Lompoc Public Library’s Grossman Gallery was a little stuffy the evening of Oct. 1. It wasn’t because of the city’s election candidates, who were waxing on about their political viewpoints—according to a few people outside the room, “they never say much of anything”—but because the small room with quilts hanging on the walls was at capacity.
There was standing room only for audience members who attended the Lompoc City Council candidates’ forum that night, and nine candidates were seated in a row so long, it hooked around the panel of tables at the front of the room. Among the two mayoral candidates and eight City Council candidates on the upcoming election ballot, the only one who wasn’t there was Dirk Starbuck, an incumbent council member seeking re-election. Starbuck and Ashley Costa’s council seats are up for grabs this year; Costa isn’t running.
The two-hour forum wasn’t nearly long enough to get to the breadth of questions audience members had, but candidates had their say on several of the issues stirring up the Lompoc community, including last-minute council votes, safe and sane fireworks, and economic development.
The first question on the list was regarding the state’s open meeting laws—specifically the Brown Act, which some Lompoc community members allege the City Council has violated several times this year. The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s office started an investigation into the possible violations in July. The allegations have been thrown around since April, when Mayor John Linn introduced a last-minute item to add to the council’s agenda.
It was a letter in support of local businessman Jim Mosby, who was tangled up in a lawsuit against the county over his recreational fields. Although the council did unanimously vote to allow the agenda change, the letter was voted on at midnight, and some council members, such as mayoral candidate Bob Lingl, didn’t feel quite right about the way things went surrounding the Mosby issue.
“Most Brown Act violations take place outside the City Council Chambers, as did this Brown Act violation,” Lingl said during the forum, alluding to his feeling that discussions about the Mosby situation took place outside of the public’s view.
Several candidates said they knew the Brown Act word-for-word, and that it’s up to the city attorney to make sure City Council doesn’t violate California’s open meeting laws. City Council candidate David Grill said he wants the council to meet every Tuesday, instead of twice a month, and for the meetings to start at 6 p.m. and end by 9 p.m.
“No more midnight meetings,” he said. “To vote on things that late at night is suspicious.”
Council candidate Ann Rughe said the meetings shouldn’t run past 11 p.m., adding that the city attorney is there to keep the council in check.
“Yes, we have a city attorney, but I think the perception is that he’s not doing his job as he should be,” Rughe said.
Incumbent mayoral candidate John Linn said that “some” people think of the Brown Act violation allegations as a “political maneuver” and added that he’s done a number of things during his tenure as mayor to improve the openness of Lompoc’s government. He said agenda notices now come out 10 days before the next City Council meeting rather than the Friday before, and the public comment period was extended from three minutes to five minutes.
“I always tell people I’m only a phone call or email away,” Linn said.
As for how the candidates would support public safety—question No. 3—it turned into a discussion about safe and sane fireworks, which Lompoc’s City Council voted (not unanimously) to allow within city limits for the last two years.
Lingl called them “unsafe and insane fireworks,” adding that it’s a “way we are not supporting our public safety.”
Rughe said safe and sane fireworks shouldn’t be allowed in Lompoc, and added that City Council ignored all those who advocated against them.
“Everybody got up and said, ‘Don’t do it!’ And the City Council blatantly, blatantly disregarded it,” Rughe said.
Candidate Darrell Tullis was one of the few who didn’t talk about safe and sane fireworks. Instead he spoke about how fully funding parks and recreation could ease the burden on the police and fire departments by giving youth more activities to participate in. Tullis also mentioned disaster preparedness as something the city needs to focus on.
Tullis responded to a question about decreasing Lompoc’s unemployment—it’s the highest in Santa Barbara County—and poverty rates, by saying the city needed to bring in a trade school of some sort to give residents job training opportunities.
“We had to go outside to get a city manager; we shouldn’t have to go outside [to hire]. We should hire from within,” Tullis said.
Council candidate Robert Cuthbert said trade schools and job fairs don’t create jobs, and added that the city needed to do a “textbook economic study,” where it looks at things such as education and skill levels to figure out what jobs it needs to bring in.
“We have to assess the community before we move forward,” Cuthbert said.
Contact Managing Editor Camillia Lanham at clanham@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 9-16, 2014.
