Michael B. Clayton and Associates Attorneys At Law

10/12/2026

Before choosing an Airport Board member, here are some questions worth asking EVERY candidate:

Can you read and explain the District's budget?

What do you believe SMX needs to do to grow commercial airline service?

How should hangar rents be established?

How do you balance pilots' interests against the District's financial responsibilities?

What is your experience with contracts and leases?

What should the airport do with undeveloped land?

How should conflicts involving airport tenants be handled?

Where should SMX be financially five years from now?

And finally:

What have you already done that demonstrates you can do this job?

Those questions get us a lot closer to understanding the candidates than yard signs, Facebook arguments or job titles ever will.

Election Day is November 3.

Ask questions.

Read the records.

Make an informed decision.

10/11/2026

Here's something incumbents and challengers should both be asked:

Tell us about a difficult public decision you've actually made.

Not what you WOULD do.

What have you done?

Michael Clayton has four years of Airport Board votes that can be examined.

There are decisions people will agree with.

There are decisions people will criticize.

There are meetings where he asked questions and others where someone may wish he had asked more.

That's public service.

A record gives voters something much more useful than campaign promises:

evidence.

So look at the record.

And ask Michael about it.

10/11/2026

There is an interesting question underneath a lot of the arguing about hangars:

Who is the Airport Board supposed to represent?

The answer cannot simply be whichever airport users attend the most meetings.

A public airport district has responsibilities involving aviation, certainly.

But it also manages land, commercial activity, passenger facilities, public finances, infrastructure and economic assets that affect people who may never own an airplane.

That doesn't diminish pilots or hangar tenants.

It puts them where every constituency belongs:

as an important part of a much larger airport community.

How should the Board balance those interests?

That's a much more useful conversation than deciding who is “one of us” and who isn't.

10/10/2026

🇺🇸 LOMPOC COMMUNITY — YOU'RE INVITED! 🇺🇸

Dear Lompoc Community,

In the wake of the recent vandalism involving our American flag, we invite you to come together for an afternoon of unity, patriotism, and community pride.

Our community is stronger when we stand together. This gathering is an opportunity to honor our flag, celebrate the resilience of Lompoc, and recognize the first responders who have dedicated so much to keeping our community safe.

🇺🇸 FLAG CEREMONY & COMMUNITY GATHERING

📅 Sunday, October 11, 2026

🕓 4:00 PM

📍 Michael B. Clayton & Associates

410 E. Ocean Avenue, Lompoc, CA

The afternoon will feature live music, a special flag ceremony, and an opportunity to meet and connect with local community leaders and neighbors.

Everyone in the Lompoc community is welcome! Bring your family, invite your friends, and join us as we come together to celebrate the values that unite us.

Please help us spread the word by sharing this invitation!

We look forward to seeing you Sunday!

Matthew Clayton

Son of Michael B. Clayton

📞 For additional information: (805) 714-9341

🇺🇸 One Flag. One Community. Standing Together.

Criminal Law, Bankruptcy Law, Personal Injury Law, Family Law

10/10/2026

What does Michael Clayton's legal background have to do with an airport?

More than airplanes do with some of the work an Airport Board actually performs.

An Airport Board routinely deals with:

Contracts.

Leases.

Negotiations.

Property.

Liability.

Public-agency rules.

Business agreements.

And decisions where five people sitting at a table have to understand exactly what they're approving.

That doesn't mean being an attorney automatically makes someone a good Airport Director.

Just like being a pilot, aircraft painter or aviation employee doesn't automatically make somebody one either.

Qualifications aren't labels.

The question is how someone's experience translates to the actual job.

10/10/2026

Now let's look at the Airport District's own finances.

The adopted FY 2026–27 budget says the District has:

No outstanding bonded debt.

No bank loans.

No budgeted debt-service payments.

Its projected reserve is 26% of operating expenditures, inside the District's adopted 20%–35% range.

And its latest financial report says the District has not had long-term debt instruments outstanding during the previous ten fiscal years.

This is an important qualification for Michael B Clayton.

And that's how financial records should be discussed — including the parts that are convenient and the parts that aren't.

10/09/2026

The last 48 hours have been interesting.

I’ve been accused of digging up “old dirt.”
I’ve been asked whether I broke the law.
An edited video was circulated suggesting I improperly pressured the Airport’s General Manager over a political booth at AirFest.
I’ve been questioned about endorsements from fellow Board members.
I’ve been challenged on what I’ve done for General Aviation.
I’ve been questioned about youth aviation, hangar maintenance, airport revenues, reserves, rents, flight training and whether my priorities are somehow “backwards.”

And you know what?
I answered.
Every time.

Sometimes the answer benefited me. Sometimes I acknowledged a legitimate criticism. When a tenant said he waited six months for a leaking hangar door to be repaired, I didn’t pretend that was acceptable. When questions were raised about AirFest, I acknowledged exactly what I said at the public meeting and explained why I said it. When someone questioned endorsements, I explained the difference between an individual Board member expressing personal support and the Airport District itself endorsing a candidate.

I didn’t delete the questions.
I didn’t disappear.
I didn’t hide behind an anonymous account.
My name is right here. My face is right here. My record is public. Ask me.

And I want to be careful about something else.

