City Council — May 19, 2026

Does it pay attention?

Let's open the Lompoc City Council meeting for Tuesday, May 19th. Roll call please.

Mayor and Council, the City Council met in closed session to discuss the one labor negotiation item on the agenda. Council gave direction to staff. It was actually two bargaining groups. Council gave direction to staff but no reportable action was taken.

and integrity can profoundly change lives. Throughout all faiths, I am reminded that they consistently bring people together who otherwise would remain separated by fear, status, politics or backgrounds. Showing us that hope grows when people choose compassion over division and service over self-interest. May that same spirit guide this city, help us to find common ground where we can, wisdom where we differ and grace for one another along the way.

May the decisions made tonight move this community toward greater hope, greater trust and stronger future for all who call this city home. We offer this prayer with gratitude and humility.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Ready? Begin.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice

for all.

Presentation, I guess the public works weeks. Who put everything out there? Craig Dierling's acting city manager today. Put all that stuff out there in the entrance.

Our Public Works Department did. Do

you have anything you want to say about that real fast before we come over and give you a proclamation?

Well maybe after you give the proclamation I'll say a few words.

Okay, you'll fill it in. Well you're gonna say some afterwards for sure. Come to the podium. So National Public Works Week, May 17th through 23rd, 2026. Rooted in service powered by community. That's a good slogan, huh? Whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure facilities and services that are vital importance to sustainable resilient communities and to the public health high quality of life well-being of the people of Lompoc. And whereas these infrastructure facilities and services could not be provided without the dedicated efforts of public works professionals who are maintenance workers mechanics engineers managers and employs all levels of government and private sector who are responsible for rebuilding, improving, and protecting our nation's roadways and transportation systems, storm drainage and flood control systems, water supply, water treatment, and solid waste systems.

Public buildings and other structures and facilities essential for our citizens. And whereas it's in the public interest for the citizens, civic leaders, and children in Lompoc to gain knowledge of and to maintain an ongoing interest and understanding of the importance of public works and public works programs in their respective communities, and whereas the year 2026 marks the 66th annual National Public Works Week sponsored by the American Public Works Association, Canadian Public Works Association. And it should be recognized as rooted in service powered by community.

I, the mayor do put my hand and you get a proclamation.

Thank you each for recognizing the crucial ways our public works enables our daily lives, from providing maintaining roadways and transportation systems to public buildings and facilities to vehicles and equipment the city uses to provide public service. Our dedicated Public Works professionals make possible much of what we each rely upon every day to enjoy a high quality of modern life.

On behalf of our Public Works staff serving in each of its seven divisions, including Airport, Engineering, Facilities Maintenance, Fleet Maintenance, Street Maintenance Transit and Urban Forestry. Thank you for entrusting us to serve you. Thank you for recognizing our service. Please also watch our new video playing in the City Hall lobby during daytime business hours and review the displays there which further communicate public works service to the city of Lompoc.

Tell us what you've got out in the lobby. So we have kind of an overall display of each of the seven public works divisions on the east wall, as well as a little bit of... so generally nationwide and I suppose in Canada too Public works is considered to include a lot of what in our city is under the utilities department, because those are also public works by legal definition.

Although our city has so many divisions already they didn't lump them all into the public works department. So we've got a little bit of utility stuff out there also on the East Wall. We also have some airports and transit, some street maintenance and some urban forestry displays and the video on the monitor.

City manager report.

So first up, I'm excited to announce that this year's Spring Yard Beautification Contest winners have been selected. Our Beautification and Appearance Commission judged 21 residential nominations, two business nominations and one church nomination last week, and selected 11 winners. The winners were selected from all across the city and included awards for several categories including the Residential Most Colorful Yard, the Overall Most Colorful Yard.

Thank you to all those who participated in this year's contest and to those who made nominations as well. For Parks and Recreation, I want to take a minute to thank the staff for hosting another well-attended Senior Health Expo at the Dick DeWeese Center last Friday, May 15th. This is a great resource for senior members of our community and their caregivers, and it had a great turnout this year with over 500 people attending.

