District 1 residents are “excited and elated”, they said, that their councilwoman Janna Zurita will remain in her seat despite the recall efforts against her. Had the efforts been successful, voters would have had to decide on the matter in November. However, not enough signatures were gathered in its favor and Zurita is now congratulating her constituents for making the right decision.

“You were the winner in this recall effort,” she told residents via a recently released statement.

“You saw through the unfair, unwise and unwarranted recall effort because the citizens of Compton know a con job when they see one. The voters, volunteers and residents of the First District know I have worked hard to protect their interests, improve their neighborhoods, create jobs and grow the City's economy. The thousands of voters who refused to sign the Recall Petition chose real leadership over chicanery and real dedication or phony promises and someone they know really loves our city, over the forces who just want to take advantage of them…”

Zurita was elected to the Compton City Council in 2011. She was born and raised in Compton as part of a family long entrenched in the city’s political landscape.  She is the daughter of retired Public Administrator Clarence Zurita and former two term Compton City Councilmember Delores Zurita and the sister of current Compton Unified School District Governing Board Vice President Satra Zurita. Janna Zurita was a student   of the Compton Unified School District, graduating from Compton High School in 1982. She furthered her education at Compton Community College, and Long Beach City College where she was trained and certified as a surgical nurse.

Prior to being elected to the Compton City Council, Zurita worked at various hospitals in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas, and she also managed her own business. She took on the position of the city’s mayor pro tem in 2011.

As councilwoman, Zurita has worked to provide her constituents with reduced water rates, public safety, clean and safe parks and neighborhoods, enhanced street and sidewalk services, new business development, and senior services. She has also made philanthropic efforts.

In 2012, she co-founded the Compton Walk For A Cure to bring breast cancer awareness and free mammograms to the city in an effort to reduce the number of women who succumb to breast cancer in annually. Zurita also founded the Autism Swim Adventure Club, the Autism Awareness Fair and a support group to provide opportunities and resources for children with special needs. She partnered with the Michelle Obama “Let’s Move” initiate and started the Let’s Move Compton Annual Fitness Day, among many other social and educational programs that “truly enhance the quality of life for all residents of Compton”, according to  a spokesperson for comptoncity.org.

“She has always been an accountable and accessible councilwoman,” said long time Compton district 1 resident Jerry Randle.

“I’m elated and excited that she was able to prevail. [The recall effort was made by] outside forces that don’t really have a vested interested in the wellbeing of the city…”

Fellow resident and president of the Compton Coalition for integrity and governance, Cynthia Macon, agrees.

“I think it’s extremely important to the city’s future that Janna Zurita remain on the City Council at this time,” she said.

“She has been the most outspoken person against the marijuana industry in our city. If you’ve heard some of the stories about what our city went through in the 80s and 90s, you would know that we don’t want to revisit that…”

The recall effort was spearheaded by a group of unnamed Compton residents from district 1, according to their website recalljannazurita.com. They accused Zurita of “deceiving residents in Compton, not living in District 1 and of bullying not only residents and City staff but her colleagues as well.”

“She has publicly berated and disrespected the City Treasurer, City Attorney, City Manager and others during public council meetings,” they said.

Zurita warned her constituents against the effort, calling it “frivolous” and a “distraction”

“[This is] because I have demanded accountability for those responsible for theft of $3,700,000 and mismanagement of our tax dollars,” she said in an open letter published in the Sentinel earlier this month.

“These corrupting forces are fighting back.  To shut-me-up, the same people who mismanaged our city’s finances want to recall me for protecting your interests. “I have: fought legalization of marijuana, demanded the investigation of officials who stole millions of tax dollars, requested an investigation into cash and an unknown account in the City Clerk’s office and been a fiscal watchdog.

“Now, a handful of rabid political opponents have resorted to vicious lies. The facts: I was born, raised and educated in Compton; graduated from Compton High; and I live and work in Compton. FACTS ARE EASILY VERIFIED.  Moreover, 4 years ago I was elected to the Los Angeles County Democratic Party Central Committee, representing Compton.

“I won’t be silenced by political opponents and their threats.  I have faith in God and the voters of Compton to not silence my demand for accountability and transparency…”

The recall vote would have cost the city $200,000, that it didn’t have, she said.

“[Their failure],” said Zurita, “should tell outside special interests and those who want to help them take over our community's destiny, and halt its progress; that you cannot be fooled or misled. It should tell everyone that Compton is not for sale, rent or takeover. It should tell them that Compton is for the people of Compton and the progress on which we are working every day is to make our City a great place to live, learn and develop.”

