Protection District Board of Directors.

My professional background is in financial research and investments at some of our country's leading financial institutions, and as a former senior director at the NASDAQ stock market. Since I've been on Cal LAFCO's board for the last two years as a volunteer, I have worked hard to put Cal LAFCO on a path to success. Some of these structural changes include how the board will be elected this year with two, two-year seats and one to your into one year seats without seat categories. I'm running to be one of the coastal regions representatives for one of the two, two-year seats and am currently the only special district candidate in this election.

For the past two years I've served on Cal LAFCO's Legislative Committee, the Conference Planning Committee and the Awards Committee. During my tenure, Cal LAFCO has made significant strides in governance, finance, strategic planning, operations and member outreach. Follow-through and implementation of the Strategic Plan is critical for Cal LAFO's future. My work on Cal LAFCO's board and committees especially on the newly created Finance Committee which I chair I also have the honor of serving on the board of the Special District Risk Management Authority or SDRMA and have been involved with the San Mateo County local CSDA chapter And I have a strong working relationship with CSDA state leadership. I've built alliances and relationships creating collaboration opportunities between Cal LAFCO, SDRMA and CSDA for legislation that impacts Californians.

I will continue my work with helping Cal LAFCO be recognized for providing value to its members and partners so that synergistic relationships can continue developing, benefiting the constituents we serve. I'd be honored to have your vote to continue serving on Cal LAFCO's board for the next two years. Together, we can keep this positive momentum going so that Cal LAFCO continues to have a meaningful impact in our local communities and in interactions with our members in the state legislature. Thank you in advance for your consideration and thank you for your time.

Thank you. I expect some of us will see you at the Cal LAFCO conference. Are there any other public comment speakers?

Chair Stark and members of the Commission, there are no other requests under general public comment.

Thank you that concludes public comment that brings us to the approval of the consent calendar. There is one item the transaction report or any commissioners want to pull that item Any members of the public here to speak on the consent calendar.

Chair Stark and members of the commission there are no requests to speak on this item.

Thank you I would call for a motion in a second for the consent calendar agenda.

I so move Johnson. Hartman seconds.

Motion Johnson, a second Hartman. Madam Clerk would you please call the roll?

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you the next item is business item number one would the clerk please read that item into the record?

Chair Stark and members of the Commission, business item number one is to discuss indirect voting delegates regarding Cal LAFCO's bylaw changes clarifying associate member eligibility.

The executive officer please report.

Thank you good afternoon chair and commission so business item 1 at the Cal LAFCO conference on Thursday October 22nd the Cal LAFCO board will hold a meeting to consider a vote on the bylaws changes that are attached as part of your packet. And this is essentially regarding having associate members being ineligible to be on CalAFCO so in some cases executive officers are positions held by associate members and so this is to clarify within our bylaws that they would not be eligible to run as a CalAFCO board member.

And so, as your delegate the staff is intended on voting these bylaw changes in But we put this on the agenda for discussion of the board. If you felt you needed your delegate to vote in a different way, we're happy to entertain direction. So with that, that concludes our report for this item.

Thank you. Any questions from commissioners? I just want to clarify who an associate member is. Is that somebody was not employed by or an officer of a LAFCO?

Correct, that would be private company firms that operate as executive officers for some counties.

Thank you and I suppose it would also include private firms that serve as LAFCO Council is that also correct?

That would be correct

Okay, and they can't serve on the Cal LAFCO board under this

motion? Well under the rule change only executive officers now can be nominated and voted in. So legal counsel or other positions held by other LAFCO would not be eligible by right under that clause but there are some county LAFCO that use associate Any further Commissioner questions on this? Any public comment?

Chair Stark and members of the Commission, there is no request to speak on this item.

So what is the motion that you request is to authorize our voting delegate to approve this?

Authorizing your voting delegate to vote on this bylaw change.

Vote on this in your discretion.

Yeah, and I'm in my discretion. I'm just announcing I intend to vote in favor of it.

Thank you. May we have a motion and a second?

So moved.

Is there a second? I'll second it, Commissioner Geier. We have a motion and a second Madam Clerk would you please call the roll?

Motion passes unanimously

Thank you I believe

Chair Stark and members of the Commission, business item number two is to receive and file a report on the Land Use and Planning Conference held on January 9th 2027 at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles and authorized reimbursements for Commissioner attendance.

Thank you Mr. Prater

Thank you, Chair. As indicated next year in January 29th the next Land Use and Planning Conference is to be held in Los Angeles per our Commissioner Handbook. Reimbursement for attendance to that requires a pre-approval from the members wanting to register for this event And so the recommendation is to allow attendees and authorize reimbursement for their travel, their attendance, their hotel stay and food meals while doing that.

