When Sheriff Bill Brown took to the microphone Tuesday
morning at the Earl Warren Showgrounds, he was surrounded by a sweeping phalanx
of elected officials firefighters, and, of course, news reporters and TV
cameras. Such press briefings have become an integral part of the kabuki
theater that’s evolved out of Santa Barbara’s collective response to wildfires
and other natural disasters. They’re a vehicle by which vital information is
shared in a carefully calibrated format and some semblance of reassurance can
be conveyed: Help is on the way. Someone is in control. All is not lost.
Brown, sheriff now for 13 years, is an old hand. As he
approached the mic, he turned to sign language interpreter Katie Voice and
joked, “Looks like we’re getting the band back together.” If so, Brown has
emerged as the lead singer. Given the frayed relations between Brown and the
local firefighting establishment — over turf, terrain, tax dollars, and
temperament — that might seem an unlikely development. But Brown gets stagecraft; it’s in his bones. His
mother was an accomplished stage actress. His father was the advance man for
pioneering televangelist Billy Graham back when Graham was still packing circus
tents with his revival show.
More than that, though, are the sheer numbers of fires Brown
and his department have had to respond to. In 13 years, there have been 16. Of
those, 14 were major fires. Seven were serious enough to require evacuations.
Evacuations are Brown’s call; his department is charged with warning occupants
in evacuation zones so that they can get out in time. “My two predecessors,
Sheriff Jim Thomas and Jim Anderson, had one major fire between the two of them,”
Brown noted. He mentioned these numbers to a close advisor right before his
recent re-election. He was told, “’I wouldn’t use that as a campaign slogan, if
I was you.”