Zurita also said in the statement, that she hopes the recall failure will stop outsiders from “trying to install their own hand-picked leaders, to impose their self-interested views on people who have their own and, instead to work with those of us elected to represent them. It is time to put Compton First!"

She is ready to roll up her sleeves and move forward, she said, with continuing the work of addressing quality of life issues for her constituents.

"The voters in my district and throughout the City know I am here for them and their future,” Zurita’s statement said.

“Congratulations, Compton, I may have beaten the recall, but you won your city back.”

Phenomenal things are happening in the City of Inglewood, from the L.A. Rams and the L.A. Chargers, to recent talks about the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, and the building of a new state-of-the-art stadium. Mayor James Butts, the man behind the City of Champions, spoke with the Los Angeles Sentinel on the city’s development and Inglewood’s positive and constructive movement forward, during his leadership.

“I don’t think that people can fully appreciate what’s happened in Inglewood and what continues to happen, without taking a little bit of a retrospective look at the city and what it has morphed into,” said Butts.

“It was a place that some would have you believe no one would come back and [attend] concerts ever again, because ‘it was in Inglewood’,” Butts said. “Well, along the way, we have compiled six consecutive lowest years of crime in history, on record in the City of Inglewood. Not only did people come back to the Forum, it is the number one concert venue in the state of California for booked events, 25 percent more than Staple Center.  Its number two in the country, and number four in the world.”

Now, Mayor Butts is doing the unthinkable by bringing the NFL back to Inglewood. The city is now the new home to the Los Angeles Rams (announced January 2016) and the Los Angeles Chargers (announced January 2017).  In June of this year, Mayor Butts opened up negotiations with the Clippers to build a state-of-the-art basketball arena, to be built across the street from what is said to become the largest and most expensive NFL arena in the world.

“We are going to have 2,500 residential units alongside of it, 300 key hotel, 6,000 seat performing arts theater, four parks, two lakes, one million square feet of office [space], and about one million square feet of retail and quality dining,” said Butts. “It will be the premier sports entertainment destination in Southern California.”

Arguably, with all of the new changes happening in the city, some residents are concerned about the challenges of gentrification, being priced out to make room for a new demographic.

 “Gentrification is not what is happening in Inglewood,” said Butts. “I feel great that people want to move into Inglewood and I feel great that people are allowed to sell their houses for double what they bought them for and do as they please. No one is being forced to sell his or her property,” he said. 

Butts says prior to his election, the city had an $18.5 million dollar structural deficit, a 17.5 percent unemployment rate (one of the highest in the state of California), a decaying infrastructure and more. Today, Inglewood’s unemployment rate is 5.5 percent (one of the lowest in the state), the general fund has more than quadrupled, and the city’s bond rating has increased. In 2014, they also negotiated a deal with Madison Square Garden Company (MSG) to reopen the iconic Inglewood Forum.

According to Butts, as a result of the rebuilding, the number of jobs for Inglewood residents will increase and so will the value of homes. As of the middle of 2017, since the end of 2012, property values have gone up 102 percent in Inglewood. Currently, 19 percent of the employees working on the construction project are Inglewood residents, and 40 percent of the employees who work at the Inglewood Forum are Inglewood residents.

“We feel that local people should share in this tide of wealth that is coming to Inglewood. We are very proud; we are now an economic center that is going to bring economic prosperity, not only to Inglewood, but also to South Bay and the Greater Los Angeles region. We have become an emerging economic center for the state,” said the mayor.

Still, the building of the new arena is not the most exciting news for some. In July, the Forum owners filed a claim for damages against the city for “quietly” entering a deal to build the new arena. MSG claimed the Inglewood mayor used a “bait-and-switch strategy” to persuade Forum executives into opening the way for the new stadium.

“Here in 2017, we have people who believe that they can tell a Black and Brown city the constraints of your dreams; that we need their permission to do greater and greater things, and we don’t agree with that,” said Butts. 

Butts doesn’t view the situation as racial but sees the irony.  “Within the last four years, the city has acquired two [NFL] football teams, the number one concert venue in the state, and moving on to an NBA team.  “That anyone would deem to say, ‘now, we have decided the constraints of your aspirations … We are a city that took responsibility and did the tough things to stabilize ourselves financially, to renew our infrastructure, take care of our streets, our trees, our sidewalks, our water system. We improved public safety and than we reached out and positioned ourselves to bring back entertainment and made good partnerships that led the city to where it is right now.”

