Residents in Compton, California have been complaining about brown water coming out of their taps for over a year.
A day before a town hall meeting was scheduled to take place, a Craigslist ad appeared causing major concern. The ad appeared to ask for fake "supporters" to attend the town hall meeting in support of Sativa LA County Water District.
The general manager of Sativa LA County Water District has been put on administrative leave over accusations that the ad was offering $40 for African Americans and Latinos to show up to the community meeting. The hired people were asked to say there’s nothing wrong with the water.
Before the town hall meeting began, Cole Edwards spoke with the LA Times and admitted that the water district had, in fact, hired him to place the ad. Initially, the plan was to hide the companies involvement. Edwards said he was not comfortable with the misleading ad and decided to reach out to the Times to expose the company.
The times investigated the case sifting through text messages, email correspondence, and list of questions supporters were to ask at the meeting. Through their search, they found validity in Edwards claim.
Sativa strongly denies claims of hiring supporters to attend the meeting.
“I don’t know anything about it,” said administrative manager Maria Rachelle Garza. “I have no idea what that is about, but I’ll check with my district staff.”