Compton’s New City Manager Hopes to Fix Long-Standing Financial Crisis 

By Marion Apio and Sheena Hutchinson

Compton’s City Manager is promising to fix the city’s longstanding financial crisis, provide stable leadership, and help overcome the city’s standing in the public eye. The economic challenges primarily stem from a lack of strategic leadership and over 15 years of fiscal mismanagement, overspending, and questionable budgeting practices.

A photo of Willie Hopkins, City Manager, Compton (Photos by Charles Jackson Jr)

The City Council appointed Willie Hopkins Jr., a U.S. Army veteran with nearly 25 years of government administration, to be the new city manager. He officially began his tenure in January 2024.

When Compton resumed its city council meetings on Sept. 2, 2025, it announced the approval of $20 million in city road repairs and infrastructure improvements. This is one of the many proactive steps by the city’s leadership to deliver on a promise made during the November 2024 election.

Hopkins faces several immediate challenges, including the city’s $100 million unfunded pension liability, inadequate infrastructure, and declining community services.

Hopkins, who will earn $298,532.00 in salary and benefits, according to Transparent California, a public platform that tracks pay and pensions. He said he is up to the task.

“The world knows the state auditor audited the City back in 2022 and basically gave some extremely challenging issues that this city needed to address to become financially stable,” he said in an interview with City Pride Magazine reporters.

The auditor’s report from three years ago (October 2022) highlighted that untimely and incomplete recordkeeping has resulted in higher risks for fraud and a lack of credibility. According to the report, Compton has been ranked as the most fiscally at-risk city in California since October 2019 on the California State Auditor’s Local High-Risk Dashboard.

Compton’s failure to maintain basic financial transparency and controls has significantly contributed to infrastructural challenges, including deteriorating streets and water wells, and poses higher health and safety risks to residents, the state auditor’s report says.

Hopkins, who previously served as the City Manager of Barstow from September 2021 until January 2024, says he saw in Compton “an opportunity to improve.” 

One of the city residents, Cynthia Macon, said: “Improvement in the City of Compton could not therefore occur until corrupt politicians, officials and employees were rooted out and replaced.”

Since his appointment, he has focused on three broad administrative, financial, and operational reforms, including modernizing City Hall, digitizing city systems, and enhancing public safety across the city.

Compton has been plagued by a high turnover in key leadership positions, which has contributed to the city’s struggles. Specifically, the California State Auditor’s 2022 report noted that the city had six city managers in the preceding six fiscal years, highlighting a significant lack of continuity and leadership in critical financial and operational matters.

“Our goal, actually, is to overcome that biggest hurdle that should remove Compton from the list of being the city most at financial risk,” Hopkins said.

The city’s long-standing fiscal instability, which has repeatedly threatened its ability to provide essential services, is a sharp contrast to its financial health in the mid-2000s. In the fiscal year 2007–08, Compton had a healthy general fund surplus of $22.4 million, which was depleted within a few years due to overspending. This decline was detailed in the October 2022 report (Report 2021-802) by Acting California State Auditor Michael S. Tilden, CPA, which designated the city as “High Risk” due to financial mismanagement and a lack of leadership.

Compton has been behind on annual audits by three to four years, but Hopkins said the city is now closer to meeting deadlines than it has been in over a decade.

One fix Hopkins promises to make is automating City Hall’s financial and operational processes, including digitizing city systems and modernizing operations, which falls under his administrative, economic, and operational reform goals.

Compton is also behind the average city because most of its processes are still paper-driven, while the rest of the world has transitioned to automation. “We are extremely paper-driven,” Hopkins said. “Automation has missed us by easily 30 years.”

Also, a significant payment of $2.7 million toward the city’s $100 million Unfunded Actuarial Accrued Liability (UAL) is scheduled for next month.

“Once we pay that UAL down, my next step is to get our credit rating back, because the city lost its credit rating years ago,” Hopkins said. The city’s credit issues date back to at least 2011, when a rating agency lowered the rating on its lease-revenue bonds due to deficit spending and a negative general fund balance.

The city states that it has invested heavily in paving streets, repairing sidewalks, and implementing other improvements to enhance the city’s overall aesthetic appeal. A major reconstruction of Wilmington Avenue, for example, is scheduled for completion this Fall. Additional signage and clean teams are being deployed to maintain public spaces.

Street repair on Wilmington Ave

Public safety is also a priority for city leadership. The city plans to install solar lighting, new camera systems, and drones to combat street takeovers and vandalism.

Like other cities in California, Compton is also implementing new license plate readers to identify violators and reduce illegal activity on the streets, while expanding parking and code compliance patrols to enforce a 24/7 enforcement model. 

Additionally, the city aims to expand recreational programs for seniors and youth, and explore workforce development opportunities for residents who have been greatly affected by financial challenges. Hopkins’  hope is that seniors would have access to water aerobics, bus trips, and an expanded Meals on Wheels program. He said improvements to youth programs include playground upgrades, exercise equipment along community corridors, and plans for summer jobs and internships funded through grants.  

The city is exploring workforce development opportunities for unemployed young adults, including programs that provide participants with experience funded by external grants, with the goal of preparing them for potential city employment. Residents and staff, many of whom have witnessed repeated leadership changes, now await to see whether this appointment brings lasting stability.

The dial is starting to move forward in many neglected areas of the City of Compton due to the great stewardship of the new City Manager Willie Hopkins,” said Cythia Macon, a resident of Compton. “ And taxes are finally being made available and used for their intended purpose.” 

“The world looks at Compton based on the 1980s media push of violence, and that’s not what Compton is,” Hopkins said in an interview. “The perception is not reality.”