Former Lompoc City Councilmember Jenelle Osborn was elected mayor in the November 2018 election. She has been supporting sound financial budgets for years. However, now the city of Lompoc is floating into financial oblivion with Jim Mosby, Dirk Starbuck, and Victor Vega as Lompoc City Council members. The triad has done untold damage to the future of Lompoc. The problem the city faces is the CalPERS financial disaster that’s facing cities all over California. Lompoc’s “bill” for CalPERS is more than $70 million and growing.
Two years ago, in presenting the 2017 city budget, then City Manager Patrick Wiemiller pointed out the city’s problems in graphic details. Mosby, Starbuck, and Vega did not grasp the finality of the situation. Then Councilmember Osborne—now mayor—“got it.”
The city’s choice is to temporarily raise the sales taxes by 1 percent to pay for the $70 million debt over 10 years, or not raise taxes and put the city into possible bankruptcy. The bill is not going away; we have to pay for it one way or another. You taxpayers may say, “I do not want to pay for someone’s retirement,” but you will now and in the future whether you like it or not. Your option is to raise the sales tax or eliminate all city services. Before the city was given the CalPERS bill, it was on firm financial ground and had a surplus. Now, that surplus is being spent on paying the interest on that bill.
Councilmember Mosby and his two befuddled followers, Starbuck and Vega, won’t listen to city staff. The result is cutting everything—police, fire, parks, the library, and administrative staff. In the meantime, we still have to pay the bill with interest.
Mosby is a volunteer, an amateur who does not know anything about city finances, but he will not listen to the experts employed by the city who are way above his pay grade. He even thinks the staff are overpaid.
From where does Mosby get his budget info? Maybe ex-mayor John Linn. Mosby sits there flailing around with the budget book acting like he knows something and clearly shows he is not willing to deal with the big bill but looks for small cures. We need millions; he looks for thousands. And we need millions right now, not in the distant future. There is no downside to placing a sales tax increase on the ballot. Why is the triad opposing it so deliberately?
In the last budget, the triad cut the police budget drastically while promoting an open-door policy on the sale of dope in Lompoc. Who profits from this weak police policy? The drug dealers and the chaos they bring. One cannot help but wonder whether the triad is being “paid off” by the drug czars.
The Mosby triad’s disdain for the city employees—they make “too much” money—led to many experienced employees leaving, including Wiemiller, the city manager who brought up the CalPERS issue and promoted a sales tax. The past police chief submitted his resignation and got a good job elsewhere.
However, a new city manager, Jim Throop, was hired.
A budget review presented on March 9 by the new city manager and Mayor Osborne shows a financial deficit that cannot be solved by cuts. The triad demanded that the city investigate a budget that includes additional cuts of 8.7 percent across the board. The results of this study were presented to the council on April 17. Again, the results are disastrous for the city services and safety. All the savings are going into the yearly interest that needs to be paid on the CalPERS. Again, more cuts were suggested, and the city manager was sent away to look into more cuts to be presented at a future City Council meeting. The actions of this triad have endangered all citizens.
A sales tax needs to be approved by voters to solve this problem. The triad stopped it in 2017. The next chance is in March 2020. The voters must take action then or suffer the consequences of a bankrupt, collapsed Lompoc from which there will be no return.
The general fund sales tax could generate about $5 million per year in new funds for the city with which to pay the CalPERS debt and support the city fire and police. It needs a 50 percent plus 1 vote to pass. The five members of the council need to vote to place it on the ballot to save the hundreds of thousands of dollars that it would cost to wait for the November election. The cost to the average citizen will be $10 per month.
Cities and counties around Lompoc have passed such sales taxes for the same reasons with the active support of their councils. There is no reason why the Lompoc ballot measure would not succeed. The council must work together proactively to make this happen. There is no other option. The citizens of Lompoc should be given a chance to review their options and make a decision on these issues at the ballot box. Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, Guadalupe, and the county have made this decision, why not Lompoc?
Justin M. Ruhge is a 25-year resident of Lompoc. Send your thoughts through the editor at clanham@santamariasun.com or write a letter for publication and email it to letters@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 2-9, 2019.