Wishing her success. She has a lot of work ahead of her. But if she can show quick results in terms of getting people work (and I don't mean that in a ghetto context). Actual jobs and job training will make her stronger among the constituency.
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In 2009, she and Van finally decided to move to the city of her grandmother’s tragic end. “We wanted to be somewhere where we could make a difference,” Brown says.
There was plenty to do. In 2005, as the nation and L.A. enjoyed the lowest crime rates in decades, Compton suffered nearly 70 homicides — a worse murder rate than derelict Camden, N.J. Community activist Royce Esters, who has lived in Compton since 1956 and heads the local group National Association for Equal Justice in America, says that in 2007, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department was “beating people up” and “out of control” in an aggressive attempt to restore law and order.
When Brown and her husband arrived two years later, they took part in community outreach programs organized by Faith Inspirational Missionary Baptist Church, such as street cleanups and mentoring kids. She soon was hired as a project manager for the Compton Community Redevelopment Agency and helped dramatically renovate the city’s Blue Line station.
PHOTO BY TED SOQUI
Black old-guard member Yvonne Arceneaux is a five-termer on the City Council.
PHOTO BY TED SOQUI
Isaac Galvan, 26, is the first Latino to be elected to Compton City Council.
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“From a planning perspective,” Brown says, “I thought Compton was phenomenal. It has a huge potential to be a great city, and I always bet on the underdog.”
In 2011, the recession hit Compton hard. Widespread layoffs hit city workers. Under then–Mayor Perrodin, Brown was going to be spared, but that meant taking the job of a longtime employee. “I wasn’t comfortable with that,” Brown says. She says she volunteered to leave and founded her own company, Urban Vision Community Development Corporation, which offered revitalization consulting to Compton city officials, private companies and developers.
A new, bizarre municipal scandal rising from an incident that year shows the problems Brown faces.
In 2011, $1.1 million in police radio and communications equipment — weirdly squirreled away in a racquetball court at Compton’s Fire Department headquarters — suspiciously went up in flames. The equipment was part of the Compton City Council’s and Perrodin’s odd, cart-before-the-horse plan to resurrect the Compton Police Department — by buying costly equipment years before hiring any cops.
After a 17-month investigation, ex–Fire Battalion Chief Marcel Melanson, a one-time TV reality star whose firefighting derring-do was seen in BET series First In, was arrested eight weeks ago and charged with arson. He now faces trial. The L.A. County District Attorney says Melanson set the blaze in order to cover up a greedy scheme in which he sold online dozens of stored police radios — worth $2,500 each.
The scandal was another embarrassment for Compton City Hall, where politicians who approved the equipment purchase, and fiscal bureaucrats who were supposed to keep track of it, looked like hopeless bunglers. Says author and former cop Baker, “They bought radio equipment for a police department that was never in existence. And then it gets burned up.”
Last year, as the 2013 mayoral election approached, political heavyweights in L.A. Democratic circles decided enough was enough.
Residents and others “were tired of Eric [Perrodin],” says county Supervisor Ridley-Thomas, who endorsed Brown. “Plain and simple. His leadership was no longer effective. … Compton couldn’t pay its bills on time for the Sheriff’s Department, and [city] workers were generally fed up with him.” Perrodin did not respond to queries from L.A. Weekly.
According to Rodney Allen Rippy, the popular 1970s black child star who was a regular on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, one city leader — city manager G. Harold Duffey — was so desperate to get rid of Perrodin that he convinced Rippy to jump into this year’s mayor’s race.
Rippy had no real chance, as a true outsider who lived in Pasadena and rented a room in Compton in order to run. Rippy tells the Weekly that he found Compton’s political scene marked by “so much infighting going on — and insider pockets.” He says, sympathetically, of Brown: “She’s got to have her hands full. There’s a lot of people in the community who are upset about a lot of things.”
For Brown’s part, she considered running for two years before finally jumping in. “I knew we needed different leadership to bring about the change we needed in Compton,” she says. Her husband thought she should go for it.
The “outsiders” mobilized. With strong backing from political and union heavyweights Ridley-Thomas, the County Federation of Labor and the L.A. County Democratic Party, Brown placed first in the mayoral primary ahead of Bradley and Perrodin (who finished third). Then she trounced Bradley in the runoff.
Ridley-Thomas and California state Assemblyman Isadore Hall III are thrilled.