And that they would fill out a travel expense form at the conclusion of that event to get reimbursed. And so the recommendation is to allow commissioners that want to attend that, to attend it and get pre-authorization for reimbursement to do so. So that concludes our report.

Thank you. Can you confirm that my understanding is correct? that this is essentially the same conference structure that previously was done by UCLA Extension and it's a one-day conference. And you get seven hours of CLE credit and planning credit if you're a planner. It's now Arizona State has taken over this sponsorship, but it's still in a hotel in Los Angeles.

That is correct. We'll confirm that. Moving forward, I think we'll look at our handbook because it specifically calls out the UCLA conference. If this is in fact going to consistently take over, we may rewrite our handbook so it's just automatically covered and we don't have to bring this forward every time. So we'll keep an eye on how consistent Arizona State will be holding this conference on behalf of California.

Thank you. I would, my comment on this is I'd encourage people to go it's very valuable. It's highly substantive you have to endure a mediocre lunch occasionally they have a good speaker but the substance of it and with the planning law and CEQA discussion is usually quite useful and it's over in one day all you have to do is get to Los Angeles and back Is there any public comment on this?

I guess.

Chair Stark and members of the Commission, there are no requests to speak on this item.

Thank you is any public further public comment. I would ask for a motion and a second. I'll move for approval. No, I have the motion is to authorize commissioners my understanding to authorize commissioners to attend this and to be reimbursed for their attendance.

That is correct that's what the motion before.

I make commissioner Johnson I will go ahead and second that.

There we have a motion on a second Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Motion passes unanimously.

Go Sun Devils! I think that's who they are, the Sun Devils

Chair Stark and members of the Commission, Information Item Number One is to receive and file a report on the 2026 Cal LAFCO Annual Conference in Sacramento on October 21st through 23rd, 2026 and Cal LAFCO Calendar of Events and provide direction to staff as necessary.

Thank you. Our EO?

Thank you, okay we are getting close to our annual conference in Sacramento this year currently the conference attendance of registration closes on October 9th so if there are any final holdouts that want to attend please get with staff so we can get you registered hotel rooms are nearly sold out But there are a few other LAFCO that are holding on to some key rooms. And if you negotiate a transfer with them, they'll release it on our behalf so we can still get you in and stay at the hotel but we all need to know fairly soon.

So with that, we have two commissioners currently attending. We have Chair Stark and Commissioner Johnson attending and registered. And we have our four staff personnel registered and attending as well. Your voting delegate is the executive officer and your alternate is Commissioner Johnson. So we will be getting together and going over the packet for the personnel that are running for the CalAFCO board seats, and we will get together at the conference and decide on who's favored for our commission to vote for.

And lastly, as you indicated in the earlier item there will be a CalAFCO board meeting to approve the bylaws. We'll vote to approve those as well on that Thursday and then also attached is the 2027 calendar of events for the commission to look at if you're interested in tracking what CalAFCO is doing in the new year that's sort of what's on the docket for now And then lastly, an announcement that was previously forwarded out to the Commission.

Cal LAFCO Executive Director Michelle McIntyre has revamped some of the Cal LAFCO website to make it more useful and friendly for its users and they've added a component for commissioners themselves so it's an easier way to find information that you're looking for If you haven't registered your name yet, get with staff. We'll make sure that you get registered. You'll get an ID to be able to log into that website and use the member hub components that are behind a firewall for only members only. So if you want to use that resource please reach out to us.

With that, that announces our item for this informational item. Do you have any specific direction that you want to give staff? We're happy to take that feedback and take it to the conference with us.

Thank you. Do any commissioners have any questions or comments? I have sort of a semi question am I my understanding correct That at the conclusion of this meeting will briefly discuss travel plans and the alternatives for doing so.

Those that are registered we'll get together and try to arrange some travel plans correct.

Okay. If it's any additional inducement, the award-winning Cal LAFCO Celebrity Game Show The LAFCO 101 presentation this year we're doing Celebrity Jeopardy! with Joe Serrano in the role of Alex Trebek and I believe I'm Sean Connery. That's the Saturday Night Live version of it. You never know, you might have to go. No motion is necessary.

We do have a public comment though.

Would you please

over zoom Virginia whenever you're ready?

Yes, thank you. I just wanted to add another enticement possibility is that our keynote speaker is going to be Senate Majority Leader Angelique Ashby who has been a big proponent of LAFCO so I think what she has to say or will say will be very interesting and we're looking for...I'm on the conference planning committee and we're looking forward to seeing all of y'all there It's going to be a very substantive conference and I know that staff and the board are very excited to host this and we just hope to see everyone there and I look forward to it. Thank you.

