Edhat Reader
I’m curious what edhat readers think about this. The County of Santa Barbara Park’s Department used to embrace the Resident Ranger Program, which offered extended coverage and affordable housing for the County’s Park Rangers.
In exchange for an additional 20 hours of work and site maintenance, the County would allow caretakers to live in a county-owned home rent free. The Resident Ranger and longtime caretaker at Manning Park retired from a 49-year career leaving the county-owned residence at 1480 Schoolhouse Road vacant.
Per county records and requested information (edhat has copies), the house is now currently occupied by the Park Operations Supervisor for South County Parks. In addition to being one of the most highly paid people at County Parks, this public employee doesn’t have any responsibilities at Manning Park nor does he pay rent. Instead, Manning Park is utilizing a Park Host that handles all the security, administrative, and custodial duties.
So I’m curious… what do edhat readers think about this?
Seriously???
This guy needs to pay rent ASAP.
Lloyd Henning is the current Park Operations Supervisor for South County Parks, per the county’s website. County salary, pension, benefits and now a free place to live in Montecito surrounded by nature, all funded by the residents of Santa Barbara County.
Here’s where to send complaints
Jesus Armas, Director of Community Services Department, 805-568-2467
Jeff Lindgren, Assistant Director, Parks Division, 805-568-2475
what??!?! How on earth is he getting away with this? this is so wrong. we have people working multiple jobs to afford a freakin’ one bedroom (crappy) apartment in town with $3000 rental prices and this guy is making alot of money on the tax payers dime, and living rent free? What gives him the right to be rent free in the county? Because he works at a park? He’s a park ranger, rangers make very good money. without looking into his financial situation, i can already say he doesn’t qualify for free rent. I’m a single parent of two teens and work two jobs just to put a roof over their heads. Then there are people like Lloyd Henning, who just takes takes takes. Pal, i don’t approve of my taxes paying your rent.
Fleecing. Don’t trust your County government further than you can throw them. So this guy Lloyd resides there?
Jalama has 4 resident Ranger homes free as well, and some of them are dicks that should be fired.
Impossible.
Which has nothing to do with this, these are Rangers, that work there, just like the one used to be there on Santa Rosa Rd. It’s been that way for at least the last 50 years.
Has everything to do with how county employees can work the system.
There are at least 10 Rangers who DON’T get a free home at the beach.
What about them?
My wife was a part time ranger back in the 90’s and wasn’t even allowed to camp without standing in line with the tourists,
It’s an abuse of tax payer dollars and someone needs to be fired over this.
Par for the course. We all are just peons working for the government to pay taxes.
The government machine will never stop.
Also contact the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, or better yet attend a meeting and make a public comment. https://www.countyofsb.org/1599/Board-of-Supervisors
Free housing is a taxable benefit and should be reported to the IRS.
Wait a minute…you’re telling me a highly paid government employee, is abusing his power to grease his own palms? Who would have EVER thought??
Since he is getting this free from his employer (the County), the County should be including the $ value of this at market rent added to his salary when he gets his W-2 at tax time. But I’ll bet they don’t do that.
Remember, government is no longer “of the people, by the people, for the people” as Lincoln stated.
It’s a massive self-propagating entity for career politicians and entrenched bureaucrats to further their careers enabled by those with sufficient time and money to lobby them.
We voters/taxpayers only pay the bills.
This op ed is a valuable service. We need answers from responsible officials. Things may not be as described but we have the right to know and minimally the 1st District Board Member should respond along with the County Administrative Officer.
Not paying rent for a publicly-owned house worth at least $5000/month? No wonder the County has housing problems. what a joke!
The funniest part about this is that The County loves to scream about “affordable housing” but they got rid of the resident ranger program a decade ago, which provided affordable housing to those who protect and take care of our county parks. Now these middle class employees mostly commute from Lompoc, Santa Maria or Oxnard, when they could be spending more time in the parks and be present 24/7 for questions or emergencies. The framework is all there, just bring back the program. It’s a win-win for everybody.
Agree with all the above, and it’s funny that none of the very frequent Edhat posters who have liberal attitudes haven’t chimed in. They know who they are, and no doubt they’ve read this. Total sham.
