For the second time in six years, Lompoc is asking voters to choose between Jim Mosby and Jeremy Ball.
The two City Council incumbents previously squared off in 2020 for the 4th District seat, which Ball won. Mosby’s successful run for mayor against Jenelle Osborne in 2024 put him back on the dais—where he’s served on and off since 2014.
With one year left on his 4th District City Council term, Ball will remain on the council regardless of what happens in November. A mayoral win for Ball wouldn’t guarantee his opponent’s departure in 2027. Mosby’s 4th District residency makes him eligible for a hypothetical appointment to fill the potential midterm vacancy.
“Worst-case scenario, if we just switch seats,” Ball told the Sun, “I think there would be some incremental progress because of a change in tone from the mayor’s position.”
Civic duty
Lompoc Mayor Jim Mosby and 4th District Councilmember Jeremy Ball will participate in an election forum with other Lompoc City Council candidates on Thursday, Oct. 8, starting at 5:30 p.m., in the Lompoc City Council chambers, located at 100 Civic Center, Lompoc. Visit lompocvandenberg-ca.aauw.net for more info.
A more ideal scenario in Ball’s view is to see two council candidates he’s in full support of win their respective races: Sharlameigne Segovia and Sarah Anne Read.
Like Ball, both candidates received endorsements from the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party. But neither are incumbents.
While Segovia is running against 2nd District Councilmember Victor Vega for his seat, Read is running against fellow newcomer Nick Gonzales to fill 3rd District Councilmember Dirk Starbuck’s post. Starbuck didn’t file to run for reelection.
Mosby, Vega, and Gonzales are endorsed by the Santa Barbara County Republican Party.
“I do feel like the city deserves to clean house,” Ball said, “to change this council from what a lot of people feel is just the ‘good ol’ boys club,’ to make it more representative of the people who live here.”
The notion of “cleaning house” has fueled a heated debate between Ball and Mosby over the past year.
In light of Councilmember Steve Bridge’s felony charges for misusing city funds, Ball became vocal about wanting Bridge to voluntarily step down from his elected role starting in late 2025. The topic resurfaced at multiple City Council meetings across 2026, including on Sept. 15 when Ball’s motion to censure Bridge failed 2-2 (Mosby and Starbuck dissented, while Bridge abstained).
Mosby told the Sun he believes Ball stood firm on this stance throughout the year because it became integral to his campaign.
“This is what he’s running on,” Mosby said. “I don’t have my entourage coming into City Council meetings yelling and screaming like he does.”
During the censure hearing, periodic outbursts from audience members led Mosby to warn the crowd that he’d “clear the chambers.” He then asked law enforcement to forcibly remove at least one person.
Ball said that the formal censure would help the council restore public trust amid the allegations against Bridge. But Mosby argued that Bridge was one of many who filed city rebate applications “that had flaws in them” and that they should let the judicial process play out.
After that hearing ended, shouts of “shame” erupted from attendees.
“They’re Ball’s people. That’s his campaign,” Mosby told the Sun. “They’re his entourage. They come into the meeting, disrupting the council. I had to kick half of them out.”
Mosby described his and Ball’s approaches to leadership as “night and day.”
“If you can’t tell that, then I haven’t done my job,” Mosby said. “If people can’t see a difference within this town in the last two years or are happy with what’s going to go on if I’m not there, then that’s the will of the people.”
Mosby described his reelection efforts as “self-funded,” while Ball told the Sun his campaign raised nearly $20,000 in donations from his supporters.
“I haven’t gone out there and solicited and made promises to people,” Mosby continued. “I’m not going to go out there and take bribes from people. I don’t owe anybody any money.”
Reflecting on his term as mayor, Mosby said one of the city’s policy shifts he’s most proud of motioning for pushed forward a significantly lower development impact fee schedule than when he entered office
“We were able to reduce it to approximately $3,100 per single-family unit,” Mosby said. That rate was approximately $40,000 per unit prior to the ordinance, which went into effect during the summer of 2025.
Ball said that policy’s adoption, which passed unanimously, is an area where he and Mosby find agreement.
“If we just have really high impact fees and no one ever develops anything, then the city never gets any fees anyway—to do that work they were intended for,” said Ball, who described one of the city’s persistent challenges as a lack of housing.
Despite not seeing “eye to eye on many things across the board” with Mosby, Ball said he believes they get along well personally.
“If I need to have a conversation with him, he’s never blown me off,” Ball said. “We’ve had to make decisions where we just come to consensus and hammer out some city business. And in all of those contexts, I know his heart is in the right place. I just have a difference of an approach when it comes to the tone of leadership—how we engage with the city, how we hold people accountable, how we lift people and elevate people.”
Assemblymember Gregg Hart (D-Santa Barbara), Santa Barbara County 3rd District Supervisor Joan Hartmann, former Lompoc Mayors Bob Lingl and Joyce Howerton, the Planned Parenthood Central Coast Action Fund, and the Central Coast Labor Council are among Ball’s endorsers.
Ball said he’s particularly proud of gaining support from the Lompoc Firefighters Association.
Ball described the Lompoc Fire Department as having “among the highest call volume in the entire county, … [yet] they’re among the lowest paid.”
“I want to get back to place where young people that start as a firefighter in Lompoc, even though they may be tempted with slightly higher pay in different areas, that they stay and want to work long and hard in Lompoc—and possibly retire, grow a family here, the whole deal,” Ball said. “We’re nowhere close to that. We’re kind of just a revolving door for young people to get experience and go get paid better somewhere else.”
He described one of his campaign platforms as aiming to strengthen the department and its retention of employees, partly through exploring options to offer more competitive wages.
“There’s a lot of different ways we can get there, but we have to kind of stop the bleeding now and start somewhere,” Ball said. “Our Fire Department is in horrible shape, and it’s a consequence of many bad decisions or lack of attention over many years. … I’m laser-focused on whatever we can do quickly to stabilize that.”
Reach Senior Staff Writer Caleb Wiseblood at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
