Bradley’s Historic but Tainted Inaugural : Controversy Clouds Celebration

Sylvia Sims has voted for him six times--”including the first time when he lost”--and she was there Friday to mark the occasion as Tom Bradley became the only man in Los Angeles history to take the oath of office for a fifth term as mayor.

Sims, a Silver Lake resident and regular Bradley campaign volunteer, dismissed continuing controversies over Bradley’s personal finances as part of an effort by the “power structure” to get Bradley. “It does not sit too well . . . that a black man could do so well,” Sims said as she sat proudly in the front row of the public seats at the inaugural.

Under a brilliant blue sky, there were both the trappings of celebration and the taint of controversy as Sims and a polite, loyal crowd of more than 2,000 gathered for the 71-year-old Bradley’s historic inauguration.

The current investigations of the mayor were never raised directly during the ceremony. But they hung quietly over the picturesque south lawn of City Hall, decorated with bright red-white-and-blue bunting, fresh white canopies and rows of colorful flowers.

Mixture of Guests

About 10,000 invitations had been distributed by Bradley’s office to friends, longtime political supporters, city community groups, business leaders and others. Those invited by Bradley mixed with supporters of other city officials who also were being sworn in, as well as a sizable number of city employees who wandered outside during their lunch breaks.

The crowd was receptive to the mayor’s recounting of his accomplishments--giving him two standing ovations--and seemed willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on his current ethics troubles.

“I think he’s a great manager,” said Shakeh Salmon-Asfaw, a Hollywood high school teacher who was attending her first inauguration and did not know why she received an invitation. She said Bradley’s finances “have to be investigated carefully (but) without a lot of prejudgment. . . . Public officials sometimes get a little more heat than necessary.”

Carlos Sandoval, an employee in the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, said, “Time will tell the truth. . . . I think he’s been pretty good.”

Some Perplexed, Gloomy

A few supporters were perplexed and gloomy over the recent turn of events for the mayor. “He’s treading water, I think,” said Larry Eugene Bell, who said he had met Bradley nearly 20 years ago as a member of the same black college fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi. Bell said he is concerned by what he has read about the mayor’s investments, as well as Bradley’s refusal thus far to discuss those investments in detail.

Bradley emphasized the positive. He noted pointedly at the outset of his inaugural speech that the day had brought “a bright blue sky without a cloud.” He said the current headlines about him will fade and he gave a soaring pledge to forge ahead with initiatives to address the city’s many social, housing and environmental problems.

But down-to-earth reminders of Bradley’s troubles were on both sides of him at the dais. To his left was City Atty. James K. Hahn, whose office is investigating fees the mayor collected from local financial institutions that had dealings with the city. To his right sat City Controller Rick Tuttle, who is auditing another target of investigations, a controversial, Bradley-promoted task force on trade with Africa.

Little Appreciation

Out near the street, among the street people, stragglers and just passers-by, there appeared to be little appreciation of the inaugural speeches or the relevance of the rises and falls of the Bradley political barometer.

One such knot of people had come by bus from a Los Angeles board and care home. Someone circulated a notice at the home announcing the inauguration and about 40 people signed up to come down.

A tenant of the home, James Cody, mistakenly had thought that lunch would be served. “What’s the situation there?” he asked a reporter anxiously. “We’ve got to catch a bus back.”