A state audit released this month found that Compton officials overpaid themselves, charged questionable trips on city-issued credit cards and failed to safeguard taxpayer money, resulting in one staffer stealing millions of dollars over several years. Compton's weak financial oversight and rampant overspending turned a general fund surplus of $22.4 million a decade ago into a deficit of $42.7 million just three years later, the audit found. Even after officials adopted a plan to repay the debt in 2014, the deficit increased by $6.4 million the next year.

Source: Los Angeles Times March 27, 2018 21:12 UTC