Compton’s 2025 State Audit: Measured Progress Amid Persistent High-Risk Conditions

The California State Auditor’s October 7, 2025 report delivers a sobering yet nuanced assessment of the City of Compton.

https://www.auditor.ca.gov/

While the city has made demonstrable progress in select areas since the Auditor’s 2022 high-risk designation, the overall conclusion remains unchanged:

Compton continues to operate as a "high-risk" local government entity, with systemic weaknesses that pose ongoing financial, operational, and public-safety concerns.

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A Mixed Record of Progress

The audit evaluates Compton’s response to 18 recommendations issued in 2022, grouped into three priority levels. As of October 2025, only six recommendations have been fully addressed, while nine remain partially addressed and three are still pending. This uneven progress underscores a central theme of the report: improvements are occurring, but not at the scale or pace required to mitigate long-standing risks.

Among the more positive developments, Compton has adopted and begun funding a capital improvement plan, finalized a master sewer study, centralized its purchasing function, and approved a repayment plan for money previously borrowed from restricted funds. These actions represent meaningful steps toward restoring basic operational controls and addressing deferred infrastructure needs compton 2025 audit.

Governance and Staffing: The Core Unresolved Risk

Despite these gains, the Auditor identifies personnel and governance failures as Compton’s most persistent vulnerability. The city has yet to amend its charter to ensure open and competitive hiring, leaving key leadership positions susceptible to internal promotions without adequate qualification standards. High turnover in senior roles—including the city manager and human resources director—continues to undermine institutional stability.

Equally concerning is the city’s failure to formally define the responsibilities of its human resources department or require regular performance reporting to the city council. While staffing levels in human resources have improved numerically, the absence of codified authority, accountability, and long-term planning means the structural problem remains unresolved.

Financial Planning Without Full Implementation

The audit acknowledges that Compton has developed a fiscal sustainability plan, a long-standing recommendation. However, the plan’s effectiveness is constrained by incomplete financial data, unaudited historical records, and partial implementation. Although general fund expenditures have remained below revenues in recent audited years, the Auditor cautions that this alone does not constitute fiscal health—particularly when pension obligations, retiree health liabilities (OPEB), and overtime costs remain unaddressed.

Budgetary best practices also remain inconsistently applied. While the city has adopted policies aligned with Government Finance Officers Association standards, those policies have not been fully implemented into standard operating procedures. As a result, budgeting decisions continue to lack the transparency and long-term perspective required for sustainable governance.

Infrastructure: Improvements With Lingering Risks

Infrastructure presents another area of partial progress. Compton’s streets, though marginally improved, remain among the worst-rated in the region, with nearly half classified as poor or very poor. The city’s target improvement level would still leave it trailing neighboring jurisdictions by 2029, prompting the Auditor to recommend more aggressive intervention.

Water and sewer infrastructure pose more acute risks. Only four of the city’s eight water wells were consistently operational as of mid-2025, forcing reliance on imported water during emergency conditions.

Although a new sewer management plan has been completed and spills have ceased since 2022, the city has yet to complete most of the remediation projects mandated under a 2016 legal settlement—a failure that continues to expose Compton to regulatory and public health risks.

Public Safety Implications: Structural Weaknesses With Real-World Consequences

Although the audit is framed primarily around governance, financial management, and infrastructure, its findings have direct and significant public safety implications. The State Auditor makes clear that unresolved staffing failures, deferred infrastructure maintenance, and weak financial controls are not abstract administrative issues—they materially affect the City of Compton’s ability to protect residents during emergencies and deliver essential services reliably.

One of the most pressing concerns involves water system reliability during emergency events. As of mid-2025, only four of the city’s eight water wells were consistently operational. During a large-scale fire event in October 2024, Compton was forced to rely on imported water from the Metropolitan Water District to meet firefighting and system demand. While city officials stated that the remaining operational wells are sufficient under normal conditions, the audit highlights that emergency scenarios expose the fragility of the system and elevate public safety risk.

The city’s street conditions also carry safety ramifications. Nearly half of Compton’s roads remain in poor or very poor condition, placing the city among the lowest-performing jurisdictions in its region. Deteriorated streets impede emergency response times, increase vehicle damage for police and fire departments, and elevate accident risks for residents. Although pavement conditions have marginally improved since 2022, the Auditor concludes that the city’s current improvement targets are insufficient to meaningfully reduce these risks over the next several years.

Public safety concerns extend further into fire department staffing and overtime practices. The audit notes that Compton has yet to adopt a finalized policy governing how much overtime it budgets annually or to complete a cost-benefit analysis comparing overtime expenses with the cost of hiring additional firefighters. A consultant’s report addressing this issue remains in draft form. Until a formal policy is implemented, the city risks both fiscal inefficiency and operational strain on emergency personnel—conditions that can compromise readiness and response effectiveness.

Finally, the city’s sewer infrastructure history underscores broader health and environmental safety concerns. While no additional sewage spills have occurred since 2022 and a Sewer System Management Plan has been completed, Compton has fulfilled only a small fraction of the remediation projects required under a 2016 legal judgment. The Auditor stresses that until these projects are completed, the risk of future system failures—and their attendant public health consequences—remains unresolved.

Taken together, these findings reinforce a central message of the report:

Public safety in Compton is inseparable from governance discipline and infrastructure investment.

The city’s progress, though real, has not yet reached a level that fully insulates residents from preventable risks arising from deferred maintenance, incomplete reforms, and inconsistent implementation.

The Path Forward

The Auditor’s report does not portray Compton as stagnant, nor does it dismiss recent efforts. Instead, it delivers a clear warning: incremental progress is not enough.

Without decisive action to reform hiring practices, institutionalize financial controls, fully implement adopted policies, and confront long-term liabilities, Compton will remain vulnerable to operational breakdowns and fiscal distress.

Ultimately, the report frames Compton’s challenge as one of execution rather than awareness. The problems are well-documented, the recommendations are clear, and in many cases the tools already exist.

What remains uncertain is whether the city’s leadership will consistently follow through—transforming plans, studies, and policies into durable governance reforms that protect residents, taxpayers, and the city’s future.

Questions or Concerns About the State Audit?

Compton residents with questions about the California State Auditor’s October 2025 report can contact the California State Auditor’s Office directly:

Phone: (916) 445-0255 (general inquiries)

For issues related to improper activities or to report concerns, there is also a Whistleblower Hotline: (800) 952-5665.

These contacts can be used to ask questions about the report or request additional information.