Thank you. Again, no motion needed. We can proceed to the next item. I believe

Chair Stark and members of the Commission, information item number two is to receive and file a report on the Cal LAFCO Legislative Committee meetings held on August 20th and September 27th, 2026. Will

our Executive Officer please report?

All right so this item is to inform the Commission that the Ledge Committee of Cal LAFCO has met both in August and September to review the legislative bills that were of interest to them Three proposals were approved to be presented to the Cal LAFCO Board for some action. And of those three, there's three additional tract bills that were authored by others that are of interest to Cal LAFCO.

The three bills that were introduced for either sponsorship or support by the CalAFCO Board has to deal with one regarding the expiration of petitions. So when an application is filed by a landowner, it's filed by petition versus the complement to that is a resolution of application by the affected agency either city, county or special district. Well under those petitions there's been some new proposed language that would set an expiration date of one year 365 days if that application is not moved forward in the process By virtue of the petitioner not filing additional paperwork that has been deemed necessary for it to move forward.

And so that's the sponsor, one that's looking for a sponsor. The second one has to do with the revenue tax 99 waiver specifically calling out the waiver for special districts in that process that know that do not need a tax exchange agreement by virtue of the type of service that they provide and said that be called out specifically for that if You're a district or a city that needs to go through a negotiated tax exchange agreement. That process is still afforded to you, we're just looking for ways to streamline the process for special districts that Inherently don't need to go through that process or the amount of exchange would be $0.

Oftentimes in some of these counties getting through the steps of that process and getting it on a Board of Supervisors agenda, it can take some time so a way to streamline that is to make into the legislative process that they can waive that automatically up front. The third has to do with principal acts. So each of the special districts that are formed that provide service are formed under what's called a principal act within those acts, many of them date back to early 1900s to mid-1900s and which time LAFCO were not even created. We didn't come online until 1963 and so this bill is looking for a sponsor potentially that would update all of those principal acts to include the fact that Cortese-Enaz Hertzberg Act now is at play and that if there were changes, boundary changes they'd need to be adherent to the Cortese-Enaz Hertzberg Act.

And it would take those outdated principal acts and bring them to a modern Form that acknowledges CKH. So those are the three bills that are looking for Cal LAFCO to either sponsor or support or seek somebody to sponsor them. So with that, that concludes the legislative committee and what it's been up to. If there any questions about that or any new bills that come along Staff will continue to monitor the ledge committee and bring those reports back as they hold meetings and we'll keep the commission up-to-date.

Thank you is there any public comment?

Chair Stark and members of the Commission, there's no request to speak on this item.

Are there any commissioners who have comments or questions about any of these bills or don't hear any and Thank you. No motion is necessary. The next item would be Information Item Number 4. Would the clerk please read that item into the record?

Chair Stark and members of the Commission, Information Item Number 3 is to receive and file a report on pending SB LAFCO applications.

Why did I think that was 4 and not 3? We're on three, which would be the LAFCO applications.

As long as we're on 3, 3 and 4 are kind of similar. So 3 is a technical step in which two new proposals, two new applications have been submitted and we are obligated to put them on the first agenda that's available to announce that they've been submitted because they are by form of petition so this is the landowners filing to seek annexation And so there are two. There is the 600 block, 600-620 South Patterson Road which is seeking to annex into the Goleta Sanitation District. This also has to be the cared property That property has also been submitted by the city of Goleta to be added to their sphere of influence. So it's an overlap of actions here.

The commission will consider both of these independently and we'll go over it in item four about where they're at, but this is to announce that this site has been formally filed for annexation into the sanitation district for sewer services While that application was being submitted, it was determined that County Service Area 3 was also a requirement to be added to the district. So the application is being amended to include a sphere of influence change and annexation concurrently with Goleta Sanitation District all as one application for this site.

Secondly is the 4960 Cathedral Oaks property. It's a single family home looking to add sanitation services, sewer connection to the Goleta Sanitation District and that application just came in as well. And so we are officially announcing that those applications are in they're going through the process and when they're ready for hearing will bring them forward.

That concludes business item or informational item three.

Are there any commissioners have questions or comments as to these items? I'm hearing none. Is there any public comment on this?

Chair Stark and members of the Commission, there is no request to speak on this item.

Thank you. There's no motion necessary that does bring us to item information Item number four Would the clerk please read that item into the record?

Chair Stark and members of the Commission, Information Item Number 4 is to receive and file a report on additional pending SB LAFCO applications.

Mr.

