The Rompin’ Stompin’ Lompoc City Council made short work of a multimillion-dollar contract Tuesday night but came apart at the seams again over its bite-sized $100,000 deal with the Chamber of Commerce.
First, their success:
Presented with a new Memorandum of Understanding with the Lompoc Police Officers Association (LPOA), the council included the matter on the Consent Calendar, usually the province of low-priority matters drawing little public attention and no controversy. In three minutes, the MOU was a done deal with no discussion and a 5-0 vote.
As Vince Magallon, president of LPOA, put it, “We’ve come a long way from the day when we had furloughs to today when we have a significant increase and no cuts.”
It was 2009-10 when negotiations last stalled, both sides sued, and an impasse was declared. This time, officers and police staff won a 4 percent raise for each of the next two years. After two 5-percent years and an earlier year at 4 percent, the LPOA has won 22 percent in wage gains over five years. Officers are staying now.
Then the train left the rails.
And it was the Chamber of Commerce, placed prominently back in the city’s budget just a few weeks ago after 47 speakers demanded it, which tripped up the council again.
This time Councilmember Steve Bridge came armed with a 15-page document he stapled together. He listed a menu of activities, which a draft contract assigns to the two-person chamber staff:
“First of all, I calculated what we are asking them to do,” he admitted. “I couldn’t do this for $100,000, closer to $200,000.
“I don’t think we should be doing tourism. Tourism is covered by other agencies. Wineries are doing their own. We don’t need workforce development. What we need are jobs. We should emphasize Vandenberg economic development. It’s not fair to put the Chamber on tasks it cannot perform. I don’t think we should set up anyone to fail. Workforce development is not our problem. Our problem is jobs.”
Mayor Jim Mosby told a story about visitors coming to City Hall asking why the Chamber isn’t open. “Maybe the city could team with the Chamber to keep it open,” he said. “I’m open to creative solutions.”
Bridge listed his preferred options in a 12-page sample contract: contractor liaison program at Vandenberg Space Force Base, key performance indicators for reporting and performance clarity, events in Lompoc, business assistance services, reciprocity with the city, quarterly reports, transparency and public access to meetings, insurance, penalties for failure to meet minimum requirements, and more. He did include a section on tourism.
Finally, they got down to a motion. Bridge had six criteria for the contract: (1) It is able to be performed with the available funding, (2) it contains no clauses that create member benefits, (3) that activities better performed by others are not included, (4) that it is focused on tasks that can measurably impact economic growth, (5) that it contains clear success criteria, and (6) the 2024 financial audit is available.
City staff was tasked with meeting again with the Chamber and reporting back. Vote passed 4-1, with Jeremy Ball dissenting.
This is not over.
In other business, the council faced pushback on the annual report from Visit Lompoc Inc. and expressed grudging acceptance of a new fare schedule for City of Lompoc Transit System.
