The Man Behind the Badge
John Carpenter has been the sheriff of Santa Barbara County
since 1970, a long time for any elected official in these parts.
Before that he was the chief of an eight-member police force
in Carpinteria, not a very impressive position from which to
launch a successful campaign for a countywide office.
But in 1970, the incumbent sheriff had lost a lot of credibility
for his handling of the civil disturbances in Isla Vista and
Carpenter swept to an easy victory over the incumbent's endorsed
successor. So it could be said that Isla Vista had a lot to
do with Carpenter becoming sheriff--in a perverse kind of way.
Carpenter has kept the Foot Patrol going in Isla Vista and had
it report monthly to the meetings of the Isla Vista Community
Council until it became dormant in 1987. On several occasions
while seeking re-election, Carpenter endorsed Isla Vista having
its own city, or at least he said that I.V.'s residents could
adequately handle being in charge of a police force in a City
of Isla Vista.
Through the years, Carpenter's relationship with Isla Vista
has been fairly decent, even though two write-in campaigns against
him have been launched from here--in 1974 by Larry Padway, and
in 1978 by Mark Fontana. Padway's campaign drew over 1,500 votes
countywide and almost forced Carpenter into a run-off with another
candidate. And while Fontana's was less successful, it was more
fun.
Fontana for Sheriff
Fontana's campaign platform had three planks. The planks were
stated humorously, but each contained more than a kernel of
truth.
Fontana called for a drug enforcement plan that would bust only
the big dealers--especially the Sheriff's Narcotics Task Force.
It seems that some officers from this immensely unpopular special
unit had been caught stealing captured cocaine and selling it
back onto the street.
Secondly, Fontana called for no enforcement of the law against
nude sunbathing. At the time, there were three popular nude
beaches in southern Santa Barbara County, including Coal Oil
Point on West Campus.
Thirdly, he wanted to make the jails safe for prisoners--two
inmates had been killed or committed suicide under suspicious
circumstances in the year running up to the election. In addition,
everal other prisoners had been beaten either by inmates or
jailers--it wasn't clear who.
Fontana's campaign poster showed him with a vest and a ten-gallon
cowboy hat, with a sheriff's badge from the Old West drawn on
his lapel. Despite what most Isla Vistans thought was a great
campaign, Fontana won only a thousand votes countywide and didn't
push Carpenter as he won his third term handily.
The Sheriff was able to keep his sense of humor about these
write-in campaigns. Much better than his deputies did, in fact.
The Deputy Sheriff's Association wouldn't let either Padway
or Fontana speak at their endorsement forums. After the election,
Carpenter disbanded the narc squad, only tokenly enforced the
nude beach ordinance, and cleaned up the jail situation.
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