The Compton City Council resumed regular city council meetings after going dark during the full month of August. During the September 7 meeting, the council was asked to make budget amendments under agenda item 21, to include a bill received by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s office related to the April 2021 primary election.
The agenda item didn’t detail the cost of the invoice, which prompted Councilman Jonathan Bowers to ask why the budget needed to be amended.
Related: Compton preparing to move to an all mail election in 2021
“Um…we were initially budgeted for a little over $300,000 and our invoice for the April election only came in at over $1 million,” said City Clerk Alita Godwin. “And that is just for April.”
During the November 10, 2020, regular city council meeting, Godwin gave a presentation that she contacted the County who gave her estimates for conducting an all vote by mail election v in person voting.
Vote by mail would cost approx. $350,000, and in person would be double that amount.
Godwin cited her “training” on elections as the reason she suggested an all vote by mail election, in order to save the city money.
How did the bill come in 3x the amount the County quoted Godwin? What’s the next bill gonna look like?
The item passed unanimously.
12 Comments
The error occurred because City Clerk Alita Godwin initially ordered a quote only on an all-mail ballot. She was provided with this quote which came to approximately $300,000. She then called back to add precincts and other items but failed to ask for an updated quote. The registrar’s office when asked why they did not provide her with an update on the increasing costs stated that they do not provide a revised quote unless specifically requested and it was not. Secondly, it was not provided because a calculator exists on-line whereby a city clerk can calculate on their own their costs. Neither of these—requesting a revised quote or looking the cost on-line—were done meaning human error on the clerk’s part. When the final billing came to the light, it was passed off without mention of the clerk’s error. That’s how the administration rolls and circles the wagon to protect their own.
Curious about past election costs. During a review of the the request from the Clerks Office and LA County Registra’s Office response, perhaps the election question was not phrased clearly.
The million dollar price tag sounds excessive for a mall-in ballots process. Let’s view the invoice in detail. Not saying that the Clerk’s office underestimated or did not properly budget for this large amount, but funds were pulled from areas that we need staff. The intent of the staff accounts are to be used for hiring staff to help improve the city. However, somewhere in determining the cost process failed and it needs to be investigated, why did it fail?
Why don’t you ask the COUNTY?
Alita Godwin did ask for us and said it was about 300,000.
Alita is nasty and a big liar and crook!
What do the numbers ater 1001-XXX refer to or mean? Can someone help?
Account codes
Damn people with their resolution write ups.
Figured it out from looking at the budget book:
1001-67 refers to code enforcement salary
1001-84 refers to parks and rec salary
1001-71 refers to public works salary
1001-62 refers to human resources
1004-61 is measure p money in non-departmental account. Basically for city manager dept to spend as they like.
Looks like Typical stupid shit they doing by fuking around with 11k, 16k, 30k. This is like saving for a house by brown bagging it for 20 years.
Thank you for looking it up! But the clerk is still short close to $500,000. Where’s that gonna come from???
Where else but measure p money
Voter turnout is always low. I volunteer to count all the ballots in the next Compton election.
How was the County that far off on the estimate and why didn’t any of the council request to the see invoice?