Want to join me in making a difference?

 

I'm John Copeland, the Secretary of the Los Olivos Community Organization, Inc. I'm raising money to benefit the nonprofit Los Olivos Community Organization Inc. for an Appeal Bond to continue fighting to maintain control of the Los Olivos community hall. We have about 30 days to raise the needed funds. Any donation will help, and all donations are tax-deductible. Thanks in advance for your contribution to this cause that means so much to me.

 

The Los Olivos Community Organization is a California 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation administered by a working board of directors. Funding for LOCO comes from member dues, hall rentals, grants from public and private foundations, and donations from generous individuals.

 

Established in 2017, the Los Olivos Community Organization, Inc. (LOCO), of the Santa Ynez Valley seeks to foster fellowship and goodwill in our diverse communities through cultural, educational and social activities, support sustainable agriculture, and preserve the character of the historic Grange Hall for those activities.

 

The Hall hosts 4H, Yoga Classes, County Community Meetings, Square Dance lessons, the Valley Community Theatre and Los Olivos Rotary. In addition, Santa Barbara County regularly uses the hall for community meetings, and it is home to the Los Olivos Branch of  the Goleta and Santa Ynez Valley Libraries.

 

For 80 years, the beloved Santa Ynez Valley Grange Hall in Los Olivos has played host to countless community events, public and private. Today, the Los Olivos Community Organization carries on that 80-year tradition of serving the Santa Ynez Valley community. The former Grange Hall was re-established and renamed in 2016 as the Los Olivos Community Organization (LOCO) by local members after conflict broke out between the National Grange and the California State Grange, a dispute whose roots go back many years.

 

The National Grange revoked the California State Grange charter, leaving its subordinate members, like Los Olivos, in legal limbo. The National Grange formed a "new" California State Grange and successfully sued to take the "old" California Grange assets and now is seeking to bring all of the Subordinate Granges back into line under the newly reorganized State Grange.

 

The Los Olivos Community Organization is in a battle to keep a vital community resource (the hall) under the control of the local community. As with most legal matters, the story is long and complex involves thousands of pages of documents and lots of heartaches. Nevertheless, residents are banding together to save the property from being handed over to the State Grange, which can dispose of it as they desire.

 

The LOCO Hall was built in 1948 by members of Santa Ynez Grange #644, a group chartered by the National Grange several years earlier, with all local labor and funds. For decades, local members maintained and managed the Hall and, as a condition of Grange membership, sent tens of thousands of dollars of dues to the State and National Grange organizations. Nearly all locally paid “dues” were passed on to the State and National Granges, leaving local members to fundraise separately to maintain their buildings and pay insurance and property taxes. Neither the California State Grange nor the National Grange ever spent one penny on our local Hall.

 

In 2013, a fire damaged the hall, the members and the community rose to the occasion and raised the required funds to cover the gap in what insurance would pay and the cost of rebuilding. Unfortunately, neither the California State Grange nor the National Grange offered to help.

 

In 2016, exhausted by the ongoing litigation, our members voted unanimously for independence. We formed a new nonprofit, the Los Olivos Community Organization. LOCO received nonprofit status from the IRS; we also applied for and received a waiver on property taxes from the State Board of Equalization and the County of Santa Barbara. For the past six years, the Los Olivos Community Organization, Inc., has not been part of the Grange. We have also made new partnerships, brought in diverse groups, run a successful rental operation. We may be called the Los Olivos Community Organization, but we are still the folks who once comprised the membership of the former SYV Grange.

 

But this may not be enough. Although the Los Olivos Community Organization holds title to the Hall and property and its members provide the labor and funds to maintain the Los Olivos Hall, it is not enough to ensure local ownership. Grange rules claim that all Hall property is Grange property and is available to a local group to manage and maintain only so long as that group is willing to be part of the Grange organization.

 

In 2020, during the Covid lockdown, the California State Grange sued the Los Olivos Community Organization, Inc. demanding the hall and property. On November 10th, 2021, the Board of Directors for the Los Olivos Community Organization received terrible news. Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge James F. Rigali granted a Motion of Summary Judgment to the California State Grange against the Los Olivos Community Org., inc. and Hall.

 

LOCO's Directors' Insurance has covered all of the legal expenses to date. However, the members of LOCO are appealing the outcome of the court case. Therefore, we have to raise funds for an Appeal Bond, which the insurance does not cover, or the State Grange can take possession of the Hall, barring it from the community, until the Appellate Court makes its decision.

 

If we successfully raise funds for the Appeal Bond, the custody of the hall will remain with LOCO until the Appeals Court makes its ruling.

 

Your donation can help us keep our independence and the hall as a community resource.