Thank you to the Parks and Rec staff for your diligent work in ensuring the event ran smoothly. I'd like to encourage students ages 13-15 to apply for this summer's Volunteen program with the Parks and Rec Department. As part of this program, teens will acquire new skills, gain responsibility, and earn volunteer hours Those who submit an application must also pass an oral interview. Please reach out to the Parks and Rec Division with additional questions.

And lastly, for Parks and Rec I'm excited to share that registration for the summer drop-in camp is now open. Pre-registration for this camp is required and early registration is highly encouraged. The camp runs from 1215 to 515 p.m., Monday through Friday from June 15th through August 7th. Registration is available for kids ages 6 through 12. And as we just mentioned in the proclamation, if you visit the City Hall lobby this week, you can check out the National Public Works Week displays.

This year's theme, as the Mayor mentioned, is Rooted in Service Powered by Community and displays and activities are presented for each division of the department along with a video highlighting what each division does for the city. For the library, with summer coming up fast, libraries' Summer Reading Program This coming up, starting June 1st this year's theme is Plant a Seed Read.

The program is open to all ages. Community members can begin tracking reading minutes beginning May 26th via the BeanStack app website or at the library. Help us reach and exceed our community reading goal of 400,000 minutes. Also at the library, I'm happy to share that lunch at the library will return this summer. Meals will be provided for children and teens at the library through a partnership with the school district.

Meals are available on the youth patio from June 15th through July 31st Monday through Friday between 1 p.m. and 1 30 p. m. Along with the healthy meals there will be free activities provided most days at 2 p. Next, thank you to everyone who attended yesterday's State of the City event hosted in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce at the Dick DeWeese Center.

I counted over 50 attendees and the entire presentation can be viewed on the city's YouTube channel. And lastly, I'd like to remind everyone that City Hall and other city facilities will be closed this upcoming Monday May 25th in observance of the Memorial Day holiday. Like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday weekend. Thank you.

Anybody have any quick questions

for Acting Councillor Boehme? I just had a quick question. Sorry to put you on the spot, I had a lady reach out to me and she works nights and it was like 7 in the morning and big loud noises outside she ran outside to see what was going on and they were digging a trench or something and they said hey it's City of Lompoc do we Do we have any policy in place for what time we're supposed to start or keep quiet until?

I'm not telling on anyone, I just want to know.

Yeah my understanding is 7 a.m. is the start time for construction and similar loud noises.

Okay thank you, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't 8 and we were starting too early so thank you for that.

On weekends it's later but weekdays 7am. Thank you.

Unless it's an emergency right?

I suppose so

yes. So I had a question for Mr. Alvaro who's not here, but I'll pass it through you through the city attorney and maybe he could fill us in. It was reported to me that we have a live mic in here. I didn't know about that until recently because I know sometimes people come up here and lean over to me and are saying something to me what was thought to be in confidence but very well might not be so maybe you can report out what's What's the deal with this new live mic that's in our council chambers?

Anybody? City attorney. No, you don't know either? All right well I just found out about it too a new live mic up here so nobody seems to know who's recording it where it's being recorded. You know something about it?

Yes

all right

So we have to have a mic there to pick up sound because if there is a delay of 30 seconds Without sound, the feed cuts off for the broadcast. So it's to pick up ambient type sounds just to keep the broadcast going. You're right. It is there. I believe we were working on making it less sensitive but its goal is to pick up those sounds.

If anybody thinks you're coming up and talking to one of your council member in confidence, you probably aren't. Just to let you guys know. I don't know, it's a good question. Maybe have it in the bathroom or something, I don't know. Anyhow, I just want to report that out for the public to know so there's no secretness going on and everybody now knows. Forever let them know, right?

All right. No other questions from the city manager? Thank you Mr. Deerling, appreciate that. So now we're coming onto consent calendar Any public comment? Maximum of three minutes on consent calendar.

Mayor, while we're waiting for any public comment I did need to announce that Council Member Starbuck will be recusing himself from item number two which is the check register. One or more of the checks is a check to this Lompoc Valley Chamber of Commerce. Council Member Starbuck has The item is on the consent calendar. Anybody else?

