Controller on Leave While Debt Is Tallied

The city controller in Compton was ordered not to come to work Monday in order to give the city’s budget staff time to review records in the controller’s office and determine if the city has between $4 million and $6 million in outstanding bills.

Acting City Manager Howard Caldwell confirmed Monday that he put veteran Controller Timothy Brown on administrative leave. He said his staff is going through the controller’s records to find out if there are millions of dollars in bills that were not figured into this year’s budget. The suggestion that the city may be millions of dollars in debt came from Brown.

Caldwell insisted Monday that the “alarm may not be necessary” and added that there is no allegation that Brown, or anyone in his office, took any money.

Caldwell said Brown would be allowed to return to work as soon as the staff finished the review.

Brown will continue to earn his full salary during the administrative leave.

Brown could not be reached for comment. His assistant, Marilyn Horn, declined comment.

Caldwell said his staff told him last week that there might be millions of dollars worth of outstanding bills and said he asked Brown for certain financial information to clarify the situation.

When Brown did not deliver the material in “the form and as expeditiously as I wanted,” Caldwell said, he told Brown to stay home while the budget staff reviewed invoices and other records.