The city of Compton has ranked #1 on the state auditor’s list of most fiscally distressed city for the fourth straight year.
Acting State Auditor Michael Tilden provided an outline of recommendations the City could take to achieve stability to ensure the City can provide essential services to its residents.
“Compton’s deteriorating infrastructure presents health and safety risks to the public and is emblematic of the city’s overall troubles. One reason for its infrastructure’s state of disrepair is that the city has not updated its plan for prioritizing and funding infrastructure projects since 2014. Compton’s financial mismanagement and problematic budgeting practices have also allowed millions of dollars in certain funds to sit idle while the city could have used them for street repairs and water system improvements.
Compton released their own statement on the matter pointing out they are taking the steps needed to get back on track.
“While we are disappointed that Compton has again been named the city with the highest risk, I have seen the strides that our City Controller has made in taking the necessary steps to improving our systems” said Compton City Manager Thomas Thomas, “I am confident that we are on track to achieving financially stability in the upcoming years.”
The City first gained the designation as the states “most financially distressed City” when a think tank compiled their list in 2014 after Compton was on the brink of bankruptcy in 2011.
In 2011, Compton’s general fund had a $40-million deficit because for years officials used the city’s water, sewer and retirement funds when the general fund ran short on cash, the report said.
Then City Manager Harold Duffey said the report was nothing more than outdated information which used secondhand sources to “grab headlines” by using a city with a recognizable name.
The state auditor’s report details the think tank’s assertion was accurate.
“For more than a decade, Compton has faced a persistent deficit in its general fund and has failed to produce timely, complete audited financial statements,” wrote Tilden.
Compton didn’t address their lack of audits until Jan. 2018 when the City awarded a $850,000 contract to Eadie + Payne to produce audits for fiscal years 2013-2017.
The City hadn’t had an accounting firm sign off on an audit since 2011 which consistently lack an independent opinion on how the City is performing.
In 2016, former City Manager Roger Healey revealed the mayor and council passed an overstated budget and the following year the deputy city treasurer was convicted for embezzling nearly $4 million over the last two decades.
Compton is one of the only city’s that doesn’t produce a warrant register for approval on the city council agenda’s detailing where the money is being spent.
In the midst of the fiscal uncertainty, voters passed a controversial sales tax increase under Measure P, which was to generate funds to address the city’s crumbling infrastructure.
The audit found the Compton’s “deteriorating infrastructure presents significant health and safety risks for its residents”.
To date, Measure P has brought in over $19 million according to Treasurer Brandon Mims who stopped short of detailing how the funds were spent.
“Compton has received hundreds of legal claims related to its streets and the condition of these streets can cause pedestrian injuries and vehicle damage,” wrote Tilden.
Claims for damage are consistently denied related to damage potholes have caused for citizens vehicles.
Other infrastructure issues include decaying water well sites to ensure quality water supply to the City’s nearly 100,000 residents.
Water issues arose when the City’s fire department was called out to a fire and when they hooked up fire hoses to the fire hydrant nothing came out.
The City has not responded to public records requests asking for the annual inspection reports for the city’s fire hydrants.
The Compton Fire Department also continues to speak out against infrastructure issues within the fire stations and the lack of equipment and certifications as the City continues to approve new housing development which will yield more residents.
The fire department is currently in contract negotiations with the City that have dragged on for months.
The City also faced legal action for the Los Angeles Water Quality Control Board for “numerous sewage overflows” that pose environmental and public health risks.
The audit cites the City’s challenges lies squarely with the inability to hire qualified leaders and staff.
“In the past six fiscal years, Compton has had six city managers—a position that is critical to a city’s effective operation. One likely cause for such turnover is that the city has not consistently used an open and competitive hiring process when selecting individuals to serve in important roles. Compton has also suffered chronic understaffing, and issues related to the city’s human resources department have compromised its ability to recruit and retain staff.”
The City has made improvements in this area as they conducted a nationwide search for a new city manager after the council declined to renew the employment agreement with Craig Cornwell, who was the city attorney before being named city manager.
Cornwell is now suing the City for not renewing it.
Emilie St. John is a freelance journalist who appears weekly in the Los Angeles Wave newspaper and can be reached at [email protected].
1 Comment
The former Compton Mayor Aja Brown also wrote a letter to the State Controller disagreeing with its 2018 audit telling the state that they were in error. The audacity and pomposity. The 2022 state audit has now placed a period where Aja sought to place a question mark. The state is not playing with Compton. That correction list is an ultimatum. Come correct or the state is taking over, and with millions being spent or missing with nothing to show for taxpayer’s money, many are in agreement and actually want the state to act even quicker, like now. And for the record, the Measure P sales tax brought in 19 million this year alone. In its first four years, Measure P passed in 2016 brought in 40 million so now the total revenue from this one-percent sales tax is closer to 100 million. And yet the city is overspending, especially on dubious consultant work, and has no credible credit rating. The last 20 years under Aja Brown (8 years) and former Mayor Eric Perrodin (12 years) have been disastrous, financially, after former Mayor Omar Bradley left the city with a 23 million plus surplus. Facts don’t lie.