County 7-2

The 65 striking Santa Barbara Botanic Garden volunteers have extended their moratorium through July. More than half of them said the resignation of garden Director Ed Schneider would immediately get them back. That’s the result of a volunteer survey conducted by the strike leaders, who will present this information and more-including the call for more trustees from diverse parts of the community-to three trustees when they meet on 7/3.

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Attendees of the Citizens Planning Association (CPA) 49th annual meeting on 6/27 learned about the group’s June merger with the Citizens Planning Foundation, which had previously performed educational functions while the CPA existed as a lobbying-enabled organization. The groups, which split in the 1980s due to legal intimidation from corporations, reincorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in light of clarifications to tax laws that allowed the organization to perform both functions. The meeting also presented awards to Eric Zimmerman, the boardmember who spearheaded the merger; Bess Christensen, for her work in the Lompoc Valley; and The Independent‘s news team, for excellence in land use and environmental reporting.