Fast-Food Restaurants in Compton Told to Hire Guards

Fast-food restaurants in Compton that have drive-up windows were told by the City Council on Friday to hire armed guards for their parking lots in the wake of three shootings, including one in which a young Lynwood woman died.

Meeting in emergency session, the council voted unanimously for the new ordinance, although city officials acknowledged that it puts some of the financial burden for public safety on business operators, not all of whom are connected to large chains such as McDonald’s and Taco Bell, where the shootings occurred.

“Given the conditions we have here in our society,” Compton City Manager James Goins said after the vote, “it’s going to take a real partnership between government and private business” to protect people.

Two of the three shootings that have occurred at fast-food restaurants since last Saturday were at McDonald’s on Long Beach Boulevard, which has an armed security guard. The guard, however, is inside the restaurant.

‘On the Firing Line’

“I want the security guard outside on the firing line,” Councilman Maxcy Filer said after the emergency meeting.

Lorie Ann Palardy, 17, died at a Taco Bell on Long Beach Boulevard shortly after midnight Sunday when a gunman tried to rob her and her boyfriend while they waited on line at the drive-up window.

At McDonald’s on the same street, a man was shot in the leg while he waited in his car at the drive-up line Wednesday at dinner time. Police say the shooting was part of a robbery attempt. At the same McDonald’s late Saturday afternoon, a man was shot in the leg when he rushed outside the restaurant to foil a burglary attempt on his ice cream truck.

Filer, who drafted the ordinance, insisted that the 18 fast-food operators in the city can afford to hire security guards and pointed out that several developers in the city’s redevelopment area have been required as part of their building plan approvals to have security guards.

The shopping center across from Compton City Hall, for example, has full-time security and the architecture includes guard towers at the corners of the buildings.

Under the new ordinance, the restaurant operators would have to have guards from 2 p.m. until 2 a.m. and will have 30 days to put them on the payroll.

Two operators of fast-food restaurants with drive-up windows were on hand for the council session, which was announced only the day before. Both objected strenuously to the ordinance, saying the $9 to $10 an hour they would have to pay guards is too much of a financial strain for them.

‘A Big Expense’

“You guys have to figure out that’s a big expense for the small businesses,” said Paso Sotiropoulos, who owns Louie’s Burgers on East Compton Boulevard.

Sotiropoulos suggested that the city pick up part of the cost. Mayor Walter Tucker countered by suggesting that restaurants could close down the drive-through part of their businesses if they were unable to hire guards.

Nicholas Badounas, who owns Tom’s Original, a fast-food restaurant on Rosecrans Boulevard that has a drive-through window, did not speak to the council but said after the meeting that he will not hire a guard and will work to reverse the vote.

Earnest Spears, executive manager of the Compton Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber has not yet taken a position on the ordinance but said he has some concerns about it.

Compton has 138 police officers, or 1.5 officers for every 1,000 people in the city of 92,000. The council budgeted $350,000 this year to hire seven more officers.

It also spent $1.3 million to buy three police helicopters and budgeted another $1 million to build police substations in three more of its city parks. Two parks already have substations.