FOR THE COUNCIL MEETING OF AUGUST 4, 2026
COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT
TO: City Council
FROM: Chuen Wu, Assistant City Manager
DATE: August 4, 2026
SUBJECT: Responses to 2025-2026 Santa Barbara County Grand Jury Report – Gangs of Santa Barbara County
Description:
The City Council will review staff’s recommended responses to the 2025-2026 Santa Barbara Grand Jury report titled “Gangs of Santa Barbara County: Should the Schools Do More to Address Them?”
RECOMMENDATION:
Review and approve staff’s recommended responses addressing the findings and recommendations from the Grand Jury report titled “Gangs of Santa Barbara County:
Should the Schools Do More to Address Them?” and authorize the Mayor to sign and transmit the City’s Response to the Presiding Judge of the Superior Court with a copy to the current impaneled Civil Grand Jury and file a copy with the City Clerk’s Office.
BACKGROUND:
On June 20, 2026, the City received the 2025 -2026 Santa Barbara County Grand Jury report titled “Gangs of Santa Barbara County: Should the Schools Do More to Address Them?” (Attachment A). The City Council is required to respond to this report within 90 days of receiving it, which provides the City Council until September 18, 2026, to reply to the Grand Jury.
DISCUSSION:
The 2025-2026 Santa Barbara County Grand Jury’s report examines gang recruitment and youth violence throughout Santa Barbara County, with a particular focus on the role of schools in preventing gang involvement among youth.
The Grand Jury found that while many schools have implemented positive programs to promote safe learning environments, opportunities remain to strengthen prevention efforts, particularly through earlier intervention, expanded after -school programmin g, mentoring, anonymous reporting systems, and increased collaboration among schools, law enforcement, and community organizations. The report also notes that gang recruitment continues to occur at increasingly younger ages, including elementary school 2 students, and identifies the transition from elementary to junior high school as a critical period for intervention.
The report recognizes that many student conflicts occur immediately before and after school, when students are traveling to and from campus a nd are outside direct school supervision. As a result, the Grand Jury concluded that there is an opportunity for greater coordination between schools and local law enforcement to improve student safety during these periods.
The Grand Jury report identifie d findings and recommendations for various agencies, including the City of Santa Maria, that pertain to approaches for improving student safety before and after school through enhanced collaboration between local law enforcement and school districts.
Pursuant to California Penal Code Section 933 and 933.05, the Santa Barbara County Grand Jury requests each entity to respond to the enumerated findings and recommendations within the specified statutory time limit.
Responses to Findings shall either be:
Agree
Disagree wholly
Disagree partially with an explanation
Furthermore, responses to recommendations shall be one of the following:
Has been implemented, with a summary of implementation actions taken Will be implemented, with an implementation schedule
Requires further analysis, with an analysis completion date of no more than six months after the publication of the report
Will not be implemented, with an explanation of why
A draft response letter to the Grand Jury is attached (Attachment B).
Alternative(s)
California Penal Code Section 933c states “no later than 90 days after the grand jury submits a final report on the operations of any public agency subject to its reviewing authority, the governing body of the public agency shall comment to the pre siding judge of the superior court on the findings and recommendations pertaining to matters under the control of the governing body” and further states “all of these comments and reports shall forthwith be submitted to the presiding judge of the superior court who impaneled the grand jury.” Responses are prescribed per Penal Code Section 933.05.
Fiscal Considerations
There are no fiscal impacts on the response or implementation of the recommendations.
ATTACHMENT(S)
A. Gangs of Santa Barbara County: Should the Schools Do More to Address Them? B. Draft Response Letter to the Grand Jury