The city of Compton and its former city attorney have resolved dueling litigation just days after the lawyer resigned from his position.
Notices of settlement were filed Thursday and Friday with Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Randolph Hammock and James Chalfant regarding the legal actions between the city and former City Attorney Eric Perrodin, who stepped down last Monday.
No terms were divulged.
The city’s petition alleged that in 2024, disputes arose over the adoption of the 2024-25 budget as well as the budgetary allocation for the City Attorney’s Office and the scope of its power. According to the court papers, Perrodin asserted that he had the legal right to determine what issues were placed on the City Council’s agenda for consideration and that he had failed to prosecute such crimes as prostitution, drug sales, street takeovers, building code violations and other offenses.
The city contended that from June 2024 until March of this year, Perrodin used city staff, including two internal lawyers, to “pursue his unauthorized legal action against the City Council and city officials.”
The city also maintained in the legal action filed March 10 that Perrodin used city offices, equipment, supplies, funds and other resources in connection with his lawsuit while also using a significant amount of his office time working on the case.
Perrodin filed his own litigation in June 2024 that went through various changes before it became a taxpayer waste action. He sought a judgment and injunction restraining alleged “illegal expenditure, waste of, or injury to the estate, funds or other property of the city.”
Perrodin contended that the City Council exceeded its authority when adopting the 2024-25 budget by improperly reassigning City Attorney’s Office staff members while also delegating city attorney authority to the city manager, who was not licensed to practice law.
“This violated the city charter by stripping the City Attorney’s Office of the independence required to provide the check and balance in the city’s government as voters intended,” Perrodin argued in his court papers.
Perrodin was elected to a two-year term as city attorney in March 2024.