Notices of intent to circulate recall petitions against four Compton city officials are expected to be filed Thursday by a group of residents who claim corruption in Compton is being ignored by the same authorities who expressed shock by the recent turn of events in the city of Bell.

Recall notices against Mayor Eric Perrodin, City Councilmember Lillie Dobson, City Attorney Craig Cornwell and City Clerk Alita Godwin are being filed for the fifth time since May, “because the previous four filings were not accepted by the city clerk for various reasons,” said William Kemp, a leader of the recall movement. “This time, we residents obtained a lawyer and got it right,” he added.

According to the notice, the group is seeking the recall of Perrodin for a number of alleged offenses, including the misuse of public funds to finance his personal goal of re-establishing a Compton municipal police force, and nepotism and cronyism in the awarding of lucrative city contracts to his brother and his friends. They also accuse him of awarding “hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts to companies without bids,” of appointing an out-of-town resident to the City Council, of violating the Brown Act and they are holding him responsible for the horrendous increase in residents’ water bills since he has been in office.

The recall petition against Dobson cites her offenses as being, among other things, her ineligibility to serve on the Compton City Council, since she lived in Orange County at the time Perrodin appointed her. She is charged with having supported Perrodin in every questionable action he has taken vis-a-vis the awarding of contracts, Brown Act violations and police force re-establishment. Dobson’s recallers say, among other things, that the council member works against the wishes and interests of her constituents in her support of the mayor and that she “talks too much during the council meetings to discredit the residents.”

The residents are seeking to remove Cornwell, the city attorney, because, according to the petition, he is accused of city charter manipulations akin to those leveled against Bell officials’ notorious changes to that city’s charter. Cornwell is charged with, first, having changed the Compton charter “to allow himself to be seated without qualifying for the position.” He’s accused of “deceiving the citizens without being truthful about the Charter changes,” that he, together with the city clerk, withheld “valuable information” concerning Measure “L” in the April 21, 2009 election, that he manipulates the Brown Act and other laws to abridge the residents’ constitutional rights, and that he “continues to create laws to block the people from speaking at City Council meetings because of his personal and family obligations.”

Godwin has incurred the wrath of the recall supporters because, according to the petition against her, she committed more than 20 election violations during Compton’s April 21, 2009 election. Pursuant to the city charter, she is a full-time employee who is paid a full-time salary, but, according to the petition, she only works part-time. Godwin is said to have implemented Measure L before it went on the ballot, and she “swore in an unqualified city attorney.”

Kemp, a second generation Compton native, said residents have been fighting perceived corruption in his city years before the situation in Bell became global news, but have been ignored by the district attorney and the California attorney general.

“In June of 2004, we wrote a letter to D.A. Steve Cooley — to his Bureau of Fraud and Corruption Prosecutions — requesting an investigation of Mayor Perrodin and we included a large packet of documents that caused us to question Perrodin’s motives,” Kemp said. “We wanted action, but since Perrodin is a deputy D.A. who works for Cooley, the D.A. sent us a letter back telling us he could not investigate his own guy,” Kemp continued. “Cooley went on to say he would forward our materials to the California Attorney General’s Office so they could take whatever action they deem appropriate.”

Kemp said his group checked with the attorney general’s office and learned Cooley had not forwarded the package to the state, so they prepared another one and sent it themselves. “It became clear to us that Cooley had no interest in launching a corruption investigation of one of his own, which is another form of his practice of ‘selective prosecution,’” Kemp said. “So we began sending all of our ‘proof’ to the CAG,” Kemp said.

Kemp, et al., sent me their package of proof and two particular items are eye-grabbers — documents showing the Perrodin-controlled city council consistently awarded lucrative non-bid contracts to Perrodin’s brother, Percy, for his company, called “Joseph and Paul Inc.” (Joseph is Percy’s birth name and Paul is Mayor Perrodin’s middle name). The Joseph and Paul contract was recently increased and extended for two more years.

The other telling document shows the Perrodin-controlled city council took the city’s $25 million capital improvement bonds to use for Mayor Perrodin’s pet project — the re-establishment of the Compton Police Department, not to repair the city’s streets and other infrastructures, as they were intended.

“Eighty to 90 percent of the people want the Sheriff’s Department to stay in Compton,” Kemp said. “They voice that everywhere and all the time — we even voted overwhelmingly [67.8 percent] in 2004 to keep them here. But Perrodin doesn’t care. He’s actually said that,” Kemp continued. “The only reason he wants to bring back the Compton Police is so his brother can have a job. (Percy Perrodin was a high-ranking official with the Compton Police when that entity existed. The Compton force was disbanded 10 years ago.)

“Things are much better here with the sheriffs,” Kemp said. “We have outdoor restaurants now. People can jog in the mornings and at night; the parks are full of children — it’s safe now. It’s not like it was in the 1980s and ‘90s when we had running gun battles in the street and our police officers were missing in action and ineffective when they were. Is Perrodin willing to sacrifice our safety to bring the police back and get his brother a job?” Kemp asked.

This, and other questions will be discussed Saturday at a town hall meeting on the recall scheduled at noon at Robert Kennedy Elementary School, 1305 Oleander St. in Compton.

Telephone calls to Perrodin, Dobson, Cornwell and Godwin for comment were not returned.