At Lompoc’s March 15 City Council meeting, resident Jane Behr demanded the council address the issue of government transparency.
“I’d like to ask you to agendize the topic of transparency,” Behr said at public comment, “with the goal of having a public discussion with public input on ways to increase the openness of city government.”
Mayor Bob Lingl told Behr to make a formal council request and moved on with the meeting, but Councilman Jim Mosby found Behr’s idea intriguing—so he took it upon himself. Mosby is setting up a public forum to discuss transparency in Lompoc’s city government, scheduled for 6 p.m. on April 12 in the Lompoc Public Library’s Grossman Gallery.
Mosby told the Sun that Behr wasn’t alone in her concerns. He’d had difficulties getting answers out of City Council, as well.
“And if it was difficult for a councilmember to get a question asked, let alone answered, it’s probably very difficult for the public,” he said.
He said the meeting’s overall goal is education: to educate the public on where they can find the information they need, and to educate himself on the public’s concerns.
“It’s very difficult,” Mosby said. “There’s a lot of information that’s in our staff reports, and City Hall is full of information. And many times, people ask a question and if you have an answer for them, they understand and a light bulb comes on.”
But if you don’t have an answer, people tend to believe it’s due to a lack of transparency, he said.
“It’s for the public to see it is transparent, it is out there, but you just have to do some digging,” Mosby said of the forum.
Mosby anticipates attendees will want to discuss Lompoc’s enterprise reimbursement study as well as the new fire station proposal, which was voted down by three councilmembers—including Mosby—at Lompoc’s March 1 City Council meeting.
“I will have documents to help the public see why I made the decision I made,” Mosby said.
He said he expects to be the only councilmember at the transparency forum, which will be open to the public.
This article appears in Mar 24-31, 2016.
