Bradley, Andrews Restored to Office

Compton’s political turbulence paused just long enough Monday for the mayor and council member defeated last year to be sworn back into office by a city clerk accused in a lawsuit of mishandling the election.

The ceremony was barely over when City Clerk Charles Davis defended his role in the election, which was overturned Friday in a civil verdict that surprised even its victors.

During a news conference held immediately after he conducted the ceremony that returned Mayor Omar Bradley and City Councilwoman Melanie Andrews to office, Davis accused them of breaking the law by meeting with other council allies Sunday night to consider a new city manager.

And in still another twist, Davis said their alleged candidate for city manager was said to be Sheriff’s Capt. Cecil Rhambo, the substation commander who had to assign round-the-clock deputies at City Hall over the weekend to prevent removal of city property or documents--an allegation made Friday by Bradley backers.

Asked about the meeting, Rhambo stood outside the substation and smiled through a wince. Yes, he said, there was a meeting of Bradley and four council members at the substation Sunday night.

But the meeting was meant to address a legal question: To whom would authority fall in the absence of the city manager? The current city manager and his assistant city manager were appointed by ousted Mayor Eric Perrodin, and considered by Bradley to be illegal, Rhambo said.

“I have no interest or intention to become city manager,” Rhambo said, referring to a position that has had limited job security recently.

Even residents of this city of 93,000 sometimes have trouble following Compton’s roiling politics, but Bradley and Andrews vowed to bury grudges and restore stability to a municipal government rocked since June’s disputed city election.

Bradley was defeated in June in a city election that he challenged in a lawsuit against the city of Compton, City Clerk Davis and Perrodin.

The election handed longtime incumbent Bradley a stunning upset by Perrodin, a deputy district attorney who campaigned as a reformer. It also unseated Councilwoman Andrews, an educator and Bradley ally who was defeated by Leslie Irving.

In her 33-page ruling Friday, Superior Court Judge Judith C. Chirlin reversed the results of the election and expressed disappointment at the conduct of all sides in the case and urged more responsible behavior. Citing fraud by Irving and three relatives, Chirlin banned Irving from ever holding public office in California.

The judge found no fraud on the part of Perrodin but found the election was tainted by a technicality--that the candidates were not listed on the ballot in accordance with state election law.

Asked Monday if he intends to appeal the judge’s ruling, Perrodin replied, “Absolutely.”

That legal appeal adds suspense and a lack of finality to this chapter of Compton’s political history.

Legal experts, shocked that Chirlin reinstated the incumbents rather than calling for a new election, said an appeal of the controversial ruling stood a decent chance. Even the witness, a political science professor from Ohio, said he was surprised that the judge relied so heavily on his testimony.

It remained unclear who had been in charge of the city between Friday’s legal ousting of Perrodin and Monday’s swearing-in ceremony. But by Monday, Bradley was clearly in political command.

After he and Andrews were officially returned to their positions, their supporters cheered as they vowed to mend fences and refrain from retaliating against political enemies. One of those was City Clerk Davis, whom Bradley referred to as though he was not across the counter handing him his paperwork.

“I hold no ill will for Mr. Davis,” Bradley told a bank of reporters and cameras present to document his return to power. “If I waste one moment trying to pay someone back, then I’m wasting my time.”

And Davis promised to use “the carrot, not the stick” whenever he could.

Despite the conciliatory tone of the ceremony, accusations of wrongdoing still seeped into comments by Bradley and Davis, though the tone was subdued compared with charges that have been lobbed since last year’s election.

After the Bradley and Andrews entourages left the noontime ceremony, Davis for the first time responded to the judge’s ruling and her characterization of his role in the election as slipshod. The judge had ruled that at least one dead person and numerous noncitizens had voted illegally in the election and that Perrodin’s name was put first on the ballot in violation of state law.

Perrodin’s name also appeared first on a primary ballot. The judge said Davis should have listed the candidates in the June 5 election in random order, rather than using the same order from the primary ballot. By being listed first, the judge said, Perrodin gained an improper statistical advantage that won him at least 306 votes, enough to determine the outcome in the close race.

Davis, an elected city official who has held office for 28 years, could not resist throwing barbs after defending his handling of the election. “You show me an election that’s perfect,” he said, “I’ll show you a fixed race.”

He handed out a four-page typed statement, some of which he read, and included a copy of the state election code, from which he cited various subsections he believes supported his actions.

Addressing one of the judge’s criticisms that Davis had used 1983 guidelines, Davis was asked why he had not kept up with election code revisions since then.

“I dropped the ball on that, a number of people dropped the ball on that,” he said. But “man, have you seen the size of that book?” he asked, holding up his right hand to demonstrate its thickness.

Davis said that he hopes Bradley “will act like he did in his first term, not his second,” and promised to look past their previous differences.

And asked if he would conduct himself differently in the future, Bradley picked his words carefully. “The only thing I would do different,” he said, “is I would negotiate with far more sugar.”