I am not going to blame Alejandro Arredondo personally for every meme, edited video, accusation or comment made by somebody who supports him. That wouldn’t be fair. Candidates do not control everything their supporters say.
But some of the people making these arguments have been very public about whom they support. That’s their right too.

What I would ask the public to notice is something much simpler:

Who is answering the questions?

Over these last two days, questions about my decisions, my conduct, my professional background and my four years on the Airport Board have been put directly in front of me.

I have answered them publicly.

At the same time, there are legitimate questions being asked about the other candidate’s own record.

ArtCraft is not some random company somebody dragged into the election. Airport records identify Alejandro Arredondo as a representative and Vice President of ArtCraft Paint, an Airport District tenant. In 2023, for example, official minutes record him appearing before the Board on ArtCraft’s behalf regarding a wastewater-disposal billing matter. Earlier Board minutes also identify him as ArtCraft’s Vice President.

That makes questions about his actual responsibilities there, his management experience and how potential conflicts involving the company would be handled legitimate public questions.

I have not seen answers to many of those specific questions in the exchanges taking place around these posts. If Alejandro has answered them somewhere I haven’t seen, I’m perfectly happy for someone to post the answers.

And that, to me, is the larger issue.

This is a public Board. The November 3 race for Division 4 has three candidates: Alejandro Arredondo, Michael Clayton and Danny Mogg.

Whoever serves is going to deal with tenants who are angry about rent, businesses asking for concessions, residents questioning expenditures, pilots demanding improvements, contracts, leases, litigation, federal requirements and members of the public who sometimes ask uncomfortable questions.

You don’t get to choose which questions arrive.
You just have to answer them.

So I’m not asking anybody to judge this election from memes or Facebook arguments.

I’m asking people to pay attention to the public conversation itself.

Ask me hard questions.
Ask Alejandro hard questions.
Ask Danny hard questions.
Then pay attention to who shows up and answers them.

I’m not hiding.
I’m right here.

10/09/2026

On April 23 of this year, the Airport Board went into closed session regarding the price and terms of ArtCraft Paint's lease at 3203 Lightning Street.

That's public record.

And it raises a legitimate governance question if someone connected financially to an Airport District tenant later becomes a director:

How are matters involving that business handled?

California has strict conflict-of-interest laws involving public officials and government contracts.

But we're not going to pretend the answer is simply “he can't vote.”

That determination belongs to District counsel and, where appropriate, the Fair Political Practices Commission based on the specific matter.

That's the responsible question to ask:

What issues would require disclosure, abstention or other conflict procedures if they arose?

Candidates should be willing to answer it.

10/09/2026

I’m not hiding.

There is an edited video circulating in local groups asking whether I “broke the law” during the discussion surrounding Alejandro Arredondo’s campaign booth at AirFest.

Good. Let’s talk about it publicly.

The September 24 Airport Board agenda contained an item specifically titled “Presentation by Craig Steele, District Counsel, regarding restrictions on election activities.” That discussion happened openly, at a public meeting, with District Counsel present. The Airport District has also posted the complete meeting video for anyone who wants to watch it.

The issue I raised was simple: why was one candidate apparently allowed a political campaign presence at AirFest when I had been told I could not have one?

That is not an unreasonable question for an elected Board member, or frankly for any candidate, to ask.

Yes, during that discussion I used the words “shut it down.”
There. No hiding it. No pretending I didn’t say it.

Now watch what was being discussed before I said it and what District Counsel and staff said afterward.

The Airport District itself explains that responsibility for day-to-day operations belongs to the General Manager and supporting staff. I am one member of a five-member elected Board.

So when a video takes a few seconds from that public discussion and turns it into “Michael Clayton broke the law” or claims I ordered the General Manager to do political dirty work, I have a very simple response:

Show me the law.
Seriously.

Identify the statute you believe I violated. Show the full context. Show the evidence. And if you genuinely believe an elected official committed an unlawful act, don’t stop at a Facebook video. File the complaint with the appropriate authority.

I’m not asking for special treatment.

I’m daring anyone making the accusation to actually substantiate it.
I’m an attorney. I understand the difference between an allegation and a legal conclusion.

Putting “DID HE BREAK THE LAW?” in giant letters over an edited video is an effective way to get clicks. It is not a finding that anybody broke a law.

And unlike some of the private groups where this material has been circulating, I’m not going to hide from the conversation.

My name is on this.
My face is on this.
The entire public meeting is available.
Watch all of it.

If you think I was wrong, tell me why.
If you think I broke a law, tell me which one.

But please bring more than dramatic captions and a highlight reel.

I’m right here.

10/09/2026

Here's another example of why airport governance is different from simply working in aviation.

In 2024, ArtCraft Paint asked the Airport District for $25,200.75 in rent abatement.

And the reason matters.

ArtCraft said flooding and roof leaks at its leased facilities had caused operational expenses and argued that the District, as landlord, needed to address the conditions.

That isn't proof that ArtCraft was badly run.

In fact, it illustrates something bigger:

The Airport Board sits on the OTHER SIDE of negotiations like these.

Its responsibility isn't exclusively to the tenant.

It has to evaluate the tenant's request while protecting the interests of the public agency.

That's the distinction between knowing an airport as a tenant and governing the airport as a director.