Butts gives weight to a city revitalizing itself through sports and entertainment with the addition of  two NFL teams, the potentiality of an NBA team, the Olympics coming in 2028 and the Super Bowl in 2022. “There’s where the irony was, that with doing all of the things that we’ve done to make ourselves probably the new sports entertainment capital of Southern California, we, still at this point, have to fight for the right to self-determination.  And that’s the irony. You don’t see Black and Brown cities in the position that we are, that come as far as we have in four years, he said.   

As a continuation of the mayor’s and the City Council’s vision for Inglewood, Senator Steven Bradford ushered a new senate bill for revenue in Inglewood. The measure will facilitate the move of the Clippers, and the new stadium for the Rams and Chargers. SB 789 will also streamline Inglewood sports and entertainment projects, expedite transit projects to serve the city and the upcoming Olympic games, while ensuring the protection of existing members of the community and their homes.

The bill was introduced early September on the assembly floor.

“We must take action now to ensure the city's vision comes to fruition,” said Senator Bradford. “It is critical that this is done immediately for the timely implementation and success of forthcoming projects. These major projects will help boost the economy in Inglewood and the greater Los Angeles region, while improving investments, entertainment, and highlighting Inglewood’s significance to California.”

Mayor Butts addressed the challenges on police violence and his vision for helping create an ethical policing system.   He says he has always had a passion for serving people and public safety. Prior to his career as a politician, he spent 37 years in public safety, starting in Inglewood in 1972, serving 19 years there. He was the city’s first Black motor officer, one of the first of two Black sergeants, first Black lieutenant, a captain, the only Black deputy chief in history of the city, the first Black officer in SWAT and became SWAT a commander.  

But some might question if his experiences remove him from the everyday realities of civilians on the streets, that come into contact with corrupt officers. 

“I balance [my career] with growing up in 77th division area, near Florence and Van Ness, attending Horace Mann Junior High, Crenshaw High School and Cal State L.A. So, I know that there was deeply entrenched history of police being discriminatory towards minorities and African Americans specifically,” he said.   But Butts feels relations between officers and civilians have gotten better. “Where that trend started to change, is when people like myself began to rise in police departments and brought that level of sensitivity to what was going on in the cultures of police departments, and I am proud to say I had an impact on the culture in Inglewood.”

According to Mayor Butts, he served 15 years as police chief for the City of Santa Monica, which is one of the most highly regarded police departments in the country, particularly for its diversity and the way that it treats people of color.  He also supervised a staff of 1,100, when we managed the airport police and the counter terrorism operation.  A career in working with people helps his perspective on bad officers.

“I do have a great sense of what’s going on but I will tell you this, the culture of police departments are directly impacted by the quality of leadership of a police department. The most important thing that cities can do is to pick a good police chief and hold him or her accountable for outcomes,” Butts said.  He went on to address exposing and dealing with problems with the department.  “You will never be able to stop bad things from happening, and no matter how you screen, you will find that you end up employing people [who] are going to do some very bad things. It is not whether or not you can ever stop a bad person from being hired, its how you deal with them when you discover [the issue]. You will get more of what you reward and less of what you sanction.”

Butts is proud of the Inglewood police department. “We have come a long ways, in terms of our recruitment, regimen and the culture in the organization. Our police chief, Mark Fronterotta, who happens to be White, is turning out to probably be the best police chief that we ever had in the City of Inglewood.  

Looking back at his accomplishments in law enforcement and throughout his career in public office, Butt’s views community pride as the legacy of Inglewood.

“At the end of the day, what you want is for everyone who works, lives, and comes through [Inglewood], to be proud to be there, for whatever period of time they are there and that our residents are proud to say, ‘I live in Inglewood,’ and we have accomplished that,” he said.

“We have reached a degree of greatness and we haven’t played a single (NFL) football game here, or a single (NBA) basketball game yet. But, our residents are so proud …  wherever they go, if they say, ‘I live in Inglewood,’ they become the center of attention. And so we say, the only thing that has changed in Inglewood, is everything, and that capsulizes what has happened here.”

Visit www.lasentinel.net and or www.lawattstimes.com for the full video of mayor James Butts going one-on-one with the Sentinel and Watts Times.

As more and more inches of rain fell this week in the Houston-Galveston area, the wrath of Hurricane Harvey, downgraded to a tropical storm, continued along the Gulf Coast toward Louisiana, sparking more evacuations and further heightening concerns of residents and local and state officials.