Describing her victory as a “mandate” for change, Ridley-Thomas says, “She’s different. She’s honest. And she’ll let the sun in.”
At her July 2 inauguration, Hall declared that Brown would “restore the integrity of our community.”
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19 comments
One of the best things that happened to Compton, was the lynwood skatepark. Skateboarding is here to stay and it's cheap to get into, so helps give the kids something to do. I've been by that skatepark a dozen times and there is always kids there using it! And skateboarding has a bunch of the top ranked Hispanic pros too. It's a good influence for the kids and the community. I will be taking my kids to x games (8/1-4) to see some of these guys compete. Paul rodriguez among others. I hope Aja sees the opportunity in continuing to build skateboarding around the neighborhood.
Omar bradly would have done a better job he had the city on a upswing Aja junt don't know what she's getting herself into perridon put the city 20 years back and why are people looking for Latinos to run the they are only going to look out for themselves and make it worse than what it is it's to many illegal imigrints in Compton and it looks like the worst of Mexico Omar tried to make the city a lot better he got local people jobs he gave rebates on city tax and he cared about the city it was a lot cleaner now it's just dirty all it has is a big dirty court house that needs to be torn down Aja can't do anything but be the first female mayor of compton
Love that you're featuring Ms. Brown.
But I notice you mention her looks in the first paragraph. Did you know that when media mentions female politicians' appearance, even in a positive way, it makes voters think less of her?
We don't see descriptions of male politicians' suits and admiration of their ruddy complexions in articles about them. It's frivolous and irrelevant. Please stop doing it in articles about women.
No one ever talks about the experiences the Hispanic people of Compton have at the polling places. The Hispanic community has continuously experienced discrimination and mistreatment and those issues get no attention. The problem in Compton is that it is a city focused on KEEPING people of a certain color in power, no matter what! The people in power are the ones creating the hostility in Compton. They go around saying that Latinos want to "take over". Latinos want EQUALITY and RESPECT. The youth in Compton is being deprived from the benefits they can enjoy from a city that should embrace diversity and be more culturally aware.
Mayor Brown has the support of her colleagues and has worked for organizations that allowed her the training necessary to have a better start than some of the mayors of neighboring cities.
I want to see how Mayor Brown will address the potential loss of another large employer in the city should AB 820 passes. The city already lost Belkin and to lose the casino would really hurt the city financially.
The City that Shows No Pity Compton Ca. is still part of the Wild Wild West ! The Sheriff with it's massive resources of tools to suppress Criminal Activity, & the fact that the city is now 67% Latino, has inherited a Quagmire of Crime Infestation ! I think we can realize the Tantamount job the 125 force of the Compton P.D. accomplish from the worst crime-wave to hit America, based on it's population from 1970 to 2000 was able to accomplish in keeping the lid on the City ! John R. Baker Author of "VICE" Memoir on the Compton P.D. !
Aja Brown is the real deal and the Supervisor was smart in supporting her. I hope our leaders and citizens get behind her to bring a new day to Compton. Go Mayor Brown!
Thank you for the interesting article about what is happening in Compton and how the political class there is changing. The challenges of merging the needs of all members of the city family seem enormous.
The services Compton residents are asking for aren't hard to give, but the problem lies in where's the money to provide them?
Why wasn't Yvonne Arceneaux voted out with Dobson and Perrodin? Diana Sanchez was expected to do much better in D3 than she did.
@lnjon36 she is the 2nd, Doris Davis was the first.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mayors_of_Compton,_California
@comptonlulac I have witnessed it at a recent candidates forum leading up to the election. With the significant amount of Lations in the city, I was surprised Diana Sanchez wasn't successful in her bid for D3. She is a board member of the Metropolitan Water District which serves Compton. She is more visible than Isaac Galvan and lost?
@bhenning32 no real vested interest? those before her with a "vested" interest have the city in a $40 million dollar deficit. Supervisor Ridley-Thomas was wise to support this young black woman who will represent the city well. Even her former colleagues who I have spoken with speak very highly of Mayor Brown.
@UrbanGirl Yvonne, is still part of the Ole Black Guard that will not surrender power easy ! The Latin Community must muster a massive voter-drive to rid itself of the Corruption of the past !
@rosecransrick the Latin community was successful in electing Galvan and not Sanchez who represents Compton on the water board?
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