Intense Drive Fuels RTD Chief’s Rising Fortunes in Politics

Nick Patsaouras, president of the Southern California Rapid Transit District board of directors, once used his Mercedes 450 SL coupe to block an RTD bus that failed to stop for a a woman who was running to the bus stop.

“I asked the driver why he couldn’t wait a minute to pick up the lady,” said Patsaouras. “He said he had to meet a schedule.

“I told him one-minute waiting wouldn’t kill him,” Patsaouras said. The RTD president then returned to