Darrell Wade Tullis

Age: 50

Current occupation: Telephone Systems Supervisor, InDyne Inc., Vandenberg AFB.

Education: Bachelor of Science in Human Services, minor in Psychology, Mercer University, Macon, Ga.; completed the NCO Academy at Norton AFB, San Bernardino

Work experience: 4ð years with InDyne (Radar/Management); 21 years Air Force (retired, radar/operations management)

Community involvement: City of Lompoc Parks and Recreation Commissioner; Lompoc Unified School District Community Action Committee; School Site Council Lompoc High School; United Way Lompoc Advisory Council Team; Lompoc Rape Crisis Center Imagine Campaign Advisory Council; Lompoc High School Varsity Basketball Coach - 2003; drug and alcohol counselor

Questions and answers:

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Describe your qualifications, especially as they pertain to leadership, for serving on the Lompoc City Council.

My qualifications come from my formal and informal education. I earned a bachelor's degree in Human Services from Mercer University. I was chosen to attend and graduated from the NCO Academy, a formal Air Force leadership school.

In the military, I was asked to run the 37th Tactical Fighter Squadron's Runway Operations Monitors' program. Two years later, I was chosen to run the 966 AWACS Operations office, then to be the first Non-Commissioned Officer In Charge of the JSTARS, reconnaissance aircraft Squadron Operations Center.

I was a captain or a player coach on every team I was on for nearly 40 years, winning several championships, including last year, when I was ask to be a player-coach for the VAFB, Communications Squadron, Over-30 Basketball Team. We won the championship.

Finally, I was asked, by elected and hired city officials, to manage Lompoc's T2008 1/2 cent sales tax initiative.

What are the three most pressing issues facing the City Council?

1. Budget priorities in a slumping economy - Many items should be on the City Council wish lists, including public safety funding, better paying jobs, better entertainment for children, adults, and families, and funding for beautification and upkeep of our city. Paying for all of these will be difficult, but with creative energy and financing it can be done.

2. Public safety funding - In the past 10 to 12 years, Lompoc has lost more than 20 police officers to higher-paying departments. Training and equipping officers is expensive, and the lost continuity and experience is irreplaceable. Police and fire rely on limited resources and facilities. They deserve better and so do we.

3. Employment that fits our community - More than 500 people daily leave Lompoc to work elsewhere, spending tax dollars outside our community. We must seek industry that pays well enough to allow our workforce to stay home.

How should public safety (police and fire services) be funded in Lompoc?

I still believe that the 1/2 cent sales tax is the way for our community. A sale tax brings in revenue from everyone who shops in Lompoc. Everyone who benefits from having the protection available, should they ever need it.

The initiative needs to be revisited, reworded and reintroduced to the community in a way that would allow those who were leery of the wording last time to be able to support the initiative with confidence that the money will be properly allocated.

What actions, if any, should the City Council take to improve the local economy?

We have a great opportunity coming in our near future. Allan Hancock College has agreed to build their $47 million state-of-the-art Public Safety Academy in two to three years. This means families coming here for graduations (more potential sales tax), academy participants and instructors.

Simply put, we can boost the local economy by bringing in all the businesses needed to support the academy. We should have Lompoc ready to support so that the things that they need from; boots, to uniforms, to weapons, to communication devices, to new technologies (that could be tested here), should be here.

If we don't benefit from it, other communities will.

Regarding the city's General Plan update, do you favor the extension of East Central Avenue?

In light of the Public Safety academy that is coming to our city (north of Central Avenue), we will need to revisit the proposal with new estimates that will include the impact of the traffic that will increase due to the number of participants, instructors, and family members.

August 31, 2008