Rebates for turf landscaping and water leak detection are under the microscope in Lompoc, including those received by the current city manager. The city plans to pay for a third-party audit of applications to water and energy conservation rebate programs going back at least two years.
On April 21, City Council members continued a discussion about the 2024-25 annual audit, the year in which Councilmember Steve Bridge is accused of committing eight felonies. One of those charges is providing a fraudulent contractor’s license on a rebate application form.
“The evidence is right here in front of us. I’ve got an invoice here,” Councilmember Jeremy Ball said at the meeting. “Yet, we still don’t talk about that. We act like that didn’t happen, but we want to go figure out if somebody got paid a little bit extra for Sheetrock.”
Lompoc was required to report the investigation into Bridge to their auditors, a city finance employee said. The independent accounting firm assessed 81 payments that the city made to rebate applicants between February 2024 and October 2025, City Attorney Jeff Malawy said. Of those 81, auditors determined that 11 applications lacked proof that licensed contractors performed the work. Not all applications asked for a license number, but now the city requires it.
There also could be variables other than licenses that might invalidate applications.
“So, the auditors basically stated in their report that those rebates should not have been processed, meaning that they should not have been approved,” Malawy told the council.
Mayor Jim Mosby said one of the reasons he called for the discussion was because two of the payments involved City Manager Dean Albro, who did not provide contractor numbers in applications. Mosby said he was “astonished.”
In an email to the Sun, Albro said his family followed program guidelines and didn’t break any rules or laws. Albro added that he recused himself from the discussion at the suggestion of the city attorney.
Mosby mentioned that some rebates were only $100, and he doesn’t believe the masses were intentionally filing fraudulent applications.
“I think there was a level of—from what I see—it was a level of innocence, ignorance, complacency, [and] apathy that was going on with the process,” Mosby said.
Martin Bender, a Lompoc utility commissioner, told the council during the April 21 meeting that he wanted to better understand the rebate program amid the allegations against Bridge. Bender filed his own request with the city to see all rebates between November 2023 and November 2025.
While reviewing rebates, the utility commissioner said he found applications that failed to comply with the rules. Bender said he’d submit his findings to the city clerk.
“Some of them were super obvious; some of them were more nitpicky, but at the end of the day, my bigger concern was that you had a city manager who also submitted rebates improperly, and he’s supposed to oversee the program,” Bender said.
The independent report that council members requested could expose more rebates that shouldn’t have been approved, City Attorney Malawy said. If there’s evidence of criminal activity the city would report it to the county District Attorney’s Office.
“I am in no way saying that I have any knowledge that there is any fraud because I have not reviewed these things,” Malawy said. “I have not reviewed them in detail, but I have reviewed them enough to see that there are applications that did not have contractor license numbers.”
The City Council voted 4-0 in favor of a third-party review. Councilmember Bridge recused himself.
At a future meeting, staff will present possible financial remedies the city could earn back. They’ll also bring a report about the history of rebate application rules to help the council decide if it wants the investigation to go back more than two years. If evidence of fraud is discovered, the city can report it to the District Attorney’s Office and seek refunds in small claims court.
This article appears in April 30 – May 7, 2026.