RIOT AFTERMATH : Council Feuds Over Tucker’s Role as City Spokesman : Politics: The mayor seems to be everywhere--on TV, on the radio, at public appearances. But critics say he’s capitalizing on the recent chaos in order to bolster his campaign for Congress.

In this city left devastated by the recent rioting, some leaders feel they’re getting plain tuckered out.

There’s Mayor Walter Tucker III on the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour. Tucker on National Public Radio. Tucker on Channel 5. Tucker on Channel 9. Tucker with President Bush. Tucker with Gov. Pete Wilson. Tucker with the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Tucker in a photograph in The Times, inspecting a fire-damaged store.

“He is not the spokesman for the city,” disgruntled Councilwoman Bernice Woods said. “It’s in our charter, he only has to cut ribbons.”

As parts of the city lay in heaps of blackened rubble and riot victims lined up for food and assistance outside the Salvation Army, Tucker, the City Council and even Rep. Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Compton) fought over who is getting the most press attention, who is doing the most work and what a mayor is supposed to do.

Tucker, as elected mayor of the city, has been besieged with requests for interviews and has been hopping from meeting to meeting. What his critics see in every appearance by the dapper young mayor, however, is not a city leader concerned about Compton, but a camera-hungry congressional candidate on a campaign stump.

Tucker is running in the 37th Congressional District and will face major opposition from Lynn Dymally, the congressman’s daughter, in the June 2 Democratic primary. Compton Councilwoman Patricia Moore, who is running for state Assembly, also has been accused of receiving more than her fair share of publicity.

“We don’t mind Tucker taking over,” Woods said. “But we do take concern that right now (Tucker and Moore) are running for office and they are getting free time to campaign. They are in the media as doing so much when we are in the trenches.”

Council members Woods, Jane Robbins and Omar Bradley and Rep. Dymally were infuriated last week after being excluded from a meeting between Tucker and Wilson. Tucker said the governor asked to meet only with the mayor to discuss a recovery plan for Compton. The four were left fuming in the lobby of the Ramada Hotel.

“Nobody is allowed, in the city charter, to just go off on his own like that,” Robbins said.

Bradley, Woods and Robbins then scheduled an emergency council meeting during which they tried to strip the mayor’s authority as chief spokesman for the city and appoint someone else to do the talking. They backed down after Moore said that the mayor’s role as chief spokesman was clearly defined in the city charter and that she would ask for an investigation by the attorney general if they passed such a motion.

“It was no less than a conspiracy to overthrow our mayor,” a still-livid Moore said.

But Bradley said he believed that the mayor was giving information to the press before running it by the city manager and police chief, as the charter mandates.

“He is running on crises and dead folks, and making those the issues of the campaign,” said Bradley, who has withdrawn his endorsement of Tucker for Congress. “How dare Tucker campaign when we have serious business here?”

An exasperated Tucker denied the charge.

“Look, if the governor happens to call me and I happen to be on TV, that’s the way it goes. I’m the mayor of the city and people call me. That’s my job. I don’t have time to be worried about bruised egos. I’m working like a dog and I’m tired of this pettiness.”

Tucker held a news conference Wednesday calling for unity among the council. Only Moore attended.

Dymally said he decided to get involved in the fracas when he heard Tucker calling for a “revolution” on National Public Radio. According to a transcript of the tape, Tucker was urging blacks to unite and support one another.

Dymally also questioned Tucker’s whereabouts when the rioting began.

Tucker and Moore were at the First AME Church in Los Angeles Wednesday night. Both returned to the city when they heard trouble had struck Compton.

With characteristic bluntness, Dymally issued a statement Monday saying: “Compton burns while mayor campaigns in Los Angeles.”

Dymally elaborated Thursday in an interview. “The City Council members whom Tucker criticizes were at the command center for hours, working with the city manager, while (Tucker) was out running up and down the city after Jesse Jackson (who was speaking at several church rallies),” Dymally said.

“There he was in Long Beach chasing Jackson, in South-Central (Los Angeles) chasing Jackson. I have a message from Jackson sitting on my desk right now. If I wanted to be a TV whore, I could be following Jackson around too,” Dymally added.

Replied Tucker: “I don’t know why the congressman doesn’t just come out and say it: He wants to penalize me because I’m running against his daughter, and they are running scared. He knows his daughter is going to lose. . . . The bottom line is that council members Bradley, Robbins and Woods are Lynn Dymally supporters and councilwoman Patricia Moore endorses me.

“Basically, it’s just more politics between me and the Dymallys. So what else is new?”

Bradley said that he had not yet made up his mind whether to support Lynn Dymally. Robbins said she would support Dymally. Woods could not be reached for comment.

Robbins, the only white person on the council, was angered at the maverick actions of her fellow politicians at the beginning of the crisis. On the first night of rioting, Tucker called an emergency meeting of the council at City Hall, but apparently Robbins didn’t get the message.

The following morning, at the city’s news conference, Robbins said she didn’t know why she was excluded. “I don’t know if it’s because I’m white,” she said.

However, Robbins and Woods said that they were sure the problems would be ironed out.

Community correspondent Emily Adams contributed to this story.