Smelly compost

I was in Bend, Oregon last week w/ my son. His neighbor told him to go to the city dump for compost as it is cheap. He brought a truckload in and it smelled like manure! Even bagged steer manure doesn't smell as strong as this stuff did. Maybe $5 a truckoad cheaper then what I have paid for good compost. I have never gotten compost from anywhere but a local nursery and it has never smelled. I am wondering if there is any regulation to what they put in such compost?

Sounds like the compost wasn't fully composted. Our city does a quick turn around on the composted materials and it is usually not fully composted to break down all the items.

Have you contacted the city to find out what their composting program is, eg, how long do they compost the materials, what do they put in, what do they exclude, etc?

Most municipalities compost as a cheaper way of dealing with all the yard wastes they collect. The emphasis is usually on cost containment of waste, not necessarily quality end product

Can we add something to it to help it along? Or maybe just add plain soil?

Any better yet? I like your idea of some soil to put in good bugs, and I think you should try to stir it up esp if it's very moist.
We had a huge dirt pile due to construction and you wouldn't believe how bad(manure-like) it smelled when they dug it up to spread and take away. Juat natural native dirt from my own yard, but it must go anaerobic underneath.