Edhat StaffSource: Santa Barbara Unified School District
Santa Barbara Unified School District is seeking qualified, interested individuals to serve on a committee of community leaders, a part of the Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee. The committee oversees the ongoing bond expenditure of Measures Q, R, I and J.
On November 8, 2016, voters residing within the Santa Barbara Unified School District attendance boundaries passed Measure I and Measure J. Measure I is a $135,000,000 bond measure and Measure J is a $58,000,000 bond measure that authorized funding for needed repairs, upgrades, and new construction projects to the District’s schools. Santa Barbara Unified School District Board of Education appointed an Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee to work with the District to help inform the public concerning the District’s expenditure of bond proceeds, review expenditure reports produced by the District to ensure that bond proceeds were expended only for the purposes set forth by the measures and to present to the Board of Education an annual written report outlining activities and conclusions regarding the expenditure of bond proceeds.
To serve on the Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee an applicant must be at least 18 years of age. Each member of the committee serves a term of two (2) years, commencing as the date of appointment by the Board of Education. The Committee meets four times a year. Employees of the District or any vendor, contractor or consultant are not eligible to serve.
To apply, applicants are encouraged to review the committee’s bylaws available on the District’s website at www.sbunified.org and complete the application. For questions about the Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee, please contact Alma Flores, Santa Barbara Unified School District’s Fiscal Administrative Assistant at (805) 963-4338 ext 6222 or aflores@sbunified.org.
Bond oversight committees are always touted as providing protective local control when voters are asked to pass more bond issues. In reality, bond oversight committees made up of lay people quickly become mere rubber stamps for data submitted by the district itself. Any questions about dubious bond issue spending gets obfuscated by the complexly technical jargon of public finance regulations.