Jim Mosby failed two times previously in a try for the mayor’s seat. This election was different, and with the help of the South Coast Democratic machine, specifically Supervisor Joan Hartmann, he finally achieved his goal.
With only less than 40 percent of the vote, Mosby doesn’t have a mandate; 60 percent of voters wanted someone else.
The candidate Hartmann endorsed lost, but she has pledged to “work with” Mosby. Apparently, she doesn’t know he doesn’t play well with others, especially those from the county.
Mosby’s political style is akin to a bulldozer in a pottery shop, and his public demeanor is off-putting to many people.
Even though he doesn’t have a mandate to occupy his seat, he may not need it; two previous allies Councilmen Dirk Starbuck and Victor Vega are still serving. I hope they will keep in mind the costly missteps Mosby orchestrated with his past “changes to the city” before they blindly follow him this time.
Both have been in closed-session meetings since Mosby last served, and know the costs that have accrued trying to undo the new mayor’s flagrant violation of Environmental Protection Agency permitting requirements for pretreatment of greasy wastewater.
Following the changes, Mosby managed to get these two councilmembers to agree to, the EPA found that the city of Lompoc “violated its monthly average oil and grease limits in June 2018 and March 2017.”
The city requires food preparation businesses to install grease traps as part of the pretreatment program; but the report noted that “the City Council [including Mosby, Starbuck and Vega] has not been supportive of the Municipal Code requiring grease traps.”
The city attorney advised them at the time that “your decisions (to support an appellants appeal of the grease trap requirement) could cause a cumulative violation of the City’s NPDES permit.”
The City Council majority, led by Councilman Mosby granted an exception to the grease trap requirement to a sandwich shop located on Councilman Dirk Starbuck’s family property.
This action was one example of their overall abuse of their council majority by signaling a continuing dilution of any code enforcement effort in the city, and especially for how business associates of some council members and former elected officials were rewarded for non-compliance.
Another example is somehow Mosby feels that he is more qualified to prepare a municipal budget than any of the city staff professionals with decades of experience in these matters.
He previously questioned every item in the budget, sought employee reductions and generally tried to micromanage the process. One such reduction was to eliminate numerous unfilled, buy authorized positions in the Police Department, and another was to lead the opposition to move Fire Station No. 2 to a more strategic location.
In 2017 when he was a council member, he presented a 12-point manifesto that “included reshuffling, reducing or eliminating certain staff positions, returning some executive salaries back to 2014 levels, reducing some departmental budgets to 2015 levels, and eliminating the economic development department altogether.”
When he got answers to his questions, and they didn’t fit his agenda, he tried again and again; kind of like a little kid asking “why” until he wears his parents out and he/she gets their way.
I’ll give him credit, even though he consistently misses the mark, he is tenacious.
And, when proven wrong, Mosby retreated to impugning, directly or indirectly, the competence, integrity and efforts of the city staff, specifically the city manager.
I hope Jim Mosby has learned how his previous behavior and abuse of his authority as an elected official damaged the credibility of the city of Lompoc, and cost a lot of time and money for them to resolve.
But I doubt it. I don’t think he has the strength of character to admit he was wrong and mend his ways.
References:
https://www.cityoflompoc.com/home/showdocument?id=26098 April EPA inspection report
https://www.noozhawk.com/article/lompoc_council_supports_businesses_in_appeals_over_grease_traps_20190705?utm_source=Noozhawk&utm_campaign=bc568bf3a3-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_03_18_03_36_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9ec8acd2c4-bc568bf3a3-247208837
