When I started my first newspaper job, this cranky old bird nodded at our lifestyles editor and said, “Now that’s what you get after you pay your dues. Feature writing. That’s the dream.”
All spunky and full of pluck, I couldn’t believe that could be more fun than my beat at the time: government and political reporting.
The drama. The accusations. The lies. There was so much fodder upon which a nosy young bird journalist could chew. However, sometimes the fodder isn’t so much what’s presented in the political arena but rather what’s not.
Just ask the city of Lompoc.
On Aug. 9, the City Council held a special session to address transparency. That meeting followed an April informal forum, hosted by Councilman Jim Mosby, on the same topic. Both of those meetings were the result of years of accusations that the council isn’t transparent with the community in its decision-making process.
Transparency seems to be a buzzword, especially during election season, but for too long some residents of Lompoc have said it’s severely lacking in Lompoc’s government. Residents aren’t the only ones.
For a couple of its actions, the council got spanked. First in November 2014, and then in July of this year. And they should have. The council violated the Brown Act, which is meant to protect the public from government officials entering into shady dealings.
Intent really isn’t at issue. Whether a government body is trying to “hide” something in the lawmaking process doesn’t matter. What does matter is whether it seems like they aren’t being open.
Mayor Bob Lingl made a good point when he said essentially that if the community thinks there is a transparency problem, then there is. It’s refreshing to hear a politician own such an issue. Especially one who is running for re-election.
Another interesting point was that the push for transparency has come largely from one woman, Jane Behr. That information is interesting because she happens to be the campaign manager of former mayor and current mayoral candidate John Linn. However, it’s worth noting that Behr wasn’t the only person showing up to the transparency meetings, and the allegation of Lompoc’s government being less than open has been bandied about since before Lingl’s term.
As a journalist I applaud any efforts to make sure government dealings are held in the public eye. But I also wonder if it’s really fair to accuse the council of a lack of transparency. In a way, to insist that there is no transparency is to say that the council is intentionally hiding things from the community.
So is the Lompoc government trying to hide its process? The optimist in me wants to point out that sometimes actions aren’t performed with malicious intent. Sometimes you can chalk it up to inexperience, or naiveté. Even if that’s the case, laws are laws, and they are designed to keep politicians accountable to the community that it serves.
No excuses.
And at least Lingl gave none. It’s primarily because of what he said: The community sees a transparency problem, and so it is. So then does that also mean the city has an image problem? That’s one for another day.
The Canary still thinks politics is more exciting than features. Send her some political gossip at canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Aug 18-25, 2016.