Local governments like Lompoc and organized communities like homeowners associations create policies that are focused on promoting “good neighbor” standards, such as landscape maintenance, fire prevention, avoiding collections of junk cars, and disposal of hazardous materials to name a few.
But if the community adopts these policies but does little to enforce them, or discourages people from reporting obvious code violations, then the community becomes rundown.
In Lompoc that’s exactly what happened when a former councilman, who is now seeking to become mayor, led an effort in 2017 to begin eviscerating the municipal code enforcement program.
He began by supporting the elimination of funding for a code-enforcement officer and all administrative support. He followed it in 2019 by convincing two of his enablers, both of which are still serving as councilmembers, to have the city release the names of people reporting most noncompliant conditions if a member of the public requested the information.
A note on the Citizen Complaint Form explains the result: “Please be aware that the city’s code enforcement staffing was eliminated effective July 1, 2019.”
During a public hearing on Sept. 6 for a proposal by Mayor Jenelle Osborne to eliminate the public release of names of complainants and the addition of funding for a senior code enforcement officer Councilman Dirk Starbuck, one of the councilmembers who voted to allow release of the names and dissolve of the code enforcement officer position, attempted to explain why they did it.
Starbuck said, “it was almost like we had junior code enforcement officers” running around town harassing their neighbors.
Councilman Victor Vega, the other supporter of reducing code enforcement efforts in 2017 first said, “You can find violations on every street in town,” and then followed it by asking if there were any “Mickey Mouse” complaints.
But, the Community Development director, under whom the code enforcement effort is located, said that in her experience all 500 citizen complaints received in 2021 were valid code enforcement issues and that there were no frivolous complaints in prior years.
Starbuck said, “there was a huge number of complaints,” some he felt were frivolous, and that it was “costing too much” to manage the program.
He wondered how if there was a change in the number of complaints after names of complainants were made available to the public, the staff didn’t have current data because admin support for the program had been eliminated.
Councilman Jeremy Ball was very vocal on this issue, asking if “the city was any better as a result of elimination the code enforcement effort.” He cited several code violations in his council district to illustrate his point.
I have traveled our city regularly just to see how things are going with new projects and how our neighborhoods look. Although I don’t live in an HOA project, I notice that those areas are well kept, and they don’t have an accumulation of junk in yards.
On the other hand, in other areas of the city, including residential, commercial and industrial zones, many properties are poorly kept, and some residents have every square foot of their property and the street in front of their home covered in junk vehicles.
Other councilmembers were equally concerned about the appearance of the city; something had to change. Mayor Osborne suggested the ordinance be changed to require that names of complainants only be available for internal use by city code enforcement officials.
When discussing Osborne’s proposal, Councilman Victor Vega asked for clarification, after the city attorney helped with the legal phrasing of the change the mayor asked Vega if he wanted to second the motion.
He agreed, then wondered out loud: “Boy that was quick, I didn’t realize I was going to get into that.” Could it be because he had just seconded a motion to reverse a policy he had previously supported?
Councilman Starbuck, still trying to save the day, asked if the council could revisit the issue in six months. Could it be he was hoping for their old ally to get elected as mayor so they could return to the policy that contributed to urban decay?
Of course, they could, but considering his two previous losses, I think voters are wise to how much damage former Councilman Jim Mosby inflicted on our city.
Changing the citizen complaint policy to protect the identity of complainants, and another action they took to add a senior code enforcement officer during 5-0 votes, are two important changes that will help improve our city.
— Ron Fink, a Lompoc resident since 1975, is retired from the aerospace industry. He has been following Lompoc politics since 1992, and after serving for 23 years appointed to various Lompoc commissions, retired from public service. The opinions expressed are his own.
