Ronald Barrows, Lompoc City Council - KCOY Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo - News

Ronald Barrows, Lompoc City Council

Party/Affiliation: Republican
Current Job: Real Estate Investor

Top 3 Priorities if Elected:

LOMPOC HOUSING COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

The citizens of Lompoc want to know what they are not being told. I want to see the Lompoc Housing CDC have a forensic audit. The auditors need to determine, where all the money went, and to whom, and to find out if there was any criminal activity. Two new council members have to be voted in to change the direction of having a forensic audit on the LHCDC. A positive vote from the new council members will change the direction in having a forensic audit take action on the LHCDC. At this point it is in the citizen's hands to make the choice on November 6 for a change in direction, or stay with the same old council members.  It is your hands to make a difference for Lompoc. 

TOURISM 

Catering to our tourists needs, will be a high priority in bringing in more revenue to the city. The organization that has been given this task of tourism needs encouragement in promoting tourism in Lompoc. Questionnaires need to be given to all of the tourists that come to our city. They also need to be posted to a city web site data base to collect responses to the questions. There are many more questions that have to be answered before our town will become a tourist destination. The following are just a sample of some questions.

1.         What type of things would you like to do?

1.a       Eat fine foods,

1.b       Ride a bicycle

1.c       California wine tasting.

1.d       Hiking

1.e       Shopping for art

2.         What would you like to see?

2.a       Movie at a theater

2.b       Live performance at our local theater

2.c       Fine art at our gallery

2.d       Sculptures of metal, stone, ceramic, wood, glass.

2.e       Flower & vegetable fields.

2.f        California wine making.

2.g       California missions.

3.         How do you plan on traveling around our city?

3.a       Walking?

3.b       Riding a bicycle?

3.c       Take a taxi?

3.d       Drive your own car?

I truly want to see our city become a tourist destination all year long. I will put forth the time and effort to make it happen. My objective is to build on what we don't have for our tourists. I have a plan that involves businesses in our city that is directly related to tourism. The businesses and the city will partner together to make this happen. Shopping for fine art and sculptures, wine tasting and a majestic dinner theater designed for the tourist, local history destinations and self guided tours, fine food and entertainment.

LOMPOC THEATER 

I would like to see the theater placed in the hands of a non-profit organization. That non-profit organization must have the money to afford fixing up the theater and making a profit. A plan needs to be presented to the city council along with the backing before the theater would be leased to them. The city would require an audit from the non-profit organization yearly at their expense. The city would not be putting money into the theater to fix it up before it is leased. I would seek out all of the non-profit organizations in our city to find out if any of them would like to take on the Lompoc Theater. There is a movement by the citizens of Lompoc to keep the theater. If it is at the expense of city new taxes would have to be levied for the repairs. The real question at that point is, do all of the citizens of Lompoc want to afford that cost? There are a lot of questions to be asked and answered.