Ron Fink

The California tiger salamander is an elusive creature that has been causing local ranchers, vintners, farmers, and developers a collective migraine for decades. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service describes them this way: “The species is restricted to grasslands and low foothills with pools or ponds that are necessary for breeding. A California tiger salamander […]

Politicians are becoming too accustomed to their newfound powers as we enter the third month of COVID-19 restrictions. As this thing unfolds, even harsher infringements on our civil liberties seem to be the order of the day. In Santa Barbara County the disease hasn’t just impacted the people who have the sickness, but also thousands […]

Beginning in late February, government officials and the press began to predict a massive outbreak of a contagious disease known as COVID-19 in the United States. Using math models, they were convinced that anywhere between 100,000 to 200,000 deaths would occur.  The governor of California even went so far as to say 25.5 million Californians […]

Events of the last few weeks have created anxiety among city leaders all over the United States. The cities of Santa Barbara, Solvang, and Santa Maria have announced major layoffs, and all revenue projections in municipal budgets are no longer valid. It’s no different in Lompoc as our city government wrestles with another fly in […]

Sixty-eight percent of voters in Lompoc approved a 15-year, 1 percent increase in the sales tax for purchases both in and out of the city limits. Now the City Council majority will decide what to do with the new revenue. The ballot language and public informational forums provided by the city stated that the measure […]

Surf Beach, what a beautiful place! This is probably one of the few beaches in California where a person can stand and look in either direction, as far as you can see, and find only a handful of people. There was once a small summer village and a racetrack at Ocean Park. Railroad employees lived […]

The City Council and the citizens of Lompoc have clearly stated that public safety is their No. 1 priority. Public safety infrastructure consists of several components: people, communications, facilities, and rolling stock of both police and fire departments. Enough people adequately trained and compensated are needed to deliver police and fire services. Over the last […]

Let’s address one thing first before I go on: “The city” doesn’t need more revenue—your city needs more revenue. There is an important distinction here; if we continue to refer to “the city,” it implies that the city is an entity unto itself and not a service provider for the whole community. Your city is […]

In my last commentary (“Reality check,” Jan. 16), I tried to explain how the city of Lompoc wound up with a substantial budget deficit even though one councilman is in total denial. To try and mitigate the impact of this deficit, the City Council approved placing a temporary (15-year) 1-percent sales tax measure on the […]

On May 2, 2017, City Manager Patrick Wiemiller said in a briefing to the Lompoc City Council, “The biggest financial hurdle facing Lompoc, according to staff, is the city’s obligation of about $70 million to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or CalPERS.” Today the deficit is well over $90 million and growing. The obligation […]

During the last Lompoc City Council meeting of 2019, council members reviewed the need for the commissions/committees that have been established for many decades. The question should have been “Are they effective?” But the real questions are “Does anyone care what they are doing?” and “Are they helpful to the council or constituents?” The stated […]

Vandenberg Air Force Base, as anyone living in this county knows, is a 150-square-mile ecological marvel that is geographically divided into two distinct terrain and vegetation masses. The southern part of the base is a mountainous region rising from sea level, which is dominated by Tranquillion Peak (2,100 feet), and it is covered with large […]