COMPTON : Judge Allows Green to Retain Council Seat

Nine months after he was appointed to the City Council, Ronald Green was told by a Superior Court judge last week that he can keep his seat, even though the council maneuvering that originally put Green in office was flawed.

Green’s appointment in June, 1993, was contested by former City Councilwoman Patricia A. Moore, who complained that the move amounted to political shuffling by Mayor Omar Bradley to shore up his council majority.

The problem, according to Moore, started when Bradley had himself appointed to the open mayor’s seat three weeks early last June after winning a citywide election against Moore. The mayor’s chair had been vacant since January, 1993, when then-mayor Walter R. Tucker III (D-Compton) left for Congress.

Bradley and the council majority voted to appoint him mayor before the July 1 inauguration, declared his 1st District seat vacant and appointed political unknown Green. Moore filed suit last November in an effort to have Green removed, and Attorney General Daniel E. Lungren joined the complaint. Moore argued that Bradley’s early elevation to mayor was invalid. As a result, she contended, his council seat was never open for Green.

Last week, Judge Enrique Romero of Compton Superior Court ruled that Bradley’s early appointment to the mayor’s seat was invalid. But Romero said Bradley abandoned the council seat, creating the vacancy for Green. The three remaining council members constituted a legal quorum, and their 2-1 vote to appoint Green was valid, the judge ruled. Councilwomen Bernice Woods and Jane D. Robbins voted to appoint Green. Moore was opposed.

Since Bradley would have occupied the mayor’s office July 1 by virtue of his election, the judge’s decision does not affect his mayoral status.