Lancaster city police Officer Ben Bradley was honored as a hero — both by his department and by a national organization — on Tuesday, but was quick to spread the credit.

It was Bradley who was the first to come to the aid of a heart attack victim on June 26. It was Bradley who gave Paul Smith, of the 500 block of First Street, the initial shock to his heart from an automated external defibrillator and gave him chest compressions until paramedics arrived. It was Bradley who probably saved Smith's life.

And it was Bradley who said Tuesday: "I don't want to take all the credit for this. It was a team effort."

Bradley received the city police bureau's Life Saving Award, presented at Tuesday's City Council meeting. He also was presented with the SCA Hero award by the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association for his quick action.

Yet, he credited Smith's wife with having acted first. She called 911, remained calm and even pushed over the recliner Smith was sitting in so that he would be flat on the floor when Bradley and the other emergency responders arrived.

Bradley also credited the paramedics who gave the second electrical shock to Smith's heart and had him breathing on his own before taking him to Lancaster General Hospital.

"This was by no means a single-person action," Bradley insisted.

Smith at the meeting thanked Bradley "from the bottom of my heart."

James Weber, of the Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association, noted that sudden cardiac arrests kill 325,000 Americans each year.

Survival actions, such as Bradley's, are "a rare thing indeed," said Weber, who also is a paramedic.

Weber said he has only given out three SCA Hero awards. There have been about 75 given nationwide this year, he said.

Police Chief Keith Sadler called Bradley, a five-year veteran of the bureau, a credit to the force.

"You don't have to ask an officer like him to do anything," Sadler said. "He always goes above and beyond."

Also on Tuesday, City Council members:

• Heard from city Business Administrator Patrick Hopkins that a planned Internet-based auction for the right to market $40 million in city bonds scheduled for Tuesday morning was postponed.

Investment firms expected to bid on the bonds raised questions less than an hour before the auction was to begin about a "qualified opinion letter" by the city auditor.

The qualified opinion was because audits of related independent city authorities — Lancaster Parking Authority, Recreation Commission, Redevelopment Authority, and others — had not completed their annual audits, Hopkins said.

Such had been the case at previous bond offerings in recent years, and it had not been questioned, Hopkins said. He contended it was "a reflection of the heightened scrutiny that is occurring in the financial markets."

An unqualified letter will be sought and the auction likely rescheduled for Oct. 11.

• Heard from about 15 people that Sept. 27, the anniversary of the 1777 date which the Continental Congress convened in Lancaster, should be made a city holiday.

bharris@lnpnews.com