So we have number one, which is approval of minutes. The Lompoc City Council regular meeting March 3rd, 2026. Approval and ratification of expenditures for payroll April 24th at $2.134 million. A voucher April 13-17, 2026, $942,000. I vote to register April 20th, 2024 or 2026 617,000. Number three is adoption of ordinance number 1745-26 zoning code amendments to chapter 17.316 signed standards TA 2025-0002 to allow certain feather signs construction sign and subdivision signs and to allow each tenant in multiple tenant buildings have one sign One per wall, per building facade occupied by the tenants.

Number four is adoption of resolution to call and give notice of general municipal elections on November 3rd, 2026. The request to Board of Supervisors to consolidate the election and adoption of City Council policy requiring payment of costs and deposits for candidate statements. And number five is the adoption of Resolution 68-1426 declaring the City Council's intention to levy assessments for fiscal year 26-27.

Preliminary approve an engineer's report and provide notice of a public hearing for Park Minutes and City Pool Assessment District Number 2002-01. Public comments? Go ahead, you have three minutes.

Thank you. Aaron Crocker, concerned citizen of Lompoc. I did want to comment on the agenda item number 3 pertaining to the sign code and code enforcement and all that. I was just reading through our current sign program that we have running here and then the adjustments that we want to make. We want to allow more feather flags and some construction signs, things like that.

And I read through the whole thing and we don't seem to permit signs of corruption and incompetence in our city council. It's on display for everybody for months. And I just find it odd that we're able to do that when it's not part of the current city code, and so I just have a concern that we have some illegal signage here on the City Council, and I just wanted to bring that to your attention. I wasn't sure if you were aware.

Thank you.

Anybody

else? I know you love seeing me, Mayor. And let's go! First off, I'm going to have a moment of silence for our shooting victims in California and San Diego at the mosque. All right, let's get into it. I'm not going to talk about Bridges a lot. Everyone knows he's a criminal. He's still sitting on the court—on the City Council. The judge is gonna make you face your crimes now so it's gonna be adorable.

Real men, they take accountability and they step down when they've done something wrong. City Council if you don't censure him or sue to get his income back I'll be surprised. You need to take care of that on the other side. If you guys want to talk me I'll talk to you about it. Now let's talk about the firefighters of Lompoc. Last week we had an average of 7,500 hours of overtime reported.

Some of the years were worse than that. So you take those 7,500 hours and split it between the four people they requested you guys hire. It ends up about 1,875 hours for anyone who actually works for a living. That's a 36-hour week for the new hires. It would cut the cost of overtime from $300,000 to $200,000. With that extra 100K and the bonus hours that the other firefighters have, they could probably do training and get more engineers, get more experienced help and more veterancy in their corps.

A hundred K is a lot of money and the city could do amazing things with our fire force with the extra 100K per year. And that's just starting. And that's just assuming we're paying $26 to $27 an hour, and let's face it new starting firefighters are not going to be paid that. I'm not a manager anymore, I used to manage businesses. When hiring's not a problem, it's the HR that's the source. So last week we had Jeremy Ball claim he wasn't attacking the city manager over anything but if it's their job to hire someone and they've not then that is a failure.

And Mr. Vega earlier, he stated we're not here to be liked, we're here to get stuff done. You stated last meeting that it's taken five years and there's not been a change in Fire Force so you successfully done one of those things You've got us to not like you, congratulations on that. Now we wanna see you get something done. So with Indeed, ZipRecruiter, numerous apps to find employment, you can't help our firefighters cut this ridiculous abuse of spending?

Maybe it's time or get off the pot and Vega as they said it's a hot mic up there probably watch what you're saying when you have thieves sitting beside you

Consent calendar, public comment on consent calendars. Items one through five.

For item number three regarding the financial decisions. Good evening my name is Lillian Streep and I am a long time resident of Lompoc, a public defender investigator and a licensed fiduciary. As a fiduciary, I am legally and ethically required to act in the best interest of the people that I serve. Ethics are not optional in my profession. Integrity is not optional in my profession.

