Compton Mayor Wants His Job, Council Posts Converted to Full Time : Politics: Bradley says part-time work won’t fix city problems. He lobbies for more power, hefty pay raises.

Compton Mayor Omar Bradley is tired of getting part-time pay for a job he said is full-time work and more.

So with a little help from voters, he wants to remake city government, giving the mayor more power and making the mayor and council jobs full time, with hefty pay raises.

Bradley proposed Tuesday night that city staff draw up an ordinance for the June 7 ballot that would reorganize the City Council, removing the mayor as one of the five council members and creating another council seat.

The mayor would set the council agenda--now the responsibility of the city manager--and would have strong veto powers. It would take a vote of four of the five council members to override a mayoral veto.

Under Bradley’s proposal, the mayor’s salary would more than double, from $32,000 to $75,000, and council salaries would jump to $40,000 from $22,000.

The council decided to hold a workshop Monday to discuss the plan, but Bradley said he is confident it will be approved for the June 7 ballot.

“We are swamped with problems here,” said Bradley, an English teacher at Lynwood High School. “And those problems need a full-time council to correct them. I can’t be leaving my classroom every time there’s a fire . . . to be put out.” Bradley was elected mayor seven months ago.

Councilwomen Marcine B. Shaw and Yvonne Arceneaux stressed they were voting only in favor of discussing the proposal further. “I have some questions on this,” Shaw said.

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Compton mayors run for office and hold one of the five council seats. Although mayoral campaigns are often bitter, the position is largely ceremonial.

During the 1992 riots, council members concluded that then-Mayor Walter R. Tucker III was attracting too much attention and banned the mayor from holding news conferences or issuing news releases on his own. Tucker later was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

In most other area cities the mayor is picked from among council members, who pass around the title every year.