WHAT'S THE NEWS? “July 2006: An Update on Santa Barbara's CO/Nude Beaches"

“OUR SURPRISE REUNION WITH SANTA BARBARA’S LT. FOTHERINGHAM”

By Marc Welter and Sonya Robinson,
NBA reporters-at-large

July 12, 2006 - Last week Sonya and I decided to take a drive up the coast from Ventura to Carpinteria. We enjoyed lunch in Carp and while eating decided to do a little fact finding about the local nude beaches. We formulated a quick plan and before Sonya could finish her coke were off to see the authorities.

We first went to the Carpinteria State Beach and Campground, pulled up to the entrance booth and asked the park rangers for help in deciphering exactly what jurisdictions existed along the coast. We told them we were nudists and had been going to Bates and Summerland beaches for many years and noticed they were now without nudists! They responded by giving us some pamphlets, knew only that they worked at a state beach and didn’t have any of the answers we were looking for. We asked to speak to their supervisor and were directed toward the park headquarters building where we met John Futoran. His card stated he was Lifeguard Supervisor / Peace Officer #1164, California State Beach / Ventura Sector of the State of California Department of Parks and Recreation. After taking a moment to read his card I figured two things; 1. This is the guy who can give us some answers, and 2. He needed a bigger card.

We talked for awhile about jurisdictions, boundaries and his role in all of this and found that he works in conjunction with the Santa Barbara Sheriffs Dept. They back each other up so to speak as needed. Alas he was not able to give us the answers we were looking for but was trying to be helpful and did give us the phone number for the main office of S.B. County Parks and Recreation. It was too late in the day to drive on up to Santa Barbara so we decided to save that for another trip, however we weren’t finished yet.

We decided we would pay the Sheriff’s Office a visit, (after all they had paid us a few visits over the years). The Sheriffs Dept. building is located next to the City Hall in Carpenteria and use to be the Police Dept. The Police and Sheriffs integrated in Carpenteria about10 years ago. Sonya and I first met with Sheriff Deputy J.D.Greene who was 6 months new to this office but a veteran of the Dept. I explained who we were and what we were after and to make a long story short he suggested we talk to the County Board Supervisor for Dist 1. Salud Carbajal and /or JD’s Lieutenant.

This is where the story takes a little twist.

His LT. was none other than Darin Fotheringham currently in charge of the Carpenteria office and part of the Coastal Operations Bureau. What is the twist you ask? Sonya and I knew him as Officer Fotheringham from 14 years ago when he gave three others and us tickets for public nudity at Bates Beach! As Sonya and I looked at each other in the waiting room half amazed and half apprehensive, in walked the deputy with his LT. and introduced us. We were invited back to his office and got to know each other again.

Darin commented that we looked familiar and I explained that we had met before and after a few questions on his part he searched his computer for a date and promptly opened his bottom drawer and pulled out an old stack of tickets and sure enough all 5 were in the stack. He offered ours to us and we said “No thanks, we already have a copy”! He asked if we had gone to court and what had happened. I told him that one of the group mailed in the $110.00 for the ticket, 3 of us went and talked to the District Attorney and had the ticket cut down to $55.00 which is what the statute called for, and the last one showed up in court and got off without paying a fine.

He said he remembered our case and was planning on being in court but had marked the wrong date on his calendar. He had gone to court the next day only to find out his mistake. We talked about the old days of live and let live and I told him I thought he owed Sonya and I $110.00 for cleaning up the beach. (The day of the tickets we had been cleaning the beach of overgrowth and trash and burning it. The sheriffs had watched us from atop for several hours and waited till we started burning the trash before coming down and citing us for nudity, not the fire.) We all had a good laugh and then we got some of the information we were looking for. Some info we knew already but here is what we were told.

The creek on Rincon Point separates Ventura from Santa Barbara County. The Ventura side is State Beach and the Santa Barbara side is County Beach up to about the end of the seawall where it becomes part of the city limits of Carpinteria. The State Beach starts at Hwy 150 and stretches up through Carpinteria. The area up above the beach at Bates is a County Park. Darin said the sheriffs have to investigate any complaint and that over the past few years they have had complaints coming in to his office. He said the way the community is changing, with more families using the beach and moving to the area he didn’t think we could regain the beaches we were accustomed to using for our purposes. “You weren’t the problem, the problem was the people you attracted “he said. The sheriffs had had numerous calls for perverts in the bushes above the beach. They encountered sexual acts, drug use and nudity on the cliffs and in the parking lot of Bates.

He also spoke about the development above the beach planned for the future, and the climate of thinking in the community making it harder to go back to the way it was. This also holds true for Summerland and to a lesser extent More Mesa. The sheriffs still patrol MM but on a less regular basis. Tickets will be given out when nudity is encountered. Under the changing clime he said he has no choice, he has to enforce the laws on the books, however he said he had empathy for our situation. He thought our only chance was to find someplace closer to Gaviota, (less populated and more rural) but even then he would have to react to complaints. The Coastal View is a local free newspaper which has a good on ya / bad on ya column in which 3 weeks ago the sheriffs got a bad on ya for not policing the beach as much as they should. Evidently someone had walked the beach, found nudity and written in to the paper. He said they have to operate where the hotspots are, and as they move the sheriffs move. With the complaint and a bad mark on their report card for all to see, Darin was getting ready to address his men on the nudity issue once again and step up policing the beaches. When I asked him what statutes he tickets under, he said it was determined by city limits, county or state depending on where the transgression occurred.

All in all I felt we had a good conversation. We tested the waters, received honest answers, empathy and even suggestions albeit a tough row to hoe. He thanked us for coming in to see him, said we were going about this the correct way and suggested we talk to the County Board of Supervisors to either change existing law or get an amendment (nudity beyond this point sign) for example. My impressions of the Sheriffs Dept. have changed and I believe the Dept.’s have changed toward us. Whatever happens, I think this communication was a good first step.