Three hours into the Lompoc City Council’s Sept. 15 meeting, Councilmember Steve Bridge asked his peers to remember the oath they recite in unison ahead of every agenda.
It’s the same oath many schoolchildren have already memorized by kindergarten.
“We started today the way we start every meeting. We stood up and said the words—the last four words: liberty and justice for all,” Bridge said.
“I’m asking you to keep the line where the Constitution puts it,” he continued. “Proof first, judgement second.”
His comments were part of a prepared statement he read during the council’s hearing to consider a formal censure against him. The censure would express disapproval of Bridge remaining seated on the council amid charges against him from the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office alleging misuse of city funds, identity theft, and forgery.
The proposed censure specified that “the City Council does not through this resolution make any determination regarding Councilmember Bridge’s criminal guilt or innocence, which is a matter for the judicial process.”
Councilmember Jeremy Ball, who drafted the resolution, said he would personally knock on Lompoc residents’ doors and apologize for “doing the wrong thing” if Bridge is found not guilty.
Ball described the censure as a “toothless, powerless” gesture, but one to help “regain” public trust in the council that was lost following outcry from the community for Bridge to either step down or be reprimanded.
Periodic outbursts from the crowd that evening, which included attendees holding protest signs supporting the censure, led to at least one person’s removal.
“Can you please remove her?” Mayor Jim Mosby asked Lompoc Police Department officers when resident Shawna Stillwell continued speaking, after Mosby warned the chattering crowd that he’d “clear the chambers.”
“We don’t want ‘judge and jury,’ we want leadership,” Stillwell shouted at the dais before exiting. “Your entire community is standing in here demanding accountability. This isn’t ‘innocent or guilty,’ this is trust.”
As part of his prepared statement, Bridge said that arguments calling for the censure to restore “public confidence” weren’t justified.
“Every accusation ever made against an elected official is distracting, … shakes public confidence. If that’s the bar, then anybody who wants to remove a member only needs to make an accusation,” Bridge said. “You won’t have the newspaper guys putting my picture on the paper when I’m found innocent.”
When the time came for the council to vote on the censure, a 2-2 tie on adopting the resolution incited some audience members to shout “shame,” repeatedly.
Mosby and Councilmember Dirk Starbuck dissented, while Bridge abstained from voting.
Earlier in deliberations, Mosby questioned staff about an upcoming hearing to discuss the city’s rebate program, which Bridge’s charges are tied to. According to court documents, Bridge told a District Attorney’s Office investigator that he used a contractor’s license number he found on the internet to apply for repair work rebates.
“Why didn’t the application get thrown out?” Mosby asked staff. “The reason I ask this is because you end up setting traps for people. … This program was trapping a lot of people.”
City Attorney Jeff Malawy told the council that the results of a third-party study of the rebate program would be presented sometime in October. The study identified 11 city staff-approved rebate applications where the contractor license number was either incorrect or missing.
“A lot of people filed applications that had flaws in them,” Mosby said. “Eleven accounts that had done this, and they went after one person. … Are we going to do the same thing to the other people?
In response to Mosby’s comments, Ball said: “If we found fraud or any other criminal activity from anyone, … they should be prosecuted the same way.”
Ball added that it’s not his or the council’s position to judge Bridge’s innocence with a censure, “but it is our position to determine whether or not the ethics of this institution is being respected.”
“I wasn’t going to go to this level, but I heard about [all of] this before it even went to the DA,” Mosby said during an exchange with Ball. “There was an active movement to go after Councilmember Bridge. There was gloating about getting him.”
“From who?” Ball asked
“I’m not going to tell you,” Mosby replied.
This article appears in September 24 – October 1, 2026.
