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Feb 18, 2025

city council

No new spending was approved at the February 18, 2025 Compton City Council meeting; the only action item — a procedural vote to schedule a fireworks workshop and public hearing for February 25, 2025 at 4:00 p.m. — passed 5-0 (Duhart, Spicer, Bowers, Darden, Sharif). The council reported out of closed session that the city manager was retained following a performance evaluation, with no financial terms disclosed publicly. Approximately twelve residents spoke during public comment, with recurring concerns centered on sole-source waste contractor Republic Services: one speaker alleged the city received $300,000 from Republic Services following a service performance review, while the city manager stated the actual figures were a $25,000 check designated for Cesar Chavez Park and a separate $100,000 payment, and further stated that the council has not yet decided how those funds will be spent. Speakers also questioned a general plan contract cited at $1 million — one speaker noted a councilmember had identified a $300,000 in-house alternative — and raised questions about lease arrangements for nonprofits operating in city-owned facilities; neither item was on the agenda for a vote.

Nov 12, 2024

city council

The council's largest spending approval was a $272,043 contract with P31 Development Corporation for Heritage House restoration (Item 13), funded through CDBG grants and Capital Outlay, passed 4-0 with Councilwoman Darden absent; the council also approved two roof replacement contracts with Rite-Way Corporation — $183,360 at Burrell MacDonald Park from ARPA funds (Item 11, 4-0) and $134,925 at Tucker Park from Capital Outlay (Item 12, 4-0) — making Rite-Way the recipient of $318,285 in contracts across two separate agenda items at this meeting. The consent agenda passed 4-0 (Darden absent) without individual item discussion and included $66,771 to TRC Investments LLC DBA SERVPRO, split into two line items ($61,073 and $5,698), for emergency repairs at Fire Station One, along with $93,945 directed to Gateway Cities Council of Governments across three separate agenda items covering annual membership dues, corridor studies, and an Alondra Boulevard street study. A $67,500 basketball court resurfacing contract with Epic Surfaces (Item 9) was pulled from the consent agenda at staff's request and received no vote at this meeting. Nine residents spoke during general public comment — raising concerns about property tax levels, Republic Services billing discrepancies, two street lights at Pauline and Caldwell reported down for over 16 years, and limits on public comment time — and no public comment was taken on any individual spending item. The state audit status update (Item 10) and Republic Services service report (Item 2) were informational presentations only; no spending was approved in connection with either.

Sep 10, 2024

city council

The council approved two contracts: $123,597 to St. Nick's Christmas Lighting and Decor for holiday decoration installation and removal (5-0), and $102,932 to BluLynx Solutions LLC for grant administrative services (four council members recorded yes; Bowers's vote is not captured in the transcript). A third item — the appointment of Charles Scott as Interim Senior Building Inspector, structured retroactively to October 2023 — was pulled without a vote after Councilwoman Darden cited a typographic error in the resolution, a missing government code attachment, and insufficient clarification on the retroactive arrangement; Councilman Spicer withdrew his motion before any second was recorded, and the item is scheduled to return the following week. During Item 6 discussion, Councilwoman Darden noted that the three competing bids were approximately double the St. Nick's figure; no members of the public addressed either spending item. The council also voted 5-0 to reschedule the Republic Services performance review hearing to October 10, 2024, and approved three sets of prior meeting minutes on consent (5-0); five members of the public addressed the council during open comment, raising concerns that included a charter-compliance dispute over the District 1 council appointment that the city attorney had found to be in violation, a week-long street lighting outage, and road conditions on Wilmington Avenue.