Public trust is not optional. And I think it's interesting that Councilmember Starbuck would recuse himself for having a financial conflict But the other members who have conflicts would not. So I'm struggling to understand how this council can continue operating as though nothing is happening after months of being asked to act. Now, after a judge has determined there is enough evidence for multiple felony charges against a sitting council member to proceed to trial These are not whispers or rumors.

These are not social media accusations. These are serious criminal allegations involving forgery, grand theft, misappropriations of public funds, identity theft, fraud directly connected to public service and public trust. And yet silence For months, silence. It has become apparent that your silence is making a clear statement to tolerate this conduct without meaningful response condones the idea that ethical standards are conditional accountability is optional and the public's trust is expendable This is unacceptable.

If someone in my profession were facing allegations of stealing from the people they were sworn to protect, we would not simply continue business as usual and pretend this situation does not exist. We would immediately be scrutinized because the integrity of the institution matters. Moreover, we would likely be removed from serving while the matter was addressed.

Because public trust matters. This council should understand that allowing us to continue without decisive action damages not only the reputation of this city, but public confidence in local government itself. Whether you realize it or not, your inaction is communicating something to this community So, I will leave you with this. What matters more? Comfort or integrity?

Political loyalty or ethical responsibility? And what becomes more dangerous to a community? One person accused of corruption or the people willing to ignore it? The firefighters deserve better. The business owners in this community deserve better. Every one of them deserves

that. Once again, this is public comment on consent calendar. It's items 1 through 5. That was

item 3?

Yeah, I guess so. Seeing nobody else rise on items one through five, we'll close public comment break up to council. I had a question on item number four maybe somebody... And that's on page three in the middle of the page you guys You guys in the middle of that is going to be the city clerk on that one. Item number four, which are the city manager who wants to take the question?

I'm happy to write down the question. I don't know if I know the answer

though. So here's in the staff report, page three and the reason why I ask this is ballots cast November 20th 2020 there were 22,208 ballots cast and it says there was 19,147 registered voters so not sure how they were 22,208 ballots cast with 19,147 but In the middle of the staff report here. Is that a typo, or what did we have? Did we know what the number is?

I don't know myself. I would guess it's an error in at least one of those two numbers.

Are you able to get a point of clarification on that? I don't know if we want to pass something with a number like that in there. Mr. City Attorney, can you help me with that?

I don't think that a typo in the chart would affect whether the council should pass the resolution to call the election in November. But if you wanted us to bring back information about which one of those numbers is a typo, then we could.

Can you repeat where you're looking at this?

Right here in the middle of this on page three. November 2020. 22,208 ballots cast and 19,000

issued. It's most likely a typo.

I hope it is. So you shouldn't have any problem with us approving it? Should we make the recommendation to approve with a correct number? I don't think the math works out at $1.94 per vote.

Right. This chart is not in the resolution, this is just explaining what the fiscal impact of the cost of the election is and what the costs were historically so in order to call the election you do not need to correct this table but you could ask that it be corrected.

All right. Anybody else have any other quick questions on that or does anyone want to pull any of these items? You may want to make a motion for approving consent or whatever. Motion by Starbuck-Fireway, what's your motion?

Go ahead and accept the consent calendar.

With the recommendations from the attorney, correct?

Yes.

And it coming back with clarification later on that number? Is there anything else we needed on that?

Sure I just wanted to note again that Council Member Starbuck is recused from item two

Okay. So motion by Starbuck, seconded by Ball, let's go ahead and vote. Starbuck, back vote. There we

go.

Push, push! And that passes 5-0. So moving along... No staff announcements, presentations or otherwise? Correct? One thing I could ask, and we have a number of these that are stacking up lately in the council request items that you can pass it forward to maybe try to get some of these through. We've got some that have been on the books for awhile yet. Some are real simple ones so just to pass on as far as staff presentations. So brings us to appointments correct?

You got one Council Member Ball, is that correct? There's oral communications for that. Oh okay I'm sorry about that. Good job. Oral communication is three minutes.

