It’s hard to hear over the din of the dunes—people love to argue about that place!
On one side you have blaring off-road engines and anti-environmentalists who think the snowy plover has been coddled enough, and on the other side you have those who hate the noise and air pollution from the off-roaders and think the whole thing should be a nature preserve from Guadalupe to Oceano.
But let’s block out all that arguing and take a moment to recognize the real invasive species out there in all the sand—celebrities!
Rihanna made a big fuss when she and a huge entourage were spotted shooting a music video or commercial out on the Oceano Dunes. There were tents, limousines, and trailers all posted at the campgrounds there.
A few days before that, comedian Jay Leno rolled up to the dunes in one of his classic cars. Leno didn’t get quite the attention Rihanna did—sorry, Jay—or as much as Nick Jonas did when he was filming at the dunes in August of this year.
Look, it’s hard enough to get around the dunes on a regular day without getting run down by a four wheel drive or waiting in gridlock to get into the park, but when these celebrities show up, it’s pandemonium! So let me take a moment to tell the glitterati, “Stay the hell out!”
Anyway, they’ll never know the real dunes experiences we’ve all come to know and love, like songs around a bonfire or falling down a dune and getting your eyes and mouth filled with sand. No, they have bodyguards and parasols and designer sunglasses to keep the sand out of their eyes.
You know who else is tired of picking sand out of his eyes? Soon-to-be resigned Lompoc City Manager Patrick Wiemiller. He’s moving down the road to serve as assistant city manager for Santa Maria.
All year he’s watched Councilmembers Jim Mosby and Victor Vega argue with Mayor Bob Lingl over whether they should fire Wiemiller or not. He was reviewed three times this year (those reviews usually happen once a year), and talk of “termination” was thrown around after the contentious city budget finally passed.
Wiemiller did get a little snippy with Vega at one point, and he apologized, but I think that offense stuck in their craw. It was also a point of contention with former Lompoc Mayor John Linn, who emailed the Sun at the time and asked how Wiemiller’s response would come across if he was an executive speaking to a board of directors of a business.
I’m not sure how that would play out, but I bet if every other time a board of directors met with an executive and discussed canning the dude right in front of them, that executive would start polishing up the old resume.
Oh well, I can’t pretend to understand the Lompoc City Council. Between the bickering on the dais this year, there’s been a spat over a “finger gun” threat and a hacking “scandal” on our opinion poll. I don’t blame Wiemiller for taking his leave.
But hey, Lompoc is a town where the residents have to be reminded by Police Chief Pat Walsh to report crimes directly by phone, instead of just writing a post on Facebook. Wait a sec, isn’t that how the “finger gun” incident between Mosby and Lingl was “reported” in the first place?
Rihanna got the Canary through a bad breakup. Send your thoughts to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 16-23, 2017.
