A False Note to the New Year in Pasadena

Did a group of ringers secretly ring in the new year at Pasadena’s 2006 Rose Parade?

The answer is yes. But that hasn’t resolved a lawsuit over whether officials at the Pasadena Unified School District tried to cover up what they did.

The suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleges that local school officials have hidden the fact that out-of-towners were recruited to fill the school district’s All-Star Marching Band during this year’s rainstorm-soaked parade down Colorado Avenue.

District spokeswoman Janet Pope Givens acknowledged Tuesday that 72 out of 274 of those marching this year were from as far away as Apple Valley, West Covina, Fontana, Los Alamitos and Granada Hills. But she insisted that there is nothing improper about recruiting musicians from other school districts.

“It’s not a violation of musical ethics,” Givens said Tuesday. “It’s a great opportunity for the district to partner with other schools.”

Indeed, Pasadena Unified is far from the first band to pull in musicians from elsewhere -- though the practice is not well known to parade viewers.

Longtime Pasadena activist Rene Amy, who filed the suit, said the school district not only knew that what it was doing was wrong but also tried to keep its actions from the public.

“It’s bad enough that these outside kids marched without any acknowledgment. But to have to march in the rain and still not be recognized is wrong,” Amy said.

Amy contends that the school district has violated the state’s Public Records Act by failing to provide information about the composition of the all-star band that he formally requested in early January.

“They thanked all these kids from Pasadena for their performance, but they didn’t thank the kids who were ringers -- the kids who covered Pasadena Unified’s butt,” said Amy, a Pasadena general contractor and law school student. “They cooked up this plan to make Pasadena look better. It was like Professor Harold Hill in ‘The Music Man’: It was, ‘Let’s all have a band!’ But how can you do that when you don’t have a cohesive music program in your schools?” he said.

School district officials blamed budget cutbacks for their failure to respond to Amy’s public records request.

The request was “routed to the right place, but that person was incredibly busy. It just got missed,” Givens said.

The all-star band was organized by volunteers who raised money and started filling the band with all the Pasadena Unified students who wanted to participate, she said.

“Then they extended the invitation to other nearby schools. If we can’t fill in the entire band then we certainly invite others to join us,” Givens said, adding that none of the outsiders were paid to participate.

Tournament of Roses officials, who are not a party to the lawsuit, said it is not unusual for bands to recruit recent graduates and those from nearby schools to fill their marching roster.

“Filling out a particular instrument section with prior band members or with those from other nearby bands is a common practice,” said Paul Holman, Tournament of Roses president. “Rarely is the band we see in the [application] videotape the same band as those who show up” because of graduation and other student turnover.

“We don’t have a way of investigation where the individual band members are from if they all show up in the same uniform.”

Competition for a parade invitation normally is keen, with 60 bands sometimes vying for 16 openings (it’s unclear if other bands used ringers this year). The Pasadena Unified band has competed twice. And, in perhaps good news for them, the trend is for smaller Rose Parade bands -- not larger ones.

Holman said the traditional 150-musician minimum for marching bands in the parade is changing as tournament leaders work to shorten the parade and keep it on a manageable timetable for television broadcasters. In 2005, a Texas band showed up with 650 musicians, he said.

The use of alumni and outside musicians has been a common practice in the past at Pasadena City College, where a 100-member “core” marching band has been augmented with outsiders.

James Arnwine, director of bands at the college, said high school students and students at other colleges are invited to audition for what the college calls its Tournament of Roses Honor Band. They are enrolled for the event as city college students and earn college credit for participating if they are accepted, Arnwine said.

Amy pledged to continue with his lawsuit until he receives what he called “an appropriate response” from the district.

Which means this year’s Rose Parade music could end on a legal note.