None of them haven’t chimed in, so they’ve all chimed in … cool.
” posters who have liberal attitudes”
You used to claim that you weren’t a right winger … at least you’ve dropped that charade. Still you remain the most despicable troll here, even worse than Chalf, CW, et. al.
Uh, there’s something called middle ground dude! Ever heard of it?
Can you explain what you think that term means in this context?
Just read the last two posts. I’m responding to Dalgorf’s post. It’s straightforward as can be. He seems to think one is either ultra liberal or a “con”. I’m neither, as are tons of folks. I’m not interested in an all night argument with anyone here who has nothing to do tonight.
Yet here you are, dude……..
BI – And yet, you didn’t reply to Dalgorf’s post, but to a reply to your own post. This isn’t rocket science.
So do tell, on what issues do you consider yourself more liberal than far right? So far, you’re comments reflect someone who is extremely far right on just about everything.
Glad you asked. On the liberal side of things, I’d say Reproductive rights, corporate regulation/oversight, environmental protection (but don’t think Sierra Club, etc ‘shut it down’ ultra-liberal), limiting defense spending, healthcare, and religion – as examples. I’m more conservative with regards to taxation and spending, fiscal responsibility of government at all levels, education (the ultra-liberal trend is out of control there in particular in my opinion), personal responsibility, immigration, and the economy – as examples.
I’m a Moderate. Remember that term? There’s a middle ground out there. It’s often hard to see these days though, I get it.
Interesting.
Interesting? Huh. So, your and several other very liberal and frequent posters’ assumptions aren’t correct at all. Interesting? I’d say it’s a lot more than that. It’s silly actually the kinds of labels some toss around. It’s at best unproductive and at worst the main problem our government isn’t working…complete division and name calling.
Yeah, there’s a bunch of Trumper types out there. Just as there are a bunch of extreme left wingers. I’m not either. Shocking to you!
Yeah, interesting. There you go again complaining that I’m not saying enough in response to your comments…… weird.
And no, not as “shocking” as you think your news is as I’ve actually agreed with you on some things. But you can’t say you’re not extreme right on many issues – Covid, homeless, immigration, racial issues, etc. Your words, once again, are the fodder for peoples’ thoughts about you and your beliefs. No mysteries…..
Yet the majority of your comments heavily lean towards right-wing extremism. I can’t stand the “social liberal, fiscal conservative” nonsense people identify as, that cannot exist together, they cancel each other out.
To quote:
“I’d say it’s a lot more than that. It’s silly actually the kinds of labels some toss around. It’s at best unproductive and at worst the main problem our government isn’t working…complete division and name calling.”
Yawn.
Show us the agreement with the County that he lives there for free. Show us him stating that he lives there for free. Show a County official stating that he lives there for free. Show us the proof that he has no duties at the park. All we have is an anonymous statement. Or just stay mad.
Edhat has all the supporting documentation. Maybe you should do some research before bootlicking.
Have you seen any proof of anything? Post it. Otherwise, you know.
The posted the document.
That is unreasonable to me. The employee has been in town long enough and is paid well enough that they should not be given an extra perk worth 50-60k per year.
With there being such a significant housing shortage that house would be better used to put up young employees who otherwise wouldn’t be able to relocate here to work for the County. As many employees as there are bedrooms.
Or, just sell the property. There’s no need for someone to live on site.
Agreed. The document makes it clear what the employee’s salary is and that they are living rent free. What’s unclear is if this employee is performing host duties or if there is someone else doing these duties. If he is doing host duties then he should be getting a reduced rental rate, but not a FREE single-family home.
You really want my opinion or do you honestly think I’m in support of this? Or are you just trying to get a rise out of me? Not sure anyone with a right mind would find this living scenario acceptable.
More importantly though, BASIC, given the apparent dispute in the facts here, I’ve avoided jumping to conclusions like you and the others here. If confirmed this is accurate, then of course it would be unjust and would reek of corruption. Really strange you would think my opinion would have been different. There it is.
So this guys lives behind a 6 foot wall in a park and pays $0.00 in rent? Seriously County of SB?? Whose actually approving these decisions? What a joke.
