Compton gadflies persist despite attempts to swat them down

They can be counted on, week in and week out.

Whatever the issue before the Compton City Council, Joyce Kelly, William Kemp and Lynn Boone will be there.

They’ll arrive early, clutching manila envelopes stuffed with documents.

They’ll be impeccably dressed: Kelly in a smart outfit with matching hat, Kemp in dapper suit, tie and shoes of ostrich or alligator leather, Boone in high heels and a perfectly coifed do — blonde by L’Oréal.

They will sit in the front row, or on the aisle with easy access to the podium.

And one by one they will rise to scold the mayor and council with an assortment of complaints ranging from gripes about alleged bad manners to charges of major misconduct, such as the alleged misappropriation of funds.

The drama has intensified since Mayor Eric Perrodin began his third term in April 2009.

Most cities have their gadflies. But in Compton, the weekly showdown pitting Kelly, Kemp and Boone against city leaders is often the central feature of the city’s public proceedings — so much so that the city in recent years passed a “decorum” ordinance prohibiting, among other actions, whistling at such meetings.

The mayor has also tried to ban clapping, talking among audience members and rattling of newspaper pages. He has even tried to outlaw coughing.

But the Compton three keep coming back.

“It wouldn’t bother me if you use the word ‘obsessed,’ because I am,” said Kelly, 62, who lost in her 2009 bid to become Compton’s mayor.

It’s not unusual these days for Southern Californian municipal governments to have written policies governing conduct at city council meetings.

In 2002, for example, Riverside adopted an ordinance that allows the council to remove speakers for hissing or using profanity or insulting language during a meeting. The following year, the Corona City Council adopted a similar ordinance that allows speakers to be barred from any city meeting if they become boisterous or make “personal, impertinent or slanderous remarks.”

And in 2009, the Los Angeles City Council tightened its decorum rules after a man wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood and robe made several outbursts.

“City councils are always trying to balance the situation of letting residents testify and letting the council meeting move along,” said Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that studies California governance. “You want it to be an efficient meeting. If you have people coming up and saying the same thing all the time, you are really wasting everyone’s time.”

But Stern said he had never heard of rules to ban actions such as coughing or applause. “That’s more like a courtroom,” he said.

Neither Perrodin nor other city representatives, including the city attorney, responded to requests seeking comment for this article.

Compton’s ordinance prohibits “disorderly or boisterous conduct, including the utterance of loud, threatening or abusive language, whistling, or stamping of feet” or other actions “that disturb, disrupt or impede the orderly conduct of the council meeting.”

But the rule has not shut down the gadflies. Neither have the council’s other strategies, such as canceling broadcasts of public comments at meetings (the broadcasts were later resumed) or reducing the time allotted for audience members to speak.

Punctured with interruptions, council meetings frequently stretch late into the evening. The atmosphere is often tense. Tempers become heated.

Usually at least a few supporters of Kelly, Kemp and Boone are in the crowd, murmuring, “Uh-huh,” and “That’s right,” as the three speak. Perrodin has tried to crack down on that too.

At other times, fearing ejection by black-clad municipal law enforcement officers, audience members scribble notes on scraps of paper and surreptitiously pass them around.

Sometimes the back-and-forth between Perrodin and the three resembles a family quarrel. For example, Kemp recently implored Perrodin to “look at me when I’m talking to you.” The mayor disobeyed, eyes down, face deadpan.

Other times, the tone has turned ugly.

For example, in November, according to transcripts, Kelly and Perrodin faced off.

Kelly told the council she didn’t appreciate the “the games” members were playing. “It’s very rude,” she said. “But then you don’t give a damn.”

Perrodin: “Ms. Kelly. Ms. Kelly.”

Kelly: “What! Don’t tell me how to talk, what to talk, and when to talk …”

Perrodin: “Sheriff’s officials! Sheriff’s officials! I’ll sign the arrest report!”

Kelly: “You sign it! And you know what? You know what you can do with it!”

A month later, Perrodin was visibly angry as he repeatedly warned Boone, who said she had been diagnosed with pneumonia, to stop coughing or face expulsion from the chamber. The warning resulted in a seemingly unconscious chorus of stifled coughs.

The trio object to the reallocation of bond funds to cover startup costs for the return of the Compton Police Department — a move many residents oppose. They have reserved particular criticism for Perrodin, faulting his campaign funding practices and his connections to some contracts, including one awarded to Perrodin’s brother. (Perrodin abstained from that vote.) Such allegations have formed the basis of almost half a dozen attempts by the trio to recall Perrodin and several city officials. All have failed.

The three also said they have complained about Perrodin to other agencies, including the L.A. County district attorney’s office. Dave Demerjian, head of the district attorney’s Public Integrity Division, has told The Times that his agency would refer any complaints about Perrodin to the California attorney general’s office to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, since Perrodin works for the district attorney.

Officials in the attorney general’s office have declined to comment on whether the agency is looking into Compton allegations.

So for now, Kelly, Kemp and Boone said they would continue to press their issues at the speakers’ podium.

“I feel it is a mission from God,” said Kelly, who at age 55 got a degree in print journalism and mass communications from Cal State Long Beach.

The trio claim to almost never miss a meeting and say that — among the three of them —- they have occasioned at least 20 ejections.

Boone, a former Compton Community Redevelopment Agency employee who is suing the city as a whistle-blower, said she scrutinizes the agenda line by line before each meeting. She checks the business licenses of companies seeking contracts from the city, looks for references and examines the credentials of would-be city consultants.

Although she says she “is not a politician,” she once lost a bid to become mayor and is planning to run for a council seat due to become vacant this year.

Kemp, 43, a Compton native, who has who has been thrown out of meetings more than a dozen times for snickering, speaking off-topic and addressing council members by name, said he inherited his passion for civic duty from his grandfather, a prominent 1950s community activist. “I hate bullies,” said Kemp.

ann.simmons@latimes.com