Website Policies
Policy Index
- Disclosure Policy
- Privacy Policy
- External Link Policy
- City Calendar
- Use of Artificial Intelligence
- Disclaimer
Disclosure Policy
The following Disclosure Policy explains the City of Santa Barbara's (City) policy regarding any information you may acquire when visiting the City's official web site SantaBarbaraCA.gov, any subdomain of the SantaBarbaraCA.gov domain, and sbcity.com (each domain, alone and collectively, is considered a City website, which may expand or change from time to time). By using City websites, you agree, without limitation or qualification, to be bound by this Disclosure Policy or any other privacy or data collection policy applicable to any individual City web site. This disclosure makes no warranties or representations for any websites that are not one of the City domains.
- The City's web servers are maintained to provide public access to City information via the Internet. The City's web services and the content of its web servers and databases are updated on a continual basis. While the City attempts to keep its web information accurate and timely, the City neither warrants nor makes representations or endorsements as to the quality, content, accuracy, or completeness of the information, text, graphics, hyperlinks, and other items contained on this server or any other server. Site materials have been compiled from a variety of sources and are subject to change without notice from the City because of updates and corrections. The information provided on the City’s website is intended for non-commercial use. Individuals accessing this information for any secondary purpose, including commercial purposes, are responsible for respecting all copyright, privacy and other rights that may be related to the materials presented.
- The City does not warrant that the functions contained in the materials will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that defects will be promptly corrected.
- All service marks and trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners. The City retains copyright on all text, graphic images, and other content. This means that you may not do the following, unless you have written permission from the City
- modify and/or re-use text, images, or other web content from a City server,
- distribute the City's web content, and
- "mirror" the City's information on a non-City server.
- Some of the hyperlinks on this and subsequent pages may lead to resources outside the City. The presence of these hyperlinks should not be construed as an endorsement by the City of these sites or their content. The City is not responsible for the content or the privacy policies of any such external hyperlink.
- Communications made through e-mail and massaging systems shall in no way be deemed to constitute legal notice to the City or any of its agencies, officers, employees, agents, or representatives, with respect to any existing or potential claim or cause of action against the City or any of its agencies, officers, employees, agents, or representatives, where notice to the City is required by any federal, state or local laws, rules, or regulations.
- The City of Santa Barbara is committed to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Reasonable accommodations, including equal access to communications, will be provided upon request. Requests for reasonable accommodations, regarding equal access to communications, should be directed to the City of Santa Barbara Information Systems HelpDesk at (805) 897-2598, between 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon, and 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.
- The City is neither responsible nor liable for any viruses or other contamination of your system, nor for any delays, inaccuracies, errors, or omissions arising out of your use of the site or with respect to the material contained on the site, including without limitation, any material posted on the site. This site and all materials contained on it are distributed and transmitted "as is" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including without limitation, warranties of title or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. The City is not responsible for any special, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages that may arise from the use of, or the inability to use, the site and/or the materials contained on the site whether the materials contained on the site are provided by the City, or a third party.
- The City web site employs industry-standard methods to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information or otherwise cause damage. The City uses reasonable precautions to keep the personal information disclosed to the City secure.
- The City web site is coordinated and maintained by the Information Systems Division of the Administrative Services Department of the City. Web content is produced by each department and division within the City and is the sole responsibility of the respective department and division. Information Systems may be contacted by mail at 735 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, California 93101, by telephone at (805) 897-2598, or by e-mail at WebHelp@SantaBarbaraCA.gov.
Privacy Policy
The following Privacy Policy explains the City of Santa Barbara's (City) policy regarding any information you may supply to us when visiting the City's official web site, SantaBarbaraCA.gov, any subdomain of the SantaBarbaraCA.gov domain, and sbcity.com (each domain, alone and collectively, is considered the City web site, which may expand or change from time to time). By using the City site, you agree, without limitation or qualification, to be bound by this Privacy Policy or any other disclosure or data collection policy applicable to any individual City web site. This disclosure makes no warranties or representations for any web sites that are not one of the City domains.
