Money in the Bank

Numerous times on this website I have mentioned that we are a full service city. To better understand that let me share what it means for you. Not only do we own and produce our own electricity, but we also own our wastewater treatment facility, solid waste division and landfill, have a city airport, and have our own water, wells, and water treatment center. This also means you pay for these services to the city treasury to cover the costs of providing the services, the people that work in those departments delivering those services, as well as the equipment and infrastructures needed to provide these services. We are a very large bank customer as a result.

I would like us to consider becoming a public bank. If the city applied for and received a license to have a publicly owned bank, a separate board and staff would run that bank. So instead of a private bank not based in our community taking our fees and interest accrued to its stockholders or funding non-Lompoc projects, we would have a local bank that utilized the service fees and interests rates to generate funds that could be utilized to fund local housing, infrastructure and business opportunities - especially ones that often have difficulty starting out.