COMPTON – The Compton City Council voted 3-0 to place its city manager on administrative leave on April 7.
Compton Mayor Emma Sharif announced that City Manager Willie Hopkins was placed on leave at the close of the regular city council meeting.
“The city manager has now been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation,” said Sharif.
Councilmembers Diedra Duhart and Andre Spicer did not vote.
Hopkins was appointed to the position in late 2023 after serving in the same role in Barstow.
Following the City Council’s decision, Sharif issued a statement to her social media account.
“Because this is a personnel matter, and in order to respect privacy rights and applicable employment laws, the City is not in a position to discuss the details of this decision,” said Sharif.
Residents speculate the leave was due to his failure to investigate allegations of credit card abuse against District 2 Councilman Andre Spicer and to provide the City Council with quarterly credit card statements for their review.
The city manager has a history of not disclosing payments made to vendors and for the Cal-Card as warrant registers are not placed on the city council agendas for the public to view.
“There is no credit card investigation on this week’s council agenda after the mayor called for a report on the matter,” said one resident who declined to be identified. “At this point the city manager is intentionally showing his insubordination towards to the mayor in plain view of the community.”
The credit card allegations surfaced in early December 2025 after his Cal-Card credit card statements were made public.
The statements showed what appeared to be a series of personal purchases that fell outside the purview of the parameters established by the council.
On December 3, 2024, the Compton City Council approved Resolution 26,168. This resolution authorized the City Manager to establish the City’s Purchasing Card accounts through the state of California’s Cal-Card Program.
Section 6 addresses the use of the Cal-Card by elected officials.
“That for elected officials, use of the purchasing card shall be restricted for travel and training use only. When the elected official is not attending a scheduled travel or training, the Cal-Card shall be maintained in the possession of the designated Cal-Card Account Manager for safekeeping purposes.”
In multiple public statements made by Spicer, addressing his credit card usage, he admits some of the purchases fall outside of the policy. He used his for travel expenses of a rap star for a Daddy/Daughter dance and expenditures related to community outreach.
“I am submitting this formal complaint to request that the Public Integrity Unit investigate Compton City Council Member Andre Spicer for the alleged illegal misuse of both a city-issued credit card (Cal-Card) and his mayoral campaign funds,” wrote the complainant. “These actions constitute a potential Gift of Public Funds, Official Misconduct, and violations of state campaign finance laws.”
“Council Member Spicer was issued a city Purchasing Card through the state of California’s Cal Card Program. The City of Compton’s policy (specifically Resolution 26,169, Section 6) explicitly restricts elected officials’ use of this card for “travel and training use only.”
After the allegations were forwarded to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, their public integrity unit confirmed the matter is under review.
Weeks later, longtime assistant city manager Triphenia Simmons resigned from her position, which became effective Dec. 31.
Residents have come to the weekly council meeting demanding an update on the investigation into how taxpayer funds were being misused.
“Tonight is Tuesday, and two weeks from last week, and what’s up with the credit cards, and I have a source that says you are still using the credit cards,” said Tanya Lewis, during the public comment portion of the April 7 meeting.
“He [Spicer] needs to be in jail. Pat Moore went to jail. [Walter] Tucker went to jail. Omar [Bradley] went to jail, and Amen Ra went to jail, and he’s still sitting there,” continued Lewis.
A resident from Council District 3 also came forward with questions about the credit card investigation.
“We haven’t received a quarterly statement of how our money is being spent, and after I requested the information, I was told it’s on hold pending an investigation, so I can not get it,” said the resident.
Mayor Sharif has requested updates from Hopkins at multiple city council meetings, but these items have not been included on the council agenda for discussion.
The City Council went back into closed session at the end. of the council meeting to discuss the performance evaluation of Hopkins.
City Clerk Satra Zurita then called for the vote to reconvene the meeting, with Council members Diedra Duhart and Spicer noticeably absent.
Spicer issued a statement on his social media accounts saying “we’re cooked” should Hopkins decide to sue the city.
The City’s former human resources director Kareemah Bradford addressed Spicer’s concern.
“He wasn’t terminated so he has no damages and his performance can be investigated and sometimes you have to move the employee ot fairly investigate a situation,” said Bradford.
The mayor indicated in her statement that the decision to place Hopkins on leave was not made lightly.
“This action follows multiple closed sessions and careful deliberation by the City Council,” said Sharif. “My colleagues and I remain committed to acting in the best interest of the City of Compton and its residents.