Bad habits hard to break in city

Lompoc Valley motorsports supporters are off to a good start. Their wishes were granted with a 5-0 vote of the City Council to ask city staff to proceed with an in-depth analysis of the hurdles and costs facing the proposed drag strip and off-road vehicle complex next to the Lompoc Airport. The sponsoring group of […]

City must pay U.S. Treasury $140,000 for one LHCDC loan

It’s official: The city of Lompoc is now on the hook to return $140,322 from city funds to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for one longstanding noncompliant loan to Lompoc Housing and Community Development (LHCDC). The city received the official notification on April 5 that it must repay the loan given […]

When spin wins, public loses

We are now firmly ensconced in, as someone else aptly termed it, the political silly season. Personally I think the adjective “silly” is far too innocuous. The dictionary defines “silly”  as “having or showing a lack of common sense or judgment; absurd and foolish,” and “used to convey that an activity or process has been engaged […]

Lax oversight or pressure to look the other way? Grand Jury must investigate LHCDC

After more than 16 months of researching Lompoc Housing and Community Development Corp. — its missing audits, its deteriorating, unsanitary housing for low-income residents and its failure to abide by regulations governing the use of public funds — I’ve come to the conclusion that only the Santa Barbara County Grand Jury can thoroughly investigate the […]