2 Officials Linked to Financial Scandal Expected to Be Fired : Education: Federal report says college administrators mismanaged $500,000, some of which the school will have to repay.

COMPTON —  Two administrators linked to the mismanagement of federal funds at Compton Community College are expected to be fired at a special meeting of the Board of Trustees this week.

Board members directed college attorney Urea Jones on Tuesday to notify Dean of Instruction James Willard and Associate Dean Velta Jones of the plan to fire them.

Willard and Jones were among four administrators placed on paid leave in October after a federal education department report found that nearly $500,000 was misspent at the college. Federal officials have said the college will have to repay part of the money, which was earmarked for low-income students.

In February, a Coopers & Lybrand audit confirmed the findings in the federal report, including expenditures on improper items such as clothes and carpeting, and “blatant nepotism” by Jones, who hired two relatives for jobs they were not qualified for and paid them nearly three times the recommended salary.

The audit’s findings outraged students and faculty at the 6,000-student campus, and led to the removal of Warren A. Washington as the school’s president.

Stan Allotey, director of one of the federal programs, and counselor Edward Bradley also had been placed on leave. They were reassigned to new positions on campus in March. Board members concluded that neither was responsible for the misspent money.

Although Willard’s and Jones’ contracts run through the end of June, several trustees said they will push for their immediate firing. Both have been paid full salary since October. Willard earns $6,100 per month and Jones $5,150 per month.

Board members have been widely criticized for not taking quicker action, but some trustees defended the delay, saying that the magnitude of the audit’s findings was overwhelming and time-consuming.

“We had to take one problem at a time,” Trustee LeGrand Clegg II said. “The board has shown a willingness to evaluate each individual and each case separately. (The firings) might have been more timely, but we wanted to exercise caution.”

Others on campus said the delay caused resentment among faculty and staff, who wondered why the two administrators were not required to work at the college while awaiting the trustees’ decision. “For them to simply sit home and wait for the mailman to bring them their checks is appalling,” said faculty union President James Johnson. “We all have to go to work and earn our salaries and they should have too.”

Willard could not be reached for comment, and an attorney representing Jones said he had no comment because he had not been notified by the board.

Also last week, Washington was guaranteed a full-time counseling job at the college, beginning this fall. As a tenured faculty member, he has been teaching one class per week since he was asked to step down as president in March.

A nationwide search for Washington’s replacement is under way, school officials said. Associate Dean Essie French-Preston has been acting president since Washington left the post.