Compton pays for five council assistants, one for the mayor and one for each council member, yet eight years after a state audit flagged the positions, residents still lack a clear answer about what they deliver.

In a detailed review for this issue, Ron L. Dowell traces the question back to a 2018 State Controller's audit.

That audit found Compton's City Council spending was substantially higher than in comparable Los Angeles County charter cities and recommended evaluating council expenses, including these jobs.

The records Dowell reviewed do not show that evaluation was ever completed.

The auditors could not determine how the city benefited from the assistants' work, though that finding did not prove the work had no value.

The audit also described the assistants as unclassified, part-time hourly employees, found that council members supervised them day to day, and documented 40-hour weeks with overtime despite a 36-hour limit.

Today's numbers raise new questions.

Pages 55 and 56 of the FY 2026-27 adopted budget list different salary ranges and amounts per assistant, $71,066 on one page and $78,961 on the other, for positions still listed at 0.90 full-time equivalent.

Dowell says Finance and Human Resources should explain both entries, and confirm how an hourly job fits inside a permanent-salaries account.

He also points to a $100,000 overtime allocation for the Mayor and City Council department, and says residents deserve to know who may use it and under what rules.

That is where charter review comes in.

Dowell suggests the charter spell out who supervises council support staff, whether they serve individual officials or a shared pool, and how their employment status is defined.

A hybrid model, with a centrally supervised pool and designated district contacts, deserves serious study, he writes, though pooling alone would not guarantee savings.

He also recommends an annual public evaluation covering costs, workload and service results.

Before changing titles or pay, the Charter Review Committee should ask the city to finally produce the evaluation recommended in 2018.