May 27, 2021

LAWT Staff Report

 

Satra Zurita has spent her entire career working for the betterment of Compton. 

At an early age Satra learned at the footsteps of her mother, then Compton Councilwoman Delores Zurita, that dedicating your time and talents for the betterment of your community will always payoff for yourself and the people in the end. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leaning on her years of experience in improving communities, the current Vice President of the Compton Unified School District is running to be the Treasurer for the City of Compton.

 

When asked why she was running for treasurer Zurita stated, “We desperately need reform. 

My mother is 84-years-old, and for her to have to pay her water bill, she has to drive around and around city hall looking for a parking space in order to pay for her basic services. 

 

This makes no sense.”

Zurita says the Compton Treasurer’s Office has been plagued by scandal and mismanagement for years. She believes the office urgently needs new and honest leadership.  

She discussed how more than $3.7 million was recently embezzled by a Deputy City Treasurer, and the Treasurer’s Office has failed to implement basic technological advancements that would allow residents to pay their water bills with a credit or debit card over the phone. 

 

She says that in today’s tech savvy world, “the inability to process payments in a simpler way and to still be operating [in 2021] where cash is the easiest option to pay your bills, is both unsafe and out of touch with today’s technology.”

 

 

 

Currently, Zurita is vice president of the Compton Unified School District Governing Board of Trustees, a local businesswoman, and a community leader. 

She has a keen knowledge of city government and how they can and are not operating at maximum capacity.  Her experience in managing complex budgets has helped turn around Compton School District’s troubled finances.

Zurita says she desires to be the treasurer for the city because she has the experience, the energy and work ethic to do the job.  If elected to the Treasurer’s Office, she looks forward to accomplishing the task of helping to rebuild the city for the citizens of Compton. 

As the new City Treasurer, Satra’s agenda is to work towards:

• Balance all the books and eliminate wasteful and fraudulent spending.

• Responsibly manage tax dollars and improve the city’s credit rating.

• Implement customer service-oriented policies at City Hall.

• Enable more online and phone technologies, so residents can use debit/credit cards to pay bills.

• Lower fees residents must pay to use credit or debit cards in person and online.

• Make holdings more profitable by investing City funds in securing high yield accounts. 

“As your City Treasurer, I’ll implement common sense reforms to protect the City’s tax dollars and ensure that the people’s money is never embezzled again,” Zurita said.

 

 

She says that the City Treasurer’s Office and the City overall need to embrace technology.  “We need remote kiosks located throughout the city to make it easier for residence to pay for city services. 

 

She says we must think about the residents of the city; the young mothers and senior citizens who don’t have access or readily available transportation, and make it simpler for them pay their bills,” she said. 

 

Zurita feels paying bills in these difficult times is challenging enough, why make paying the bill difficult as well?

“The City is still collecting cash at city parks, the fire station and other locations throughout the city.  Many times, it is volunteers who are collecting these funds and that is a big liability for the city. 

“In a city where $3.7 million dollars just walked out the door, I would think that creating systems to ensure that this cannot ever happen again would be a priority. 

Having the money stolen is only part of the problem, but we are not a wealthy city.  The city services that have suffered because of this theft has an overall impact on everything in the city. 

Our streets are in shambles; we need more social and senior programs that almost $4 million [stolen] would have gone a long way in addressing these problems,” says Zurita.

 

 

 

Zurita says she has no problem with working with the Compton City Council if elected as treasurer.  She points out that as the treasurer, she is not the person who decides how the money is spent.

That is a decision for the Council, but as the treasurer, she points out that it must be done in a manner that is both accurate, efficient, and legal. 

She says “the job of the treasurer is to make sure that systems are in place to spend the money correctly and legally. 

Those contracts that are in place and the payments are reflective of the commitments, and she believes she has the skills, experience and talents to make sure this pursuit of excellence can and will be done.

 

It is for this reason and many more that the LAWT proudly endorses Satra Zurita for City Treasurer in the City of Compton.

Category: News