- On certain occasions, the public has opportunities to share personal information online with the City to facilitate better correspondence and service. This information includes but is not limited to e-mail addresses, responses to surveys, registering for services and new services to be created. The City of Santa Barbara will not sell any information provided through this website. Nevertheless, information received by the City online is a public record and may be subject to disclosure under the provisions of the California Public Records Act (Gov't. Code § 6250 et seq.). Credit card information will not be disclosed.
- The City only requires the personal information necessary to provide effective service. At times you may be offered an opportunity to provide the City with additional information on a voluntary basis, this additional information enables the City to provide you with improved service.
- Using e-mail addresses provided at registration or otherwise, users are giving the City permission to periodically send out e-mail newsletters and promotional email to our users about web site updates, and product and service information offered by the City.
- Users may indicate that they do not wish to receive e-mail information from the City. Upon request, the City will remove users, and their information, from the City database or permit them to elect not to receive any further e-mail newsletters or contact.
- The City encourages parents to go on-line with their children. One of the City services on-line is to provide educational information about Santa Barbara; therefore, children are not restricted from visiting the City site. The City urges children to get permission from their parents or guardians before giving any information online.
- The City web site employs industry-standard methods to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information or otherwise cause damage. The City uses reasonable precautions to keep the personal information disclosed to the City secure.
- The City makes reasonable efforts to protect the personal information shared with us. For example, if you make an online purchase with the City, your credit card number and personal information is encrypted to protect this information while it is being transmitted. The City limits access to your personal information to only those employees who need it to perform the service requested.
- The City web site is coordinated and maintained by the Information Systems Division of the Administrative Services Department of the City. Site content is produced by each department and division within the City and is the sole responsibility of the respective department and division. Information Systems may be contacted by mail at 735 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, California 93101, by telephone at (805) 897-2598, or by e-mail at WebHelp@SantaBarbaraCA.gov.
External Link Policy
It is the purpose of the Santa Barbara City Government website to provide accurate, non-editorial content that will inform Santa Barbara City citizens about the services, operations, and projects of Santa Barbara City Government. In addition, the website is used to facilitate the delivery of services provided by the City of Santa Barbara to its citizens and other customers. All City of Santa Barbara departments and divisions are eligible to submit content or request the posting or hypertext linking to appropriate information to support their mission or service initiatives.
The City of Santa Barbara permits the establishment of links to external websites on the City's Official website solely in conformance with this policy. In the establishing and maintaining of its official website, the City does not intend in any manner to create a forum or other means by which public disclosure, exchange of opinions, or discussion on issues of any nature may occur. Rather, the sole and limited purpose of this City's website and permitted external links is to provide non-political and/or non-religious information of a factual nature about the City of Santa Barbara including numerous services and resources available within and around the City, or as may be available from other government agencies.
The Information Systems Manager, a member of the Information Systems division of the Administrative Services department, is responsible for the management and oversight of the City of Santa Barbara website. Comments about this site are welcome from any source and are always greatly appreciated.
The security of the information provided to the City of Santa Barbara is important. However, the Santa Barbara City Government website includes links to other websites, and when you choose to visit those websites, we are not responsible for their privacy policies or how they treat user information. We are not responsible for the actions and policies of these third parties, and you should review the privacy policies of these parties when supplying personally identifiable information to them.
Links from Santa Barbara City Government Website
Organizations wishing to establish external links on the City's website must submit an External Link application. This form will contain all the information necessary to verify the facts as stated and is necessary to establish that the proposed link is in compliance with this policy.
Consistent with the foregoing policy, it is the City's policy to limit external links to the following kinds of entities and organizations
- Sites that are owned and managed by a state, local or federal governmental agency or local school board;
- Museums, libraries, historical organizations and similar kinds of established, bona fide organizations that provide cultural resources to residents and visitors of the City;
- Public and private, bona fide educational institutions;
- Public Utilities;
- Sites that are maintained by an organization or cosponsor that receives direct financial support from the City;
- Sites that have a direct contractual relationship with the City for the provision of goods and/or services;
- Sites that provide a unique online resource that will assist in the provision of services and/or information that complement the purpose of the City's web presence as outlined above; and
- Sites that provide non-profit/non-religious services that support the mission of the City of Santa Barbara
To avoid the appearance of City endorsement of political content, links shall not be made to web sites that are associated with, sponsored by, or serving a candidate for elected office or any political party or organization supporting or seeking to defeat any candidate for elective office or ballot issue or question.
