Sept. 10--After initially defending the payments, the Compton City Council has moved to dissolve two commissions that the district attorney's office alleged were illegally paying each council member and the mayor $1,000 a month.
The council unanimously voted this week to disband the agencies after Los Angeles County prosecutors said that the commissions served no purpose other than to provide additional compensation to city officials.
The commissions' purpose and the questionable payments were first reported by The Times in 2010.
The county district attorney's office sent a new letter to the city on Tuesday setting a deadline of Oct. 15 for the mayor and council members to limit their compensation to $600 a month, the amount listed in the city's charter, or face "appropriate action." The letter said prosecutors would "consider the matter resolved" if the mayor and council members followed through and brought their salaries into compliance with the charter.
On Tuesday evening, the council voted at its regular meeting to dissolve the Housing Development and Gaming commissions, the city clerk confirmed Thursday.
The motions made no mention of the district attorney's concerns. Instead, they said Compton staff concluded that the need for the Housing Development Commission had significantly declined since its creation in 1999, and that the council could save time and resources by directly reviewing bingo and card club license and permit renewals.
The motions require two separate votes of the council, which is scheduled to hear and vote on the issue again at its next meeting, on Tuesday. If adopted next week, the motions would go into effect after 30 days, the city clerk said, in time to meet the district attorney's deadline.
The council did not address payments from two other commissions that the district attorney's office said also were illegal. The Public Finance Authority pays the mayor $1,700 a month and each council member $1,100 a month, according to the district attorney's office. Prosecutors say the Urban Community Development Commission pays $300 a month to the mayor and council members, though city officials say the figure is actually $150.
City Atty. Craig J. Cornwell wrote to the district attorney's office last week saying that the city also would terminate the payments from the Public Finance Authority. His letter doesn't mention the Urban Community Development Commission.
Assistant Head Deputy Sean Hassett, a supervisor in the district attorney's Public Integrity Division, told The Times last month that Compton officials could face criminal charges if they continue to accept payments from the commissions.
Mayor Aja Brown was paid at least $3,850 a month and council members at least $3,250 a month for the commission meetings, according to figures cited in a letter Hassett sent the Compton council in July.
The commissions met immediately before some City Council meetings, according to the letter. Hassett wrote that he believed only the Urban Community Development Commission required board members to show up to get paid.
Some of the payments date back to 1975, Hassett wrote, adding that prosecutors examined records detailing the creation of the commissions, as well as minutes from hearings since 2008.
The district attorney's warning letter came five years after The Times' investigation into the commission payments. Since The Times' report, Compton taxpayers have paid about $1 million to city officials through the commissions, according to an analysis of monthly payments cited in the district attorney's letter. Among the officials who received some of the payments was former Compton Mayor Eric Perrodin, who works as a prosecutor in the district attorney's office.
Hassett told The Times last month that it wasn't until earlier this year that his office examined the Compton city charter after receiving a complaint, and discovered that the payments were illegal.
The Compton city attorney responded last month to Hassett's first letter by denying that the commission payments were illegal.
