Recall effort targets two Compton officials

By 2UrbanGirls

Contributing Writer

COMPTON — Mayor Aja Brown and City Councilwoman Michelle Chambers are facing a recall by the city’s residents. The efforts are spearheaded by senior citizens who the mayor described as “holding back progress” in the city.

2UrbanGirls contacted the office of City Clerk Alita Godwin and spoke with her chief deputy, Vernell McDaniel, who confirmed the existence of recall papers.

The recall effort is being led by longtime resident Lynn Boone, who previously worked for the city. Boone is currently collecting signatures as the next step in the recall effort.

“We need 9,518 [signatures} to recall Brown and 2,579 to recall Chambers,” Boone said.

If Boone and her supporters collect enough valid signatures of registered voters within the city, the city will have to schedule a recall election

Brown was elected mayor in 2013 reelected four years later, campaigning on a “new vision” for Compton.

Her tenure has featured a scathing state audit, a city employee embezzling funds, misrepresentations of a sales tax increase to fix city streets, a public battle with the Sheriff’s Department, her office refusing to address safety concerns over buckled sidewalks, millions of dollars in legal fees related to trying to fire the former Human Resources director, and the laying off of more than 50 employees due to a looming $9.8 million revenue deficit for the 2020-21 fiscal year.

According to Boone, the grounds for Brown’s recall center around her failure to improve the financial conditions of the city, lack of consistent street repair and a revolving door of city managers, which has led to the lack of progress in the aforementioned areas.

Chambers was elected to the City Council in 2019 and has dodged allegations that she lives in the city of Inglewood, not Compton.

Boone said the grounds for recalling Chambers center around her involvement in the former city manager’s early resignation, attempts to remove a former councilwoman’s name from the city’s aquatic center at Gonzalez Park, attempts to disrupt the employment of the director of Volunteers of America, and the manner in which her campaign worker, turned council liaison, has interacted with members of the public, particularly the city’s seniors, on social media platforms.

Boone has 120 days to collect the required number of signatures to put the matter before Compton voters.