Fighting to Control Compton’s Future

Compton Mayor Omar Bradley was livid. Citizens of his city have been circulating a petition calling for his ouster. Morale among city employees is said to be low. And to make matters worse, a neighborhood weekly newspaper recently compared him to the late Haitian dictator “Papa Doc” Duvalier.

“It’s painful,” Bradley fumed. “For them to compare me to a killer, a torturer, tells me that this is all very personal, a battle to control the direction of the city.”

And these days, the city’s direction is often determined by the dictates of the mayor who has amassed a three-vote majority on the five-member council with the backing of Delores Zurita, his aunt, and Amen Rahh, a black studies professor and the council’s newest member.

Often described as brash, energetic and extremely intelligent, Bradley, a 41-year-old Compton native, was first elected to the council in 1991. His name was not among those who would become embroiled in scandal a few years later when former council member Patricia Moore and U.S. Rep. Walter R. Tucker II (D-Compton) were convicted of extortion and tax fraud. Tucker served as the city’s mayor before he was elected to Congress.

Bradley, an assistant to the superintendent of the Lynwood Unified School District, is known for his charm. But he also has a temper that is sometimes on display, as in 1997 when he shouted obscenities at instructors running a firefighter academy after they rejected his son’s tuition check.

Critics have dubbed him “the King of Compton.”

“Whatever the mayor wants, the mayor gets,” said Councilwoman Yvonne Arceneaux, who has served on the council since 1993. “It’s his council.”

Bradley, who has been Compton’s mayor since 1993, says his new majority has given the city of nearly 100,000 residents a “new vision” to make improvements, attract developments and create jobs.

But under Bradley’s leadership, critics say, the city has begun to purge anyone who differs with him.

It began in August when Police Chief Hourie Taylor and Capt. Percy Perrodin, the department’s second in command, were suddenly placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of a department investigation. The city clerk put in a $1-million claim accusing the city of creating a hostile work environment. The city controller went out on a stress leave, the fire chief went out with a bad back, and the city treasurer filed a police report claiming he was held hostage in the mayor’s office.

Bradley had made no secret of his desire to fire City Manager Lawrence M. Moore, but he and the council never got the chance. Moore died last June of undiagnosed diabetes shortly after he was found unconscious in a city casino hotel room where he lived.

“I wished him no ill will,” Bradley said, “but the moment I got three votes I knew I was going to fire him. It was time for Larry to go.”

Moore’s job performance had something to do with that decision, the mayor said, but it also involved the issue of respect. For example, Bradley said he once was forced to wait on the phone because the city manager was too busy to take his call.

“I said tell him this is the mayor,” Bradley recalled. “His secretary gets back and says, ‘He’s still too busy.’ Now, you don’t do that to me.”

The turmoil over these staff problems sparked the cry for a recall.

The recall petition also raised questions about the city’s decision to settle a lawsuit by a former negotiator for the city who was angered by the council’s decision to drop his contract. It accused the mayor of nepotism for voting to give $50,000 to a Meals on Wheels program, run by his aunt who is on the council. It also challenged recent council votes to increase car allowances and provide credit cards to council members.

Another problem is poor fiscal management, said Eric Perrodin, a recall petition spokesman and brother of the police captain placed on administrative leave. “The whole City Council is responsible, but the mayor is the worst transgressor. Compton used to be a growing city, but it hasn’t gone anywhere in decades.”

Recall organizers have four months to gather more than 7,000 signatures from among 37,000 registered voters, Perrodin said.

Bradley says he is not fazed by the recall effort. “People are slamming doors in their faces,” he said. “They’ll never get the signatures.”

Charges of nepotism also don’t trouble the mayor.

“This is a small town,” he said. “It’s bound to happen.”

He says he has been behind fixing sewers, installing speed bumps, planting new trees and attracting new businesses.

The mood inside City Hall has been gloomy. The school system is under state control because of fiscal and academic problems, and some fear that City Hall might not be far behind.

“There is a feeling of distrust among city personnel,” said Fire Chief Milford Fonza, president of the city’s management employee association and a critic of the mayor. “No one knows from day to day whether their civil service rights are going to be violated.”

He said the management association, which consists of about 40 employees, plans to take legal action to support Chief Taylor and Capt. Perrodin, who were relieved of duty by the city manager with the backing of the council, pending the results of an investigation into unspecified mismanagement of their department.

“I just want to do my job,” Taylor said. “This has been devastating. I’ve been a Compton cop ever since I was 22 years old. I was living a dream, growing up here, aspiring to be the police chief and I achieved it.”

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, the winds of change continued. The council voted to deny the city clerk’s claim and selected a new interim city controller.

City Treasurer Douglas Sanders refused to comment on the police report he filed alleging that he was physically assaulted by city officials in the office of Mayor Bradley. The Nov. 9 incident began when Robin Bradley, the mayor’s wife, overheard Sanders discuss the city’s finances with a bank manager, according to the police report. Sanders was summoned by the mayor to explain his comments in a meeting with Compton City Manager John D. Johnson and Assistant City Manager Lawrence Adams.

In the meeting, Sanders told police investigators, the mayor was “very persistent” in wanting to know what was discussed with the bank manager, the report stated. Sanders said he got up to leave the room, but Adams and Johnson prevented him from going and the mayor told him to “sit down.”

The mayor told him he wouldn’t allow him to get up until “you tell me what I need to know,” the report states. Sanders said that Adams grabbed him and gave him a bear hug, while Johnson held his arm. A minute later he was allowed to leave.

Bradley had a different view of the encounter.

“It never happened,” Bradley said. “No one touched him. He ran in the hallway, shouting ‘I’m not your boy’ and that was it. No one laid a hand on him. Why would we kidnap him or hold him against his will?”