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City Leaders Offer Different Views of Deactivated Program
By
Gary Walker
Bulletin staff writer
A
defunct project that once was hailed by the city’s leaders
as an elixir for neighborhood stabilization and a creative
way to give the jobless, parolees and those who have run afoul of
the law
a shot at gainful employment was recently brought back to life — at
least, for the time being, in name only.
The ghost of Operation Redirection, a municipal program that focused
on converting blighted, dilapidated and abandoned homes into affordable
single-family units by city residents came whistling through City Council
chambers last week on a rainy Tuesday afternoon. The program’s purpose,
as presented by City Manager Barbara Kilroy, appeared not to resemble the
project that many Compton residents, including one sitting councilmember,
remembered.
In 1999, it was depicted as a creative solution to assist men and
women who were having difficulty finding employment to gain a measure of
self-respect by refurbishing building and homes through out the city. Last
Tuesday afternoon, it was dressed in a new set of clothes by Kilroy, who
presented it as a property restoration arrangement- sans the second chance
component.
Conflicting Views
According to Kilroy, Operation Redirection was never a reentry or “second
chance” program. “It was funded as a residential rehabilitation
and employment training pilot program in 2000,” Kilroy began.
“The idea was to take abandoned or foreclosed homes that were owned
by the Department of Housing & and Urban Development, rehabilitate
them and then sell them to first-time homebuyers,” she continued.
Many of these homes were built or rehabilitated by residents of Compton
who were unemployed before they were enrolled in the training program,
the city manager told the council.
Kilroy says that acquiring HUD homes became very difficult and the
city was only able to get 13 of these residences. “Because of this,
the program was terminated when its funding expired in 2002,” Kilroy
explained.
The city manager’s description of the goal of Operation Redirection
surprised many throughout the city- including the man who was responsible
for bring this project to Compton. Former Mayor Omar Bradley, upon learning
of Kilroy’s version of Operation Redirection, seemed baffled by her
explanation to the council and the audience. “That is not true at
all,” the ex-mayor told the Bulletin, referring to the city manager’s
version of the program.
In an interview one day prior to the council session, Bradley recalled
how he and others conceived the idea of Operation Redirection. “A
group of mayors were interested in creating a means by which ex-offenders
could have an opportunity to rebuild their lives,” Bradley began
via telephone from his Compton home. “The specific purpose was for
people who were utilizing vacant and abandoned homes for criminal activity
to become employed and make the transition for a life of crime and despair
to one of hope and opportunity.
He and others traveled to Washington, D.C. to lobby for funding,
and they were able to bring back the largess that would serve as the seed
money to fund his project. “We were able to bring back over $2 million
from our first trip,” the ex-mayor said proudly.
A Two-fold Project
Councilwoman Yvonne Arceneaux remembers the trek to Washington and
the goal of Operation Redirection. Consequently, after learning of the
city manager’s comments, she was taken aback. “I was surprised
that this had come up,” the councilwoman said the day after the presentation. “It
was a two-fold project, and it clearly stated that its specific purpose
was to rehabilitate lives as well as homes,” Arceneaux affirmed. “When
I read what (Kilroy) was going to talk about, I was stunned,” she
added.
“The original project was mine,” the councilwoman, who is the
only member of the present council in office during Redirection’s
inception, continued. “Omar Bradley was the one who began to put
all the details in place. He was the one who put the meat to the bone.”
“It really made so many of them (who were involved in the program)
feel proud that someone was good enough to give them a second opportunity,” recalled
Delores Zurita, who was on the council during the inception of Operation
Redirection. Like her former colleague Arceneaux, Zurita remembered
that the guiding principle of the municipal plan was to train ex-convicts
and
others who were deemed unemployable by others. The program instilled
a sense of self-worth in many of the participants, Zurita said.
“I remember one young man who was working for the city (through Operation
Redirection), and one day I saw him driving a ‘49 Chevy. He told
me, ‘Look, Ms. Zurita, look at what I bought!’ He was so happy
and so proud of himself,” Zurita recollected, smiling at the memory.
Bradley, upon learning of the termination of one of his signature
projects, was discouraged that many Compton residents would no longer get
that opportunity to restructure their lives in a positive fashion through
the program. “It seems that Mr. (Compton Mayor Eric) Perrodin did
not want any ex-cons on the city payroll,” the former mayor believes.
Perrodin ran against Bradley in 2001, igniting a legal battle that
split Compton literally into two factions. After Bradley won in the primary,
the current mayor triumphed in the June runoff by a close margin. Bradley
filed a legal claim and was seated as mayor, but was ousted when Perrodin
prevailed in an appeal. Subsequently, Bradley, along with former Compton
City Manager John Johnson and former councilman Amen Rahh was charged and
convicted of misappropriation of public funds, and served nine months of
a three-year sentence. He was released late last year.
Bradley, who himself has begun a reintegration of sorts into society-
he is now a Baptist minister-is convinced that besides giving those who
are seeking another opportunity to renew their lives, the project had ancillary
benefits. “We saw a decrease in crime, and we were able to give a
sense of pride to those who participated in Operation Redirection,” he
remarked. “It gave so many people a chance to redirect their focus.
“Gangbangers and substances abusers were able to drive past a place
where they had planted flowers, or see a home that they helped to
rebuild and think, ‘I had a part in that, or I built that.’”
Arceneaux also expressed regret that Operation Redirection was discontinued. “It
seems that in Compton, once you are no longer in office, your programs
seem to just go away,” she said dryly. “Someone needed to lobby
Congress to continue the program. It was the answer to many of the crimes
that are going on today,” the councilwoman believes, citing a recent
wave of homicides citywide.
Bradley had similar thoughts. “When you have an administration that
loses it focus on what is best for the community and focuses on the work
of an individual, you ultimately hurt the community and not the individual,” he
said. Why anyone would not pursue additional funding for Operation Redirection
escapes him, “unless the idea is to undo everything that Omar Bradley
did,” the ex-mayor suggested.
Regardless of the fiscal crisis in Washington, the councilwoman still
feels that there is an opportunity for Compton city officials to acquire
federal funding for Operation Redirection. “Compton generally has
not been at the table (when there is a need for federal funds),” she
said. “You have to have the tenacity that it requires to successfully
lobby for what your residents and constituents need, and at times we haven’t
done that.”
Councilwoman Arceneaux, a three-term councilmember who is running
for reelection in the city’s Third District, plans to bring up Operation
Redirection at the next council hearing. “This is a program that
definitely has merit, and it is a proven worthwhile project for people
who deserve a second chance,” she said.
Next week: A Compton resident who participated in Operation Redirection.
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