Rainfall numbers have broken national records at 51.88 inches as of Wednesday, August 30.

President Donald Trump, along with his wife, White House staff and elected officials, met in Corpus Christi on Tuesday afternoon, August 29 for a briefing led by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

Trump applauded the efforts of first responders in Texas and promised to make sure the recovery efforts would be swift and serve as a subsequent model for the world. He closed with comments about the impressive size of the crowd that turned out to hear him.

However, critics fault him for saying nothing to the millions of victims who remain homeless, lost or dead.

Houston has emerged as Ground Zero with record-breaking rainfall, unprecedented flooding and over 17,000 people displaced and forced to seek refuge in three mega-centers: the Houston Convention Center, the NRG Center and the Toyota Center—all three at or beyond capacity.

Red Cross CEO American Red Cross Gulf Coast Texas Region on Wednesday said his organization has opened close to 100 smaller shelters in Texas. Cities like San Antonio and Dallas, both spared from the fury of the storm, have opened centers to accommodate the overflow of citizens.

In a twist of irony, with thousands still stranded and at least 10 reported dead, including a 61-year-old veteran Houston Police Department officer, Tuesday also marked the 12th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Katrina touched down in 2005, devastating the U.S. Gulf Coast, killing more than 1,800 people and resulting in over $100 billion in damage.

In the Houston area, the U.S. Coast Guard reported on Tuesday that cries for help still had not abated as officials recorded as many as 1,000 calls per hour. As of Tuesday afternoon, they had rescued more than 3,000 people via boat and air. Between Sunday and Tuesday, the Houston Fire Department reported receiving more than 2,300 calls, including 400 from individuals seeking to be rescued from the great flood waters.

Meanwhile, the Houston police reported that between Monday and Tuesday, they had rescued 1,000 people, bringing the total to more than 3,000 since the flood began.

National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) member and Houston Defender publisher Sonny Messiah-Jiles counted among the many rescued from their homes, as water poured through her house forcing them to higher ground.

“It’s been a hell of a day,” Messiah-Jiles said on Sunday. “Some neighbors came down from about four or five blocks from us and ended up rescuing everyone from our gated community—about 60 people—and it was my first time in an airboat, but I’m alive and well and okay.”

Messiah-Jiles noted that she’s now safe in a hotel.

“I’m just hoping we don’t have what they had in Louisiana with the levees,” Messiah-Jiles said.

Karen Carter-Richards, the publisher of The Houston Forward Times and 1st vice president of the NNPA, said that she and her family and the offices of the Forward Times remain intact.

“Thank God we’re okay. There’s no water in our house and we’re safe and dry,” said Carter-Richards, noting that the Forward Times building did receive minor water damage.

Flooding from Tropical Storm Harvey, described by the National Weather Service (NWS) as “unprecedented,” has overloaded resources as authorities in and around Houston continue scrambling to save those still trapped by the high waters.

“The breadth and intensity of this rainfall are beyond anything experienced before,” the NWS said. “Catastrophic flooding is now underway and expected to continue for days.”

Service Disruptions Abound

The Houston Independent School District has canceled school for the week and the Houston Astros baseball team has moved its home games to Florida.

Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport closed, because of flooding.

Ben Taub Hospital, which houses a Level I trauma center, faced evacuation after flooding in the basement “disrupted the power source.”

Some 316,000 customers lost electricity and the Red Cross said it has kept busy serving about 130,000 meals a day.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said he understands the compulsion to find safer ground, but urged people to think twice before venturing out into high water and to consider unforeseen dangers, such as manhole covers being lifted from their holes.

Lt. Craig Cummings of the Texas Department of Public Safety said attempts to drive to safety may be futile anyway, as it took him two-and-a-half hours to drive 20 miles in Houston on Sunday.

“There’s 60 barricaded locations as of midnight. Most thoroughfares are impassable. Several hundred structures are flooded, and we are expecting that number to rise,” he told CNN.

Harvey blasted ashore as a Category 4 hurricane just north of Corpus Christi late Saturday, August 26 and early Sunday, August 27. It brought with it 132-mph winds but would be quickly downgraded to a tropical storm. Still, it continued to spawn tornadoes and lightning causing fires throughout the city.

Houston’s mayor did not immediately call for a required evacuation but many residents attempted to flee as waters surged.

“Rainfall of this magnitude will cause catastrophic and life-threatening flooding,” the NWS said.

(AP Photos)