Mayor, Council, Nick Gonzales, resident of Lompoc. Several years ago there was discussions on a major expansion of the shelter. I came across them in my old notes and so I just would like to get some clarification because I know we had a pretty big joint meeting where we had some county representatives and I didn't know what the exact takeaway was if we were actually...if the city was continuing with that expansion or if that had...if I'm sorry. I printed these documents, but I don't know if I didn't see that they came out small So I'll try to email you what I actually had but I got five copies for each one of you You know if the clerk doesn't mind passing that to each one of the council members and then also I've spoken at the Planning Commission meeting, I had attended and I think I might have even come up here before a presentation by Vandenberg Space Force Base.

And as a former member of the planning

commission... The clock's not rolling on for some reason.

As a former member of the Planning Commission, I know how important when you're doing a general plan update it is to incorporate all material facts and information. We have representatives from Vandenberg and I believe that at a presentation the other day it was also presented at a chamber meeting that there are potential and it seems to be pretty concrete of an expansion of 10,000 jobs I look in the audience and say, I see some of our firemen. I see our police.

That expansion of jobs could fundamentally change the finances of this city. And I think it's imperative that we plan for this change, that we incorporate this change into our general plan and to our business models, and to every aspect of the city, and fully embrace it so that we're not here fighting one another. We're figuring out how to prosper together. Thank you.

Anybody else?

I'm Kathy Howard. I'm a resident of Lompoc. And I think all of us know that in this country, we are considered innocent until we're convicted. And Councilman Bradgett is under felony charges where he is being held felony charges. That's a pretty serious situation for this council to be in when an elected councilman is still sitting on the council and voting on measures that are important to this city, and the council itself has not taken any moves or steps to resolve this, and Councilman Bridge has not either.

I would appreciate it if the council in this situation would look at a way to ask Councilman Bridge to step down and hold his position until this thing is determined one way or the other, and not put these votes in jeopardy. We don't know what that all means, and I would like to not have to find out. Councilman Bridge, you also have the option to resign which is the only option right now I trust that you will do the right thing. Thank you.

Howdy. The other day, I was renting a car down here at Enterprise. Talked to the brand new manager and he said... And I walked out to get the car. Bugs all over the front end of the cars. What's going on? Dirty car. He says it's his first day at work He went back there to try and wash a car behind Enterprise. Lompoc police come up, said you can't do that because you ain't got a catch basin. You're not a car wash back here.

Basically stopped the guy from washing cars. Didn't think much about it until I was getting gassy of the day. Then I look out in the parking lot and there's three vans pulled out in the parking lot out there on H Street washing cars Then I come to find out, you know, our car washes have to have catch basins. They have to have filtration. All this stuff they're supposed to have because the stuff's not supposed to go down storm drains.

So if we are holding our businesses to a standard and these people are paying taxes to us, you know, and fees to the city, why are we not going after people out there that are doing stuff the wrong way? And stopping that because I'm pretty sure they're probably If they're not licensed, you're not getting sales tax. And on top of that, they're an environmental hazard. So what's going on with that? I mean this here in my personal opinion needs to be addressed because by ignoring these people out here doing it that way we are actually harming our business owners and our business owners are putting more income into the city I'm asking the Council to do something, look into it, whatever needs to be done to figure out what's going on because it's not fair.

I'm not a business owner but fair is fair. Number two, Mr. Bridge once again just like the third time I'll say it, I really think you should take a leave of absence. Hold your position, take care of what you need to take care of. If you're innocent great, happy for you. The lady did make a good point. There's a lot of mistrust in the public with you sitting there, okay? And it would be better for this city and this council overall if you weren't sitting there. Maybe if you could get an intern council member or someone to sit there in your place appointed but the public mistrust is there that yes, you are innocent until proven guilty but there's still perception, okay?

That you're in the wrong, okay? Plain and simple. And I guess I'll say it again, I think you should take a leave of absence to take care of your business. If you're innocent come back, we'll applaud you but if it goes the other way, I apologize, that's what happens. But at this point, I think the best action is you not sitting there anymore, thank you.

Hello Council, it's me again. I wore this tonight because I just really wanted to match the vibe of our council right now. It feels like a big clown car up here, so I figured I've been to enough of these and I've talked and said my piece a few times and none of y'all seem to be doing much about it so I'm just going to try and match your vibe and just go with the whole clown shtick because that seems to be what we're doing. Speaking of clown shtick, I wanted to read something that Mayor Mosby said yesterday This is at the State of the City. He said, I have to say right off the bat, the state of the city of Lompoc is good and getting better.

