Ron Fink

The city of Lompoc’s budget discussion has been going on for a couple of months, and there have been several presentations by the staff. I have been taking each of them at face value because the staff members are supposed to be professionals hired for their skill, so it seemed to be the way to […]

Lompoc City Councilmember Jim Mosby is still searching for truth but can’t seem to find it. His recent statements and the actions he supported on May 28 are indicative of a person who is totally out of touch with the needs of the constituents he serves and seemingly unable to simply tell the truth. Preparing […]

Last Wednesday, May 15, the Lompoc City Council had another budget workshop; they have had four of them so far, but the only work that gets done is when the staff tells them once again that they don’t have enough revenue to run the city effectively. At the last meeting, the city manager and his […]

Lompoc has a revenue problem that looks like it’s not going away anytime soon. Many are arguing that any proposed temporary sales tax to help alleviate the revenue problem should be for a specific purpose, so let’s try and figure out just what that purpose would be. The City Council majority is currently standing by […]

The Lompoc City Council had another discussion about what to do about the next two-year budget. To put it in plain language, they have a serious problem that is only going to get worse. City Manager Jim Throop, who has 30 years of budgeting experience, opened the meeting saying, “This is a very big budget […]

The Santa Maria Sun has a Canary whose opinions grace the paper each week, but this bird is not alone. Preening as she does and chirping away, the Canary is a piker when compared to the avian trio that perch on the dais during Lompoc City Council meetings. One citizen recently complained during a council […]

Why would people who ordinarily oppose taxes support a temporary sales tax increase in Lompoc? The Lompoc City Council met last week, and one of the topics was the state of the current budget. City staff was seeking guidance on how to increase revenue for the next two-year budget cycle. Staff painted a bleak picture […]

On Tuesday, March 5, the Lompoc City Council discussed the ongoing problem of the homeless using the streets of the city as a campground for their mobile residences. The city attorney explains the issue in his staff report: “The city has experienced consistent nuisance issues and other adverse impacts resulting from the parking of vehicles […]

The Sun correctly reported that the Lompoc City Council was allowing chickens, rabbits, and pot-bellied pigs to join households in the city (“Lompoc to allow residents to keep chickens as pets,” Feb. 14). But before you run out and build up your livestock herd, you should know that there are a lot of rules that […]

Both the 3rd and 4th District Santa Barbara County supervisors seem to have been ignoring Lompoc’s homelessness problem. Let’s examine the issue carefully and place current actions in context with history.   The homeless encampments have been in the riverbed for more than 30 years. At the start of these encampments, the entirety of the […]

Twenty-three years ago, I began my voluntary service with the city of Lompoc. I always felt that it was every citizen’s duty to give something back to the community, and at the time there was a need for someone to serve on the Water Commission. The city operates its own water utility, as well as […]