Hawthorne Mayor Chris Brown, twice the target of eviction orders after he quit paying rent to his landlords, also has dodged debts to a charter airline service based in the city and campaign consultants who helped get him elected in 2013, the Daily Breeze has learned.



And at City Hall, Brown has been spending taxpayer funds freely during his 16 months in office, taking 30 trips around the country — some without documentation as to the purpose — and sneaking through a $20,541 remodel of his office, according to city officials and records obtained by the Breeze.



Meanwhile, Brown thus far has made little progress on his campaign promises to attract economic development to Hawthorne, streamline expenses, and improve transparency in a city beset for years by budget deficits and poor management. The previous two mayors, Daniel Juarez and Larry Guidi, left office due to theft and political pay-to-play scandals.



Brown joined the subscription-based Surf Air in February, shortly after it established a base at Hawthorne Municipal Airport. For a monthly fee, members of the start-up airline get unlimited flights between regional airports.



Brown took several personal flights but never paid the $1,350-a-month fee, according to an invoice from the company to Brown obtained by the Breeze. The company gave him a discount but was still never paid, according to airport officials and a Surf Air invoice seeking $8,100 from the mayor.



California Republic Bank also is seeking about $20,000 loaned to Brown, according to a Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit.



Brown reportedly blew off two campaign consultants who were crucial in getting him elected to public office for the first time, partly on the strength of clout from regional political heavyweights who threw their support behind him.



The mayor did not pay about $10,000 owed to Liberty Campaign Solutions until he was sued for the money after the November 2013 election. Then, according to court records, he settled the debt.



Another consultant, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear it could negatively affect his business, said Brown would not have been elected if not for his work. Yet Brown still hasn’t paid him $2,500. A Liberty Campaign Solutions representative also confirmed that Brown still owes the consultant money.



“I was the one who put the campaign team together for him,” the consultant said. “I definitely bought into what he was telling me about how he wants to change the city. But once I started to get to know him, I saw he’s just a big show-off.



“He likes to let people know how much money he says he makes. He told me he was in the ‘securitization’ business but I never saw any evidence of the business.”



Brown has alternately described himself to the public as a business owner, as self-employed and as a former mobile phone account executive, but has never provided proof of employment or evidence of his business.



Once Brown began working at City Hall, he embarked on an ambitious travel schedule and quietly pushed through a pricey upgrade to his first-floor office with the backing of City Manager Michael Goodson. The remodel was buried at the end of a March 10 staff report to the City Council about the demolition of two dilapidated Hawthorne Boulevard properties.



On the fifth page of the report on the properties to be demolished is a “Proposal for Hawthorne City Hall City Treasurer Office Room Renovation.” Typically, such a proposal would receive its own agenda item for council consideration, and this one hardly was noticed by council members, said Councilman Alex Vargas.



The proposal passed, but the work actually was done on the Mayor’s Office — not the treasurer’s, Vargas said.



Brown received new carpeting, furniture, a suspended ceiling, new lighting fixtures and had a wall removed to be better connected to an adjacent office. New paint, electrical wiring, and locks were included.



“I’m just concerned that this renovation was not presented in a transparent manner,” Vargas said. “I am also concerned that this incident may demonstrate excess in the Mayor’s Office.”



Goodson and Brown both refused several requests to comment for this article. But last month, the mayor told the Los Angeles Sentinel: “I’ve made a lot of progress since coming to office. I was elected at a time when the residents of Hawthorne felt betrayed and let down by some of their elected officials.



“I’ve brought the city out of an $8 million deficit and into a nearly $2 million surplus,” Brown told the news outlet. “I campaigned on promises to fix the budget, provide financial transparency with how the city spends taxpayer money and to enhance public safety and I’ve delivered on each and every one of those promises.”



The budget is structurally balanced this year, but it’s not due to any policy changes, increased revenue or decreased expenses. The city last year hired a dedicated finance director for the first time in years.



Finance Director Rickey Manbahal said he was able to balance the budget by reducing the percentage of money set aside for future employee sick and vacation leave. By reducing the accrual from 50 percent to 25 percent, he was able to ensure that the city’s revenue this year will be greater than its expenses, he said.



Brown, who promised an end to back-door politics and poor management, was hailed as the city’s first African-American and youngest-ever mayor when he was ushered into office with wide support from well-known Democratic politicians.



Sen. Isadore Hall took Brown under his wing and vouched for him as part of the next generation of young black leadership that would revitalize economically depressed communities in the south part of Los Angeles County, and he was compared to Compton Mayor Aja Brown and Inglewood Mayor James Butts.



Brown, elected to a two-year term in 2013, recently kicked off his campaign for a second term in the November city election.



But despite Brown’s pronouncements of success, he hasn’t enjoyed much political success to move the 6.1-square-mile city forward. Instead, and with the consistent support of Goodson, he has focused his energies on his busy travel schedule, which has included expensive meals, hotel room service, hefty bar tabs and some in-room movies, according to city expense records.



The city spent more than $22,000 in the past 16 months on Brown’s airline and hotel bills, according to a review of expense records.



When Brown organized a trip to meet with federal lawmakers and other government officials in search of funding for transportation and infrastructure projects in the city, council members Vargas and Nilo Michelin weren’t told about it until afterward. Councilwoman Angie English, several staff members and a lobbyist joined the mayor on the trip, which cost a total of $12,000, according to city staff.



Vargas and Michelin also opposed passage of this fiscal year’s $62.5 million general operating budget, which passed with Brown’s support on a 3-2 vote in July, because it called for seven new positions, including a public information officer, planning assistants and other administrative jobs — even though the city faced a deficit.



Brown suggested closing the deficit by allowing a casino to open in town but that idea was voted down after his council colleagues and residents complained that wasn’t in the city’s best interests.



The new mayor has traveled nearly every month since he was elected and, in many cases, took multiple trips a month. The travels were paid on a city credit card in Goodson’s name, and were all approved by the city manager.



Brown took numerous short trips to Sacramento and the Bay Area without providing documentation about the city business involved. He also flew to Las Vegas for the International Council of Shopping Centers convention, and to Santa Barbara for the Independent Cities’ Association winter seminar.



In late June, Brown went to Dallas for the 82nd annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. He stayed at the W Hotel and enjoyed expensive in-room meals and bar drinks. On June 21 and 22, he spent more than $250 on room service, drinks at the hotel’s lounge, and pool service, according to city records.



He spent $234 on food and drinks during a July 24 stay at Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina.



From Oct. 29 to 31, he stayed at the W Hotel in New York City’s Times Square and dined on more than $200 in sushi. Though there is no official reason for the trip listed in the city’s expense reports, Goodson approved the trip and expenditures.



The city also paid $641 for Brown’s two-night stay at Hyatt The Pike Long Beach from July 20 to 22.



While Brown was traveling the country, he was racking up big debts at home.



In November, he was evicted from a $2,350-a-month town house where he lived with his wife and two children after ignoring court orders to leave the premises. He then rented a $3,500-a-month two-bedroom, three-bathroom condominium at one of the city’s nicest developments, ThreeSixty at Southbay.



He then promptly stopped paying rent and has refused to leave. Both landlords are seeking in court nearly $30,000 in arrears owed them.



Correction: An earlier version of this story erroneously reported the city paid for Mayor Chris Brown’s wife, Hedako, to fly to Washington, D.C. for the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The city did not pay for airfare for Hedako Brown.

