Compton, CA – A modest crowd showed up Saturday, March 28, to listen to individuals running for political office in the city of Compton. The Concerned Citizens of Compton and the Compton branch of the NAACP held their version of a candidate forum at Saint Philip Lutheran Church.
Candidates running for the District 2 council seat, District 3 council seat, City Clerk and City Treasurer all tried to give off vibes that they were the ones that the city’s residents can entrust their vote with.
Compton residents go to the polls in June to determine who their next mayor will be as well as elect a new representative in District 2 since current seat holder Andre Spicer is running for mayor. The Candidate Forum 2026, moderated by Judge Kevin Filer, was divided into two two sections.
The first part belonged to candidates running for office in District 2, District 3, City Treasurer, and City Clerk. Current City Clerk Satra Zurita did not attend the event. However, her challenger, Lynne Boone did. District 3 incumbent Jonathan Bowers is running against Randall Hook.
The office for District 2 appears to be a wide open race now that Spicer has stepped aside for possible political pastures in the mayoral race. The individuals chasing that District 2 designation, include Jace Dawson, Anthony Perry, Skyy D. Fisher, Darrell Carter, Bennie Tinson, and Alin Hamade.
One of the more intriguing questions for the panel to answer was asked if the city was healthy and successful. If not, what strategies would they implement to get it to that point. Bowers was blunt on his take on where the city stands today.
If he had it his way, Bowers would get rid of the folks that he views as having polluted the waters at City Hall.
“Compton is healing. It’s not where it needs to be,” Bowers said. “We’ve improved a great deal in the city of Compton since I’ve been here. The city has cancer. There are still tumors within this body that need to be treated…Compton, it’s a good city, but it needs some work. And it needs to be cleansed internally. We still have toxic people within the city government that need to be removed. They’re continuing this disease.”
Hook’s answer to the question centered on how the city is being guided as the key to its success.
“If you look at any great, successful organization, there are a few things that are true: they have leadership and they have vision,” Hook said.
That leadership has failed the residents of Compton, Hook added.
“The thing that I see most that needs fixing is that our leadership structure is failing,” he stated.
For Tinson, the solution to Compton righting itself is putting community above everything else.
“It is important for us to make sure that the community is put first and that the community has a voice in what happens in this community,” Tinson said. “ I will bring the community to the table to make sure you have a voice, the workers of this city. It is going to take the entire village to fix this city.”
Perry doesn’t like the state that Compton is in right now, but he sees the potential for what the city can be.
“Currently, I do not believe the city is a healthy city,” Perry said. “I do believe we have tremendous potential. I think for starters, as a whole, every leader in Compton must operate with integrity, just starting with the bases. I think we should focus on our constituents.”
Hamade does not think Compton is in a good space because of the city’s lack of cleanliness. “The first thing I would do for the city, number one, is clean up the city,” Hamade retorted. “
The simple answer to Filer’s question from Dawson is “growth and development” to make the city a better place. Cater stated his platform around improvement for the city centered on “infrastructure.” Though their responses varied, more or less, all the candidates agreed that the city is not in a good place.
Fisher wants to bring back Neighborhood Watch” and wants Compton to do a citywide parking study.
The city council candidates placed a lot of emphasis on policymaking and the city’s potential. The two individuals running for the city treasurer’s position, incumbent Brandon Mims and Maxwell Burke.
Without Zurita lending an alternative voice, Boone’s biggest gripe is that Compton does not do enough, in terms of rendering services to its residents, as a charter city. Drawing comparisons to local municipalities like Downey and Carson, Boone also talked about Compton being an island unto itself as a charter city.
“At one point, we had a whole police department,” Boone stated. “We used to have all the schools…the schools were taken away from us from the state. Now, the district, they don’t belong to us. We have a city council, a mayor and council, but they don’t follow the charter. We have a city attorney that’s supposed to be for the people, but will advise the council if need be. We don’t have a city attorney. There’s no one for us.”
