Lompoc Mayor Jenelle Osborne: Working to Launch Cannabis Contributions to City's Coffers

By Dianne Armitage

When Jenelle Osborne and her husband Jason moved from Texas to Santa Barbara, in 1999, they began looking for a place to put down roots. They fell in love with Lompoc, making it their permanent home in late 2000. Jenelle explains her affinity for this community saying, “We grew up near air and naval bases, so it was exciting to be so close to Vandenberg. Living in Lompoc has been a gift in so many ways.”

As a small business owner, Jenelle recognized the importance of civic stewardship. “While serving on the city’s Economic Development Committee as vice chair and chair, I spent a great deal of time out in the community trying to better understand our successes, failures, and needs. When I was appointed to the Economic Development Committee, I had no intention of running for city council. I had joined to give back and help improve the city that had become my home,” she shares. “Our economy was stagnant, our city was stuck in the past, and we were struggling to recover from the 2008 recession. As chair I presented committee recommendations to the city council on a regular basis.”

When people in the community started asking her to consider a run for council, she began to examine how being on the council could impact change, improve the city, and enrich people’s lives. She decided she wanted the challenge of doing more for her adopted hometown.

“As I began to campaign for city council in 2016, I was asked how we might fund needed improvements in our infrastructure, such as a new fire station and fire trucks. I took a risk and told the room that I might lose support for saying it, but that if California voted to legalize cannabis, then we should regulate and tax cannabis in Lompoc. The idea gained more support than it lost.”

Before supporting cannabis in Lompoc, she read as much as she could on other places that had adopted legal cannabis programs. She visited Denver and other California cities that were ahead of the curve and found most studies showed that crime was reduced in and around dispensaries and other cannabis businesses due to the required security measures of cameras and guards.

The same forces propelling Jenelle to run for city council, were responsible for her decision to consider the position of mayor. Running on a platform whose goals included creating a business-friendly environment, investing in technology, empowering those addressing social concerns with progressive policies — as well as seeking innovative solutions for budget, parks, and public safety issues — while providing an ethical and respectful voice for the community, she was elected mayor in 2018 and re-elected in 2020.

When asked how the cannabis industry plays a role in the goals she set during her campaign, Jenelle says, “The cannabis industry is an important new economic driver in Lompoc. It provides jobs with good pay and benefits, whether it is a budtender at the dispensary, the lab tech at the testing facility, the chemist at the processing and manufacturing facility, or the farm worker working year-round instead of seasonally.”

She elaborates that these jobs enable residents to buy homes, cars, clothes, etc., which improves our sales tax. Sales tax is part of the general fund, which provides the revenue for public safety, parks and recreation, the library, and streets. It will also allow the city to invest in newer technologies in many of these areas, so it is one of the innovative solutions to our budget woes.

She continues, “I also requested, and council approved, setting up a city 501(c)(3) to provide opportunities for the community to support general fund programs and needs. This also provides the cannabis industry an option to support public safety or other programs, while not creating federal funding conflicts.

When asked about higher political aspirations, Mayor Osborne quickly points out, “My current political ambition is to deliver on as many of the campaign promises I have been making since 2016 as possible. Hopes and dreams are important, but I, and the rest of our residents, are ready for the joy of a safe and supportive community — and the success of a recovering and expanding economy, sustaining an improved quality of life for all in Lompoc.”

A cannabis technician at work