Damon Brown will be named the next City Attorney for the city of Compton on the coming regular city council agenda. It is unknown if Brown is a resident of the city but he does have strong ties to his predecessor Craig Cornwell.
Under Section 505, any vacancy of an elected office shall be appointed by the City Council. The city’s charter requires the City Attorney to be a resident.
Based on previous staff reports out of the City Attorney’s office, Brown has been affiliated with the city since 2015. Residents speculate that former City Attorney Craig Cornwell has been grooming Brown to take his place.
According to Brown’s bio on Littler Mendelson (LM) his expertise is in employment law. LM is the third law firm Brown has worked for in the last four years. Some would ponder why Brown has moved around so much.
Brown began working with the city of Compton in 2015 while a partner with Sanders Roberts. Cornwell brought in the firm to assist with Labor and Employment Law. Two years later, in June 2017, Brown was with the firm Lewis Brisbois Bisgard & Smith LLP.
Because of Brown’s familiarity with the city, Cornwell moved the contract from Sanders Roberts to Lewis Brisbois. Lewis Brisbois agreed to receive the same rate of $350/hour.
At some point Brown found his way to Littler Mendelson, who has a history working with the Compton Unified School District. Most notably when parents from McKinley Elementary wanted to implement the Parent Trigger law to gain control over their school.
Some residents are crying foul that the charter isn’t being followed with ensuring Brown is indeed a resident for the last thirty (30) days.
When has this council concerned themselves with following the charter?
They are the same group, who illegally inflated their salaries, outside of the charter’s parameters, and Craig Cornwell argued they were justified in doing so.
Is this the “new season” in the city of Compton that residents should be applauding?
2 Comments
This administration is the most inept government I have ever seen in the 53 years I’ve been in Compton, especially when the mayor has boasted about having a bachelor and a master degree in urban development! They are more corrupt than any other administration and they should be jailed!
Yes, yes!! Even the personnel codes are being violated, you can only hire a temporary employee for 90 days if there is no one on the list as a secretary… what’s going on with all Cornwell’s cronies showing up with positions .. legal aspects are out the door and taxpayers are paying for this illegal on-going Compton fiasco!!!!