Jul 23, 2024

city council

The council's two largest spending approvals were a subsequent-need vehicle lease of $1,002,434 with Enterprise Fleet Management (5-0) and a multi-year enterprise software contract with CentralSquare Technologies totaling approximately $1.01 million ($613,859 contract plus $398,951 first-year purchase order from the General Fund), approved 4-1 with Spicer dissenting; the Water Department also authorized a sole-source, ARPA-funded control valve repair contract of $322,839 with CLA-VAL Company (5-0). Additional spending approvals included a $224,500 bond disclosure services agreement with BLX Group LLC (consent, 5-0), $169,165 for agenda management software with Hyland Software (5-0), and a $135,000 debt collection agreement with Evergreen Professional Recoveries (5-0) — where Evergreen's first-year purchase order was set at $22,500, just below the $25,000 approval threshold, and projected first-year revenue of $90,000 sits just below the $100,000 approval threshold; across all five service vendors on this agenda (CentralSquare, BLX Group, Hyland Software, Evergreen, and transcription vendor Melvinna Sharp), each item paired a multi-year contract with a separate same-vendor expenditure line, a structure repeated consistently across the entire agenda. On a 3-2 vote (Darden and Sharif opposed), the council approved placing a November ballot measure to make the city attorney position appointed rather than elected, with a 10-year municipal law experience requirement; the council also voted 3-2 (Spicer and Bowers opposed) to place delinquent solid waste accounts on the county tax roll, following a public hearing in which more than a dozen residents addressed the council demanding cancellation of the Republic Services contract over weeks of missed pickups across all four council districts. The council voted 5-0 to raise the city manager's per-transaction spending authority from $25,000 to $75,000 — with a $200,000 emergency limit — for the month of August while the council is in recess.

Jun 18, 2024

city council

The council approved $33,880 to Day Wireless Systems for 50 Code Enforcement portable radios (consent, 5-0) and $775 in General Fund travel for elected officials to the League of California Cities conference (5-0); five larger spending items totaling more than $1.7 million — including a $600,000 tree-trimming purchase order to United Pacific Services, a $322,839 ARPA-funded contract with Cla-Val Company, a $651,950 EV charging station purchase with ChargePoint Inc. split across three line items (flagged as a repeat vendor), a $48,688 two-line-item consulting contract with MGT of America, and a fire chief vehicle purchase with competing bids from three Chevrolet dealerships ranging $81,080–$84,787 — were on the agenda but not acted upon before the meeting was continued. A fireworks permit vote for eleven nonprofit applicants failed: Spicer voted yes, Duhart, Bowers, and Darden abstained, and Mayor Sharif voted no, after approximately nine members of the public addressed the item, the majority opposing the permits. A public hearing on placing roughly 130 delinquent commercial water accounts on the Los Angeles County tax roll was pulled after Republic Services' designated presenter left the chambers before making a presentation, drawing objections from approximately eight speakers. The meeting was continued to the following week following a floor dispute between the city attorney and city manager over the city attorney's right to deliver an oral report from the dais, with the continuation passing on a 2-yes tally (Duhart and Mayor Sharif), Spicer and Darden absent, and Bowers' vote unrecorded in the transcript.

May 28, 2024

city council

The largest new spending approval was $373,857 to Vincor Construction, Inc. for facility renovations funded from the Insurance Recovery Fund, with Duhart, Spicer, Darden, and Mayor Sharif voting yes — Bowers's vote was not captured in the transcript; the structured agenda lists Vincor across four line items on the same agenda item, including additional contract figures of $169,239 and $155,854, with total flagged Vincor amounts reaching approximately $1.07 million. The council also approved a $58,000 purchase order to Republic Services for compost and mulch (5-0) — a vendor appearing in two identical $58,000 line items on the same agenda item, totaling $116,000 and flagged as a possible split payment — and a $34,989 purchase order to Quinn Company for an outstanding invoice and maintenance services (5-0), structured across four sub-items summing to $104,967, also flagged as a possible split payment. A $20,026 contract with Mars Environmental for environmental disposal, drawn from the Public Works Street Maintenance Equipment Rental Fund Balance, was pulled from consent by Councilperson Duhart, who noted that fund balance information was absent from the staff report, and then approved 5-0; the city attorney's oral report separately disclosed two previously authorized litigation settlements — $3,975,000 in Leggett v. City of Compton and $1,500 in Rogers v. City of Compton — neither of which was a new spending decision at this meeting. A proposed five-year lease with Angels for Sight was pulled before any vote by the mayor, who cited legal issues that surfaced after the agenda was posted. Six residents addressed the council during public comment, raising concerns about business licensing processes, meeting minutes accuracy, street and tree maintenance, prostitution on Long Beach Boulevard, pothole repair material quality, and vendor oil disposal into storm drains.