Montecito should be contributing to the county’s affordable housing situation instead of dumping it all on SB and Goleta, but this is ridiculous.
Why don’t people check their facts before you start spreading lies and causing drama? He does pay rent which was put into the new contract when he moved in, he does do extra things for the park and on his own time, and the info about the host and what they do is also wrong. He has worked many hard years to get to the position he is now in, he did not just walk in and get things handed to him! He started at the very bottom! Grow up people and check your facts!!!
Tanya, he does not pay rent and he earns an annual salary between $100,000 – $150,000 per year. What kind of “tasks” does he do and is it equivalent to a the estimated $3,000-6,000 monthly rent that home could get at market value?
A new contract was drawn up submitted up and then signed by everyone right before he moved in and it states what he had to do and pay to live there Mr or Mrs anonymous!
Since you apparently have this insider knowledge, why not send the “updated” contract to edhat so they can adjust this post? Otherwise it seems the OP sent documentation stating the opposite of what you claim.
Yeah, if he is paying rent they need to post the details then. This is public property, there should be zero privacy around the agreement.
Looks like they have the supporting documentation.
Certainly the facts on this situation will come out and if the county and the employee didn’t cover themselves with an opinion from counsels office, board approval, contracts, and other expectations of transparency… problems are likely to arise – hopefully it’s all on the up and up. Hate to see someone who worked hard lose a career over stupidity that was winked at by their superiors but not appropriately blessed. I think Manning is pretty well run btw. Caretakers living at parks was more a 20th century thing when parks were just open to the public. Like the schools, parks have a lot of administration now too. Much to the detriment of everyone – look at what SB Parks wanted to do to fence and run the public away from Ortega Park so they can operate it as a quasi private club for special groups. Then when the budget gets tight governments are loathe to dump overpriced admins – can’t interrupt their path to the first retirement and the next government job – then they have to close them because they can’t afford to cut the grass or clean the toilet. But the admins still get a raise. Not sure why the house wasn’t just rented on the open market but there may be a good reason for that too.
If the posted document is accurate there are likely to be problems.
For what it’s worth, Manning Park is not listed on the county’s Park Host web page: https://www.countyofsb.org/983/Park-Host-Program
Wonder why they have a Park Host at Manning?
Every SB County Park currently has at least one Park Host, including Manning Park. Hosts are not County employees, they live in RV’s and trailers located in the various parks, doing 20 hours work per week, to account for their living space in the park.
Per Zillow, there are 3 properties for rent right now near Manning Park. The monthly rental rates are between $22,000 to $30,000. This home could bring in a conservative $100,000 per year.
It looks like a funky old cottage, probably 2 bedroom and a bath. I don’t think you’re getting 8k a month for that.
But they could get a couple million for the lot, the County should sell it. It is of no benefit to the taxpayers.
Of all the county parks and camp sites, why on Earth would we need a resident, onsite ranger/host or now operations manager at Manning? Has there been any other response or explanation from the County? The responses above could be leaving out important details, but I really don’t see how anything would justify this.
Waiting for Noozhawk and Independent to weigh in with professional journalism on this, now that the offices are open and the ptb can respond. But it looks like a completely avoidable shit show is coming. FMV rent equivalency is at least 8k – 10k – someone waiting to move into a house they are remodeling while putting the kids in MUS will pull that with no problem whatsoever. Probably 12/15k a month just for the summer: it’s all location location location. The document also states it was renovated recently? And the FTB & IRS will have their own calculations as well because there is also probably a tax bill coming. Will the unions and labor lawyers be filing discrimination claims and class action lawsuits for all the other county employees who didn’t get a free house? why not convert it to a 2 story 4 unit workforce apartment if you’ve got the space for Christ’s sake. 120k ranger positions are not the chancellor of UCSB and they do not and should not come with subsidized or free housing.
If this all holds as true, supes should be looking at permanently removing at least 2 supervisory positions from Parks, consolidating other high level positions and making overall management of the department efficient, and also a permanent disposition for the house. Potential benefit to taxpayers of $1 million or more within a year by getting rid of wasteful over-administration and using public assets correctly.
Heck yeah. They’re now caught wasting money. I hope what you say is true, but unfortunately they almost never eliminate positions.