We're turning the corner and moving forward fast. We've been kind of stagnant for a while but we are moving forward and getting better. With all due respect, bullshit! None of y'all has said a word Save for one council member about the situation that I've talked about, hundreds of people have talked about. It doesn't make us look good and to the gentleman who spoke before me agree 100%.

Innocent until proven guilty but perception is the problem. Nobody wants to take anything y'all say seriously right now because it's a bunch of clowns up here. Telling jokes, laughing when I walk up here in an outfit that you wear every day. I'm tired of it. I know a lot of people in this town are. I know there's people that didn't come tonight because they're discouraged because they've been to so many meetings already and have said their piece and nobody has done anything about it. So they're thinking why show up?

Sometimes I feel that way, too. And then I put on this great outfit here and told my kids I'd be back real quick and dad just has to go be a clown for the city for a minute. Just wanted to join you guys in that so thank you.

All right, so my grandma taught me not to talk to crooks and try and negotiate with crooks. So I'm going to try and talk to the will of the council. During we've all put up a vote a few weeks ago you all voted against it. Maybe it's time to have that revote now that we know the court situation? Now that he's openly said in court that the reason he did it was for his son so he should be reclused from criminal charges basically admitting his crime charges.

No? So I know that Mosby's your boy, so he's not going to side with us. So I'm going to talk to Vega, Starbuck and Ball. There are three of you against two of them. You want to get something done Vega? You want to not be liked and we're gonna get stuff done? Well vote for it! Dirk, you were good enough to recluse yourself in the last vote. You know that there's unfair situations where there shouldn't be people on this council who are voting on something Jeremy, you've been doing work as much as you can but it's 1v4 man. I don't know what to tell you.

It's never a fair situation. But I asked the council to really look at itself. Do you guys want to be the clowns proving him right? Mosby, I don'y know if you can save your reputation after that outburst with Stahl but it would probably improve your reputation if you held him accountable for his theft huh? For watching out for his son over this city even though that's not his job I'm a father, man. I understand what you did, Bridge. I wouldn't do it myself because I'm not a thief.

I care about my community but I do understand what you did and why you did it. Still not right and you're still probably going to go to jail or at least catch a fine for it. Let's talk about lawsuits. You lost a lot of money to this man. You guys want to tax us? You want to cut from the fire force? Why not sue this man? Get our money back, huh? I probably be a good move. Yeah, we have a city lawyer over here who said it was okay that the you know the votes can't be perfect all the time It's just a misprint We can just make a vote on all this uncounted vote system If you have bonus votes probably don't vote on it Probably just hold it off until you have an accurate count The fact that you guys just openly voted on something that you knew had way too many votes for it What does that say?

We vote on elections that have 40% extra votes now. On paper, you exposed them for it but you didn't hold them accountable for it. You as a lawyer think that's okay to vote on something because it's a misprint? You can't hold it off for two weeks?

You need to direct the council.

Anyway, part of the city. I'm not sure we can hold you accountable so I'm trying to speak to the people since you guys won't do your jobs. Have a good night.

Anybody else?

Good evening, everybody. My name is Alexis Otero and I was coming to speak about something totally different but I guess I just want to spend a little bit of my time talking about how people are feeling about the integrity of our governed body. And I think that ultimately this just kind of comes down Like in the future, we should look at how like I think the reason this is as big of a fuss as it is because we don't really have anything on the books for how to deal with a situation like this. And so I guess I would ask the council to maybe work with like the city attorney to have kind of like a protocol of sorts for when we have somebody who's going through, you know any kind of legal dispute. That way the people feel like they're being appropriately represented because I feel like that's really what the heart of the issue is.

People want to have trust in their government and in the people who Are meant to, you know represent them. And so I'm not here tonight to speak on anybody's guilt or innocence But I think this is definitely like a good opportunity for the city to kind of like You know make plans for how future generations of City Councilors deal with situations similar to this one Now kind of on to what I came to talk about. I wanted to come and thank everybody who works in our public work section, and I wanted to give a huge shout out to the awesome display that's outside.