Prater.

Okay. Yeah so there are currently six applications that have been filed in the LAFCO office. We do have a brief presentation just to kind of show you them and where they're at And so we'll get that up for the commissioners to see. Each of these six kind of fall in one of three categories about where they're at in the process. Here we go. Here we go. So the first two are the two newest that we just talked about to those who just came in Cathedral Oaks is the newest South Patterson Avenue.

Both of those are in a 30 day review, so they're pending evaluation of completeness of their application As I indicated, Patterson Avenue needs to be amended. So we're pending that new application submittal for CSA 3 and will recirculate that application. So they're going through that process if they are deemed complete, they'll be able to move forward through the process.

The next two, the Goleta SOI and El Capitan Horse Ranch. Both of those have been in for a little while as you can see they were filed in early February and April Both of those had gone through their 30-day review process. Both of those have been identified as missing information to be able to move forward, so we put an informational hold, explained exactly in detail what we wanted from those applicants to submit and they're working on that to get it back to us.

Once that's all been filed in and seemed adequate, they'll move through the process and select the nearest hearing date for them to take, for the Commission to take consideration The last two, at our last meeting the Commission just granted a two-year extension so they've held a hearing. They've been approved to be annexed into their respective districts and they've been held up because they haven't completed the final legal map and exhibits for that application. So they need to complete that and get final approval by the County Surveyor's Office, to be able to finalize those two applications so that we can officially record those documents as Certificates of Completion.

And so they've been explained and repeatedly contacted by staff to expedite that process They have one year since the approval date to get that completed. That one-year mark came due in September, so staff placed an extension request for a two-year extension giving them more time. Otherwise those applications would have became null and void and they would had to start the process all over again. And we didn't think that was fair in there to get that process and we honestly didn't want them not to restart at all and for us have to go through that work again.

easier and cheaper to just file for an extension, which occurred once they complete that will file that certificate of completion and move them through the process. So that's kind of the three different areas that these six applications are in there's any specific questions about anyone of them were happy to answer any.

Thank you. Any questions or comments from commissioners?

In Santa Barbara we have one

Is that Commissioner Kiriakou?

Yes. Commissioner Kiriakou. Thank you, thank you Chair Stark I have two quick questions the first is about you know 600 and 620 South Patterson the annexation to the CSA 3 in the GSD. I think I know the answer this question but when If and when the annexation occurs to CSA 3, can you just confirm that that also means that property and then any subsequent subdivisions units built there would be subject to Measure L for library contributions?

They would be. So that is a service CSA 3 provides and that if annexed, would carry through these properties.

Thank you. And then can you give kind of the short version of what are the items for 2603 for the City of Goleta? Can you just kind of give a high level overview of what are the types of information that are missing in order to have that application be complete?

Yeah. Thank you, Commissioner Carriaco through the chair there were nine requested items to be completed by the city that included the city's resolution for their journal plan changes in the pre-zoning that they were contemplating. The California Environmental Quality Act CEQA determination that they need to make as part of that decision that we would carry forward and likely supplement and use for our actions and decisions There were a number of policy analysis that we requested that would contribute to the benefits of being added to the city down the road.

In addition, we needed assigned cost accounting agreement. We needed labels to be able to send out to landowners because they were... The application was filed by the city on behalf Or not on behalf, but including the landowners we needed to notify them. And then we needed to clarify all of the types of services that would be applicable should the property be added to the city's sphere and ultimately annexed.

Many of those we think we know it's pretty much everything the city provides but we wanted to document clearly what special services that the properties would be gaining by being added to the city And then we finally wanted documentation in and around disadvantaged, unincorporated communities and its status in and around that site of the surrounding areas. If the area happens to be within a disadvantaged, unincorporated community that's nearby or within, the commission is obligated to add those properties as part of the process unless those individual property owners decline.

and sign a waiver to not be added to the city's fear or eventual annexation. So those are the roughly nine requests that we've asked the City to clarify for us.

Thank you very much, appreciate the documentation.

Any other Commissioner comments or questions? Not hearing any Are there any requests by members of the public for public comment on this?

Chair Stark and members of the Commission, there are no requests to speak on this item.

Thank you that there's no motion that is necessary. That brings us to the next item which is I believe Commissioner announcements. Do we have any commissioner announcements or any requests for future agenda items? I'm going to assume that there are none, which brings us to executive officer comments.

I have no further comments.

There are no comments. We are now adjourned to Tuesday November 5th at 1 o'clock p.m., which I would note I believe is election day. It's November oh Thursday November 3rd would be Tuesday So it would be Thursday, November 5th. Remember to vote. Thank you very much.