CITY PLANS TO REJECT ADVICE ON LHCDC ISSUES -
By John Sakata / Staff writer, LompocRecord.com -
The Lompoc City Council is scheduled tonight to provide a response to the Santa Barbara County Civil Grand Jury’s findings and recommendations concerning the failed Lompoc Housing and Community Development Corp.
In the draft of its response letter, written to Santa Barbara Judge Brian Hill, the city rejects four of the Grand Jury’s recommendations, including one to implement annual audits of all organizations that receive city funds in excess of $50,000.
The draft letter that the council will review tonight states that “several levels of review” are already in place, and that the request is “not warranted, nor is it reasonable,” but it also states that some other policy could be implemented to provide more financial oversight.
According to the letter, the city could establish a policy “based on risk assessments, of selected entities ... that receive funds from the City. ... That review may be financial in nature, but could also be compliance in nature.”
After a discussion on the Grand Jury report, the council is scheduled to decide whether to grant a 60-day extension for the lead developer, Environmental Education Group, to develop a business plan to build a long-discussed recreational and educational space center.
In early July, the council agreed to allocate close to $6,000 to consultant Keyser Marston Associates of San Francisco to outline what would be required from the Environmental Education Group.
The project has received a majority of council support, despite claims from a council minority that EEG does not have the experience or expertise to build a project of the proposed scale.
In a letter to Mayor John Linn, who requested the item be placed on the agenda, EEG founder Alan Tratner stated that there have been delays in receiving paperwork and instructions on how to create the business plan. He states that his staff met with the consultants July 28 concerning what information and what format should be used in the business plan.
Tratner also said that EEG has been working with the consultant group that created the original 59-page business plan for the California Space Authority, which dissolved in June 2011 after it failed to receive $5 million in federal funds for the space center.
While EEG awaited instruction on the business plan, Tratner states, a new committee called the California Space Enterprise Center (CSEC) Citizen Advisory Committee was formed. The committee will “obtain vital inputs from many sectors (for) the master conceptual plan.”
Outreach has been made to the aerospace industry, NASA and other government agencies, the letter states.
A memorandum of understanding has also been signed with Hancock College.
Hancock has agreed to co-sponsor an International Space Investment Summit planned for January 2013 in Lompoc, which would be contingent on EEG obtaining a land grant.
The letter also states that contact has also been made to the Commander’s Executive Director at Vandenberg Air Force Base about involvement and support.
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