Study Details Compton College Bungling

The Compton Community College District has suffered from mismanaged finances and potentially illegal practices and policies, including steering jobs and contracts to relatives of officials, a state-appointed panel reported Wednesday.

The audit commissioned by state Community Colleges Chancellor Mark Drummond found “inattention and neglect” by Compton College administrators over the past few years, and “questionable decision-making” by the district’s board of trustees.

The district, the focus of federal and local criminal investigations, was taken over by the state in May and remains under the control of a special state trustee. After the takeover, a 12-member panel began to audit the single-college district, interviewing employees and reviewing financial records.

The audit team concluded that despite increasing revenue, out-of-control spending drove the district to insolvency. The report said Compton College administrators were unable to determine the school’s financial situation.

The audit in some parts echoed previous reports in The Times. It criticized board members for micro-managing daily operations and for hiring paid staff assistants, a now-eliminated practice it said no other community college district in the state had.

It said relatives of administrators and board members had been given staff positions or consulting work at the college, and that some college employees were apparently paid simultaneously as consultants, a violation of IRS rules. The study, however, did not list names or say how widespread those practices might be.

The report also alleged several incidents in which campus police arrested unnamed people for breaking the law but “high-level administrators ordered their release or no action.”

Compton College President Ulis C. Williams said the findings appeared generally correct. “I basically agree with the report,” he said.

Williams said he raised concerns about the college’s business practices on many occasions before the state takeover but was overruled by the board of trustees. Current board members disputed the report’s findings. Trustee Carl Robinson likened the review to “when they went into Iraq looking for weapons of mass destruction.... They didn’t find them, but now we’re in a war under false pretenses.”

The audit team, Robinson said, “is making reasons so the state can stay [in control] and take our bond money.” He called the review “a bad report, based on hearsay.”

Board member Kent Swift said the report addressed old problems that had already been corrected. The paid board assistants, for instance, have been eliminated, and the board’s micromanaging stopped when two new members joined the board last year.

“Voters have changed the course of college governance,” Swift said. “There were fundamental problems with the board in the past, but this is a new board. If anyone’s micromanaging, it’s the chancellor.”

In the takeover, the five-member locally elected board of trustees was stripped of its power and a special trustee was given veto authority over any of its decisions.

Williams retained his post as college president and superintendent of the 7,000-student district.

The special trustee, former Los Angeles City College administrator Art Tyler, declined to comment, referring calls to the chancellor’s office.

In a written statement released late Wednesday, Drummond said the report justified the state takeover: “The findings and recommendations validate the extraordinary actions I took in May.”