Re “Just Asking – Is Compton Mayor Out of the ‘Woods?’”
(See pdf here.)
Two days before the troubled City of Compton publicly counts 1176 outstanding votes from last Tuesday’s mayoral election to determine which two of three top candidates will make the June 4 runoff, perspiration is collecting on the always well-groomed face of the incumbent, Eric J. Perrodin, and a chorus of his allegedly shadowy dealing colleagues.
New County District Attorney Jackie Lacey’s office has a page full of embarrassing questions to ask Mayor Perrodin and other veteran denizens of City Hall about their expense accounts, among other possible works of fiction.
Among the juiciest of ironies that abound – the dapper Mr. Perrodin is a deputy D.A. under Ms. Lacey’s supervision.
Wide-ranging charges of endemic corruption have been lodged for years against Compton, without much consequence except for the prison term served by Omar Bradley, former mayor and No. 2 finisher in last week’s race. Mr. Bradley likely is bound for a runoff.
Ms. Lacey’s suspicions are an outgrowth of a previously presumed to have been ignored documentary by KCET, public television, on March 27 that exposed shocking financial facts and evident funny business in the limping community of 96,000.
Cited high in the D.A.’s letter dated April 3 is Mayor Perrodin’s asserted special relationship with videographer Mark Woods, described as a boyhood pal of the mayor. Mr. Woods, according to KCET research, is paid an outrageous $20,000 a month for mundane duties by a city up to its damp armpits in fiscal woes.
“Wow,” Jacquelyn Deloatch, one of the dozen mayoral contenders last week, told the newspaper this afternoon.
“Unbelievable.
“And the plot thickens,” she said.
“We kind of knew something like that was going to be coming,” Ms. Deloatch said.
The D.A.’s inquiry, signed by Ms. Lacey and directed to City Clerk Alita Godwin, makes three requests:
- All documentation related to car allowances, from 2005 to the present, for the mayor, City Council members, the City Clerk, City Treasurer, City Attorney, and “any other city employee.”
- All City Council votes and agreements related to the investment firm of Bakewell and Bunkley.
- All financial dealings with the aforementioned Mr. Woods.
