Second in a series
Re “Kindly and Accomplished – Deloatch for Mayor of Compton”
[img]1802|right|Ms. Jacqueline Deloatch||no_popup[/img]Dateline Compton – Jacquelyn Deloatch could have yawned her way through KCET television’s exposition last Wednesday of unorthodox paydays inside of Compton City Hall.
Do birds fly?
“We have all known quite awhile a lot of corruption is going on,” said Ms. Deloatch, a Compton Boulevard businesswoman who is running for mayor 10 years after moving here.
In contrast to politicians who routinely wield an axe and a whip against their opponents during election season, Ms. Deloatch is a different kind of reformer. She advocates conciliation, which is news in one of Southern California’s most divided communities.
“To see someone receiving a contract when he wasn’t even the lowest bidder, that disturbs me,” she says.
(Her reference was to the city’s videographer, one Mark Woods, described as the best friend of Mayor Eric Perrodin. He allegedly has been paid $2.5 million over the last 10 years.)
“These are the types of things that go on around here,” Ms. Deloatch says, evenly, across the desk in her bail bonds office.
Mr. Perrodin, who already has set a record by winning three terms, is running for No. 4 two weeks from today, April 16, against Ms. Deloatch and 10 others, including former Mayor Omar Bradley who served three years for corruption before his conviction was overturned last summer.
One of the most widely known personalities identified in the KCET program was developer and civil rights activist Danny Bakewell, publisher of the Los Angeles Sentinel. He allegedly had a multi-million loan from the city forgiven, and the soft-spoken Ms. Deloatch found that “frustrating.”
Not unusual, though.
Mr. Bakewell, who stages the popular “Taste of Soul” festival every year, “is a money-man,” she said. “He is about his money, and not about people. I hate to say that.”
Making a Difference
Ms. Deloatch insists that one strong person can ignite a dramatic and lasting turnaround from the seemingly rampant funny business.
“Change starts with one person, and then it becomes a ripple effect,” she said. “It becomes like dominoes. You help one person at a time. The difference is that you are not knocking that person down.
“You find the positive people around you. Then all of you line up together, and that way change is made.”
Ms. Deloatch laughed heartily over Mayor Perrodin’s remark to the KCET reporter that when he came into office, he had wanted to change the shadowy culture. But he just could not round up the votes to support his view.
Ever since, he implied, he has abandoned his cleanup attempt.
A Compton native and former member of the Compton Police Dept., the 54-year-old Mr. Perrodin – once a recall target – is a well-known personality in downtown Los Angeles, by day, an assistant district attorney working out of the Airport Courthouse.
More than any other current figure, the man with the perpetual smile is criticized for his invisibility in Compton. The Los Angeles Times reported he had missed 59 of 162 meetings in one year at the start of his third term – without ever missing a paycheck from his average annual draw of $61,000.
(To be continued)
