Compton City Controller suspended without pay

Compton elected officials remained in closed session, for nearly four hours, contemplating what to do about their City Controller.

Rafeala King started with the city of Compton in February 2018 with close to twenty years of finance experience, in a government setting.  The allegations surrounding the council to vote on suspending her without pay, for ten days, then being immediately placed on administrative leave, with full pay and benefits, came as a surprise to the residents.

Councilman Isaac Galvan shared with 2UrbanGirls that now isn’t the time to have employees concerned about their job, in light of the coronavirus, but voted in favor of her suspension, to keep her from being outright fired.

City Hall insiders shared with 2UrbanGirls that the infighting involves money earmarked for the Walk for a Cure breast cancer event Chambers is demanding be released.

Ms. King did not respond to requests for comment.

Other agenda items included movement on the city’s newly created Charter Review Committee.  Councilwoman Michelle Chambers is concerned about the “perception” of her initial choice of Dawn Franks, whose daughter was hired by Councilwoman Emma Sharif as her district liaison.

Chambers went on to discuss how the community inundated her with calls about Franks appointment.  Chambers made no mention of the perception of her own liaison who harasses senior citizens on social media.

Franks was presumably used as a prop during a high profile news segment, back. in January, on how the city came up with funds to fix the streets.  It was on Franks street that the segment was filmed.  The city found the money during last week’s council meeting when they reallocated funding earmarked for city jobs, to the street repair fund.

2UrbanGirls was unable to reach Ms. Franks who shared her disappointment in the action by Chambers in a written public comment that was read by City Clerk Alita Godwin.

Franks replacement, who also worked on Chambers campaign, was recently in court over allegations of threatening a senior citizen on social media.  The case was ultimately dismissed.

Chambers attorney, and former Compton City Attorney Legrand Clegg, is also a member of the charter review committee.

Clegg was referenced in a letter drafted by the Public Integrity Unit of the LA County District Attorneys office, when he changed the city charter to reduce residency requirements to install Craig Cornwell as the City Attorney.  Clegg was hired by Chambers for issues surrounding her residency during her campaign.

Chambers has also caught the ire of resident Craig Henry who comes to council meetings complaining she’s been calling his job trying to get him fired.

Many of Chambers election supporters have received city contracts, jobs and committee appointments since she was elected in June of last year.

Compton City Manager Craig Cornwell outlined his plans to address the health concerns brought on by the coronavirus.

Steps included closing city buildings to the public, virtual council meetings,  scheduled city events have been cancelled, suspend all eviction activity by the Compton Housing Authority.

Cornwell’s plan called for city employees to exhaust comp/sick/vacation time should the city shut down and due to intermittent issues with the live feed, the public is unaware if that was finalized or not.

We reached out to Councilwoman Emma Sharif who had no comment as of press time.