For weeks Santa Barbara County organizations have been finding unique ways to assist local furloughed federal employees, and now the city of Lompoc is joining in the effort.
At a meeting on Jan. 15, the Lompoc City Council unanimously approved a resolution that would give residents impacted by the partial government shutdown 30-day extensions on their utility bill payments. The extensions will be free of interest and penalty charges.
“Well, a great deal of our community members are employed not only with the federal penitentiary but also the federal government,” Mayor Jenelle Osborne told the Sun.
Osborne said that while it’s unclear exactly how many Lompoc residents are currently working without pay because of the shutdown, several hundred work at Lompoc’s Federal Correctional Institution, and even more are employed by Vandenberg Air Force Base. Osborne said she, other City Council members, and city staffers, have received several phone calls and questions about possible assistance from struggling federal employees and labor union representatives since the shutdown started.
And considering that Lompoc is one of the area’s “largest commuter cities,” Osborne said, many furloughed employees are having difficulty even paying for gas to get to work, let alone paying bills.
“We wanted to ease that pain, as difficult as it is on our residents,” Osborne said, “and wanted to see how the city could help.”
The city of Lompoc provides utility services to about 16,000 customers, according to Public Information Officer Samantha Scroggin, and as of Jan. 22, only “a handful” of those customers had contacted the utilities division to sign up for shutdown accommodations.
Residents interested in receiving deferments are required to provide a copy of a letter that was given to them by their employer, as well as work identification to the utilities division in Lompoc City Hall, Scroggin said.
The utility accommodations for furloughed federal employees is scheduled to run through Feb. 12, and if the shutdown continues into that time frame, the City Council will consider further action.
The program, she said, will have very minimal impact if any on the city’s budget, because the revenue will not be entirely lost, but will be paid in full when the government shutdown ends.
At the meeting on Jan. 15, City Councilmember Victor Vega expressed concerns over other residents impacted by the shutdown, including those who could soon stop receiving financial assistance from Social Security, food stamps, and other federal programs. He said if those programs do lose funding in the coming weeks, City Council should consider adding impacted residents to the utility accommodation program.
Still, Vega said, “I’m fully in favor of helping the federal employees defer their payments or giving them something to work with.”
City Councilmember Jim Mosby said he voted to approve the program—despite the lack of a staff report and information on the subject—because he wanted to help his fellow citizens as quickly as possible.
“This is something they can’t control,” Mosby told the Sun.
Furloughed federal employees interested in an extension on utility payments can visit the utilities counter at Lompoc City Hall, 100 Civic Center Plaza, or call the utilities division to arrange accommodations at (805) 875-8247.
—Kasey Bubnash
This article appears in Jan 24-31, 2019.