Santa Barbara County seems to be taking baby steps toward face-to-face talks with Chumash tribal leaders. Instead, it should leap at the opportunity to negotiate with the tribe.

The Board of Supervisors narrowly defeated a proposal for government-to-government talks with the tribe, and instead directed county staff to begin land-use discussions on a departmental level.

And that could be the end of any chance the county has to participate in development decisions the tribe chooses to make with regard to what is to become of a great deal of land in the Santa Ynez Valley.

The government-to-government proposal was offered by tribal leaders, who wanted to sit down with their elected counterparts in county government to talk about the tribe’s development plans for nearly 1,400 acres it owns east of the current reservation.