Tuesday, April 15, 2025

The council's largest spending approval was a three-year traffic signal and street light maintenance contract awarded to Yunex LLC at $1.2 million annually, plus a separate $350,000 purchase order covering the current fiscal year's remainder, passed 5-0; Yunex has been the city's sole provider since 2018 and disclosed at the meeting that the city holds 14 loaned signal controller cabinets and that the company submitted unaddressed repair requests to city staff dating to 2021. A three-year groundwater pumping rights lease with the City of Vernon passed 5-0 at $720,000 total, and a citywide illegal dumping contract with Valley Vista Services passed 3-2 — with Duhart and Spicer voting no — at $367,270 annually plus a $122,423 current-year purchase order; a former city attorney addressed the council requesting the contract be awarded instead to Screaming Eagles, a local firm that previously held the work. Both the Yunex and Valley Vista approvals follow a split-payment structure — a recurring annual contract rate paired with a separate current-year purchase order — with Yunex appearing in two line items totaling $1.55 million and Valley Vista in two line items totaling approximately $490,000. The council voted to suspend fireworks permit issuance, passing 4-0 with Spicer abstaining, after approximately six members of the public addressed the item — including a representative of St. James AME Church opposing the suspension on grounds of nonprofit fundraising loss and several residents supporting it on safety grounds. A proposed lease agreement with the Compton Chamber of Commerce — a revenue item under which the city would collect rent — was tabled to the following week without a vote.