State Takes Control of Campus

The state took control of Compton Community College on Friday, saying the school’s dire financial condition forced the rare move.

“I determined it was no longer possible for the district to independently resolve its long-standing fiscal problems, including negative ending balances and depleted reserves,” said California Community Colleges Chancellor Mark Drummond.

He went to the Compton campus to announce the move and appoint a trustee to govern the 7,000-student institution for an indefinite period.

His office has been looking into financial troubles at the college since October, when the campus failed to provide a satisfactory audit and chancellor’s officials discovered a budget shortfall of about $300,000, said Drummond’s spokeswoman, Cheryl Fong.

The state gives the college about $30 million a year to operate.

Compton College officials had still not turned in the requested audit Friday, or any acceptable financial recovery plans, which state officials had been requesting since February.

The takeover comes as the college remains under criminal investigation by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office for possible financial mismanagement.

Last year The Times reported a history of questionable contracts and costly perks paid for by college officials with taxpayer dollars. The expenditures included at least $868,000 to a community organization that the board refused to account for. District attorney’s spokesman Joseph Scott said Friday that the investigation was continuing.

The takeover is the second state intervention in an educational system in Compton. In 1993, the state stripped the local K-12 school board of power after $20 million went missing in district accounts and test scores plunged. State control lasted until 2001, amounting to the longest takeover in California history.

The state has not taken over management of a community college since 1986, when it gave an emergency $3.3-million bailout loan to the Peralta Community College District in Oakland, officials said.

The intervention at Compton took the college’s five-member board of trustees by surprise, officials said, but brought sentiments of relief and optimism from students, faculty and community members.

Lorraine Cervantes, a longtime community activist who was elected to the board in November, fought back tears as she described her sadness at the move, but said she understood that the takeover was necessary.

“To have to go under -- it hurts,” said Cervantes, a Compton College alumna. “We just have to pray and hope for everyone to work together.”

Their management of the college, state officials said, will last at least a year. During that time, the current board of trustees will be an advisory panel and college President Ulis C. Williams will remain in his post. Williams did not respond to requests for interviews Friday.

Drummond appointed Arthur Tyler Jr., Los Angeles City College vice president for administration and a faculty member, to the post of special trustee for the Compton district. Tyler will oversee the district for the duration of the takeover.

Meanwhile, Drummond promised to visit the Compton campus every other week to ensure that the financial recovery proceeded smoothly. “There’s a stack of issues that needs to be sorted out,” he said after meeting with the trustees. “First, we need to establish the financial reality. We don’t have a clue.”

He said plans would get underway quickly to increase the college’s enrollment, which has fallen in recent semesters.

The Compton campus on Artesia Boulevard, a collection of 1950s-era bungalow structures and newer facilities built in recent years, enrolled 7,048 students last fall, most of them black and Latino. In spring 2003, the college had about 7,600 students.

Compton voters recently approved a $100-million bond measure to upgrade the college.

Drummond, Williams and Tyler spent most of Friday in closed meetings with trustees, faculty members and student leaders.

“It’s a radical step, but it’s a step in the right direction,” said philosophy professor Art Flemming.

State officials said they took pains to implement their plan as quietly as possible. Compton College officials in the past have said the media unfairly highlighted bad news at the overwhelmingly African American and Latino school.

No formal news conference was held, and no media advisory was issued beforehand.

“We wanted to keep it low-profile,” Fong said. “We don’t want to spotlight any negativity.”

The city of Compton itself has recently been mired in fiscal corruption scandals.

Last week, former Mayor Omar Bradley was handed a three-year prison term for misappropriating public funds by using his city-issued credit card to pay for about $12,000 worth of golf rounds, hotel rooms, clothing and in-room movies, among other things. Two other former Compton officials were also sentenced on felony corruption charges.

Kimela Franklin, 30, a Compton College nursing student, said the takeover didn’t surprise her.

“We don’t have online [access], we don’t have financial aid, we don’t even have a cafeteria,” said Franklin, who added that she had been enrolled at several colleges across the South Bay area and that none had such poor resources as Compton.

“I saw the warning signs,” said Pirikana Johnson, the Compton district student trustee and president of the statewide community college students association. “But now I’m optimistic. As long as it’s for the good, I’m supportive.”

*

Times staff writer Peter Y. Hong contributed to this report.