External links will not be made to sites that fall within any of the following criteria, as determined by the Information Systems Manager
- Sites that are owned or managed by a political party, candidate or special interest group or are of a political nature that are associated with, sponsored by or serving a candidate for elected office, any political party or organization supporting or seeking to defeat any candidate for elective office or ballot proposal
- Sites that are owned, managed, or provide content for commercial entities, which do not have a direct contractual relationship with the City for the provision of goods and/or services
- Sites containing any materials that may reasonably be considered scurrilous or offensive. Offensive materials are defined as sexual content or images, slurs against race, religious or political beliefs, age, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, or physical attributes
The City of Santa Barbara reserves the right to 1) deny an external link application to any person, business or organization when it is determined, following review of a complete application, that the entity or organization for which application is made does not meet the criteria set forth in this policy; 2) deny an external link application to any person, business or organization which fails to provide all required information, or fails to provide truthful information.
Removal of Content
The City Information Systems Manager reserves the right to remove any external link if the nature of the organization or business to which the link relates no longer complies with the City's external link policy
- to discontinue an external link at any time if entities’ website provides or promotes false, slanderous, illegal, immoral, or incorrect information at any time, or
- to revise this policy without prior notice when to do so is deemed to be in the best interests of the City of Santa Barbara.
The City Seal is a trademark of the City of Santa Barbara. Any use of the materials stored on the City's website is prohibited without the written permission of the City of Santa Barbara. The City of Santa Barbara retains all intellectual property rights including copyrights on all text, graphic images, and other content. This means that the following acts or activities are prohibited without prior, written permission from the City of Santa Barbara
- modify and/or re-use text, images, or other web content from a City server;
- distribute the City's web content; or
- “mirror” the City's information on a non-City server.
City Calendar
The City Calendar is a service offered to web site visitors as part of the main City web site. The purpose of the City Calendar is to provide a central location for web site visitors to easily find information, dates and times of City meetings, Holidays, City Sponsored or Co-Sponsored Festivals and Events, Parks & Recreation Department Activities and Library Department Programs and Events.
The City Calendar is designed to be a service to web site visitors. The City Calendar is not a public forum or community calendar. The calendar is specifically for the use of City Staff to post events that are in direct support of staff's respective department's mission statement. Calendar items are considered web site content and thus subject to approval of Information Systems Manager, with dispute resolution resting with the Information Technology Task Force (ITTF), as specified in the Web Page Design Criteria document dated March 11, 1997 and available upon request.
From time to time, categories may be added or deleted as staff finds and identifies new Calendar item categories or finds that existing categories are obsolete. To the best of the ability of City Staff, calendar items are correct and timely. However, the City Calendar is not intended to serve as official notice of meetings or events. Users should confirm information regarding events with the posting department.
Use of Artificial Intelligence
The City of Santa Barbara is in the formative stages of exploring the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to achieve greater efficiency in content delivery, specifically with respect to images created for City websites. City staff guidelines include but are not limited to; 1) review and fact check AI-generated content before publishing, 2) disclose usage of Generative AI in the production of images, and 3) not enter sensitive information into public Generative AI tools.
Disclaimer
Some of the links made available to you through the City of Santa Barbara's website will allow you to leave the City's site. Please be aware that the Internet sites available through these links, and the materials that you may find at those sites are not provided by, endorsed by or are under the control of the City. Therefore, the City cannot and does not make any representation to you about these sites or the materials available on the sites. The fact that you may be able to access these additional sites from the City's web site is not an endorsement or recommendation to you by the City of any of these sites or any material found there. The City is providing these links only as a convenience to you, and your access to these additional sites is done at your own risk.
The materials and information contained on or obtained from this website, are distributed and transmitted "as is" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including without limitation, warranties of title or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Information contained on this website, including information obtained from external links thereon, is provided without any representation of any kind as to accuracy or content and should be verified by the user. The City of Santa Barbara is not responsible for any special, indirect, incidental or consequential damages that may arise from the use of, or the inability to use, the website and/or the materials contained on the site whether the materials contained on the website are provided by the City of Santa Barbara or a third party.