A Los Angeles Suburb is Under Scrutiny Again
- New York Times, September 28, 2001

Recent years have not been kind to the suburban city of Compton. In the 1980’s, gangs provided the notoriety. In the decade that followed, there was corruption at City Hall and a state takeover of the city’s schools. Last week, the city came under further scrutiny in connection with corruption as investigators with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office searched City Hall and 10 other places, including the homes of two City Council members and a former mayor.

Officials in the district attorney’s office declined to identify the targets of the investigation, but the search warrants focused on a former Compton mayor, Omar Bradley, who was defeated in seeking a third term last June; Councilman Amen Rahh; and Councilwoman Delores Zurita, Mr. Bradley’s aunt. Among the items the authorities sought were safes, purses and wallets belonging to the two council members and to a former assistant city manager.

Investigators are said to be conducting a broad review of city finances under Mayor Bradley and focusing on whether city credit cards were misused for travel or personal expenses. Federal authorities have also been interviewing city employees and residents.

The search closed City Hall for much of Sept. 19, but some city employees applauded the move.

”I’m happy about it,” said a city employee of 19 years, who would not allow his name to be used. ”You can do people wrong for only so long, then it’s going to catch up with you.”

Under Mayor Bradley, the city took several actions that were considered controversial, among them disbanding the Police Department and hiring the county sheriff’s department; awarding a no-bid contract to a trash hauler that had been convicted of bribing Compton officials; and routinely hiring friends and relatives. Employees said those who challenged the mayor were often fired or put on administrative leave.

Mr. Bradley’s lawyer, Milton Grimes, suggested today that the search warrants were little more than a device to draw attention from his client’s challenge to the June 5 election, in which he was defeated by Eric J. Perrodin by about 280 votes. Mr. Bradley has filed a civil suit in Los Angeles Superior Court contending that there were numerous voting irregularities, including forged signatures on ballots and votes cast by dead people.

”We believe this is a smoke screen,” Mr. Grimes said. ”The search warrants were served just after we filed our additional brief alleging even more evidence in this case against the city mayor.”

Mayor Perrodin, a former county prosecutor, has dismissed the accusations as without merit.

The district attorney’s investigation dates back two years to when the City Council, with Mayor Bradley’s backing, removed the police chief, Hourie Taylor, and a longtime police captain, Percy Perrodin, the current mayor’s brother. Since their dismissal, the two men urged the district attorney and federal investigators to look at the Bradley administration.

For residents in this city of about 100,000, it was the same old story.
”I wish we could get beyond this and start dealing with the gangs and the crime,” said Mary Bavis, as she walked her grandchildren near City Hall. ”It’s just always something.”

In the mid-1990’s, former Mayor Walter R. Tucker III was sentenced to federal prison for tax evasion and extorting more than $30,000 from Compton Energy Systems, which was seeking to build a waste-to-energy treatment plant. Patricia Moore, who served a four-year term on the Compton Council ending in 1993, was convicted on similar charges.

In 1993, the State Department of Education took control of the city’s school district after $20 million was determined to be missing when the student test scores were the lowest in the state. In January, the state began returning control of the district, a process completed this month.

But even Mayor Bradley’s detractors credit him with helping to bring business in and to beautify the city. Many neighborhoods look no different than other parts of the suburbs in southern Los Angeles County, and civic pride is still easy to find.

”I think we’ve got a bad rap,” said Jacqueline Watkins, whose company, Rapid Publishing, publishes The Compton Bulletin.