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Residents press Compton council over charter enforcement, legal hires and alleged misconduct
Summary
At the Sept. 23 Compton City Council meeting residents urged the council to enforce charter limits on hiring outside legal counsel, raised allegations of improper financial relationships with nonprofits, and pressed for transparency about committee appointments. Council members said investigations and workshops are forthcoming.
Residents used the public-comment period on Sept. 23 to press the Compton City Council for clearer enforcement of the city charter and greater transparency about staff authority and nonprofit contracting.
Kareema Bradford read from the city charter and said the council — not the city manager — has the sole authority to hire outside legal counsel. “All powers of the city shall be vested in the city council,” Bradford said while citing charter language and urging that any contracts for outside legal services be placed on an agenda for public review. She said she had filed a complaint with the assistant city manager and asked the council to ensure no staff hires or contracts were approved outside public oversight.
Other residents echoed Bradford. Lynn Boone said the city manager ‘runs the city’ in ways that conflict with the charter and argued recent administrative changes and fee increases occurred without public hearings. “The charter has been illegally changed,” Boone said, and urged residents to seek remedies.
Fidel Marquez called for immediate distribution of air purifiers to residents near a polluting facility and accused local actors of “getting kickbacks” from nonprofit arrangements, referencing recent reports in other cities. “When you take money out of politicians, you will have public servants,” Marquez said; he added he intends to bring concerns to the district attorney.
Council members and staff responded with limited direct rebuttal in the public-comment period. One speaker in the room said the earlier claim about charter violations was incorrect and that nothing violating the charter had been done. City staff later said the council would convene a workshop in early October to explain committee roles and address community questions about committee appointments and operations.
No formal action on the claims was recorded at the meeting. The council recessed into a closed session earlier in the evening to discuss pending litigation (Robert Quintero v. City of Compton, case no. 22STCV12731) and reconvened with no reportable action. The agenda contained a pulled/tabled item (item 3) that the clerk said would return at the council’s next regular meeting in October.
The meeting included other public-safety and service announcements, including a town hall with the Los Angeles County district attorney scheduled for Sept. 25 and an opening of the HopiX Compton Access Center (detailed separately). The council did not adopt a formal investigation or set a public timeline during the meeting to address the charter-enforcement and nonprofit-funding allegations.
The council’s next regular meeting is the first meeting in October; the pulled agenda item is scheduled to appear then.