The city wouldn't run without our wonderful staff, our city staff and stuff. So I just wanted to come and say that it was really cool and everybody should go and get a good look. Yeah, that's all. And stay cool. It's supposed to be quite hot over the next week. Support the local library. Be active in your community. Thank you guys. Have a good night!

Karen Hallenstein I was born here in Lompoc now that the amateur clown show is over. I want to thank this City Council for not bowing to bullying and partisan pressure from obviously Colluding in staged individuals. I want to talk about real corruption, real corruption. I've had to deal with most of my life watching the cartel, the Mexican cartels own Lompoc through our Lompoc Police Department allowing large scale money laundering in our valley that is no Secret.

We have a problem with law enforcement and constructive, honest investigations by law enforcement in our Valley specifically in relation to the deaths of two other women from Lompoc. Liliana Zuniga and Jasmine Montague. Now, Liliana died inside the Lompoc police station After being held there for four days, not transferred to the sheriff's office jail as is procedure.

But held there and then she was found dead in her cell at around 715 in the morning on a Monday morning. That was on the 13th of March 2023 and we have not heard anything at all about the explanation or the investigation, because there hasn't been any. Now what really is interesting to me is that the jailer, Jay Hernandez wasn't even an officer yet. I used to work in custody and you don't get promoted after you lose a charge that you were in charge of watching This individual, though, got promoted twice with fanfare.

She didn't even get reprimanded for somebody dying on her watch. The sheriff's office has not been forthcoming on either the death of Liliana or Jasmine Montague. Jasmine Montague was murdered in September of 2023 and was unceremoniously dumped outside of town so the Lompoc Police Department wouldn't be the jurisdiction on that case. I'll complete my statement later, thank

you. Any other oral communications? Seeing nobody rise we'll close that. Now we'll bring back to appointments. Council Member Ball?

Yes, I would like to nominate Alexis Otero for what has been a long vacancy in my Parks and Recreation Commission. So I'd like to nominate her for that seat.

Get your motion. Motion by Ball, seconded by Starbuck. Let's go ahead and vote. Yeehaw! You're on. Thank you. 5-0. Do you have anything you want to say? Sometimes we'll let people have something to say. We'll let you have a chance since you're here.

Hi, guys. I'm so excited to be our new Parks and Rec Commissioner. I cannot wait to introduce all kinds of new fun activities and work with our local urban forestry and stuff like that to make our city beautiful and enjoyable and engage the youth and people who would otherwise stay home and all of the beauty that we have to offer here in this city. So thank you so much for appointing me council, and I promise not to let you guys down. Yeah, thanks.

Very good. Welcome aboard. I think Councilor Ball, I think you still have a Utility Commission position open too don't you? I think?

Good evening

honorable mayor, city council.

Staff and members of our community, my name is Chanel Ovalle and I serve as the Community Development Program Manager. Tonight we are here conducting a public hearing to present the proposed Community Development Block Grant commonly known as CDBG in Human Service Program Budget. I'm seeking Council's approval of the budget and authorization to submit it with the fiscal year 2026-2027 action plan to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, known as HUD.

The primary objective of the CDBG program is to support the development of viable communities by providing a decent, safe and suitable living environment for low and moderately low income persons. There are several important funding criteria that guide both programs. CDBG funds may not replace any state or city funded functions. Human service donations must be used strictly for human service activities and cannot be used for administrative costs.

Funding must directly benefit low and moderate income persons, and expenditures not in compliance with HUD must be reimbursed from the city's general fund. The program budget is supported by three primary funding sources, the HUD CDBG Entitlement Grant, CDBG Program Income and Human Service Donations. For the upcoming fiscal year 2026-27, the City of Lompoc is scheduled to receive $467,000 $176 in CDBG entitlement funds from HUD.

Federal guidelines allow up to 20% of this allocation to be used for program administration and up to 15% for human service activities with the remaining funds dedicated to eligible ADA capital projects. CDBG program income for 26-27 grant year is also subject to the 20% cap for administrative use. Staff is recommending that the remaining program income be directed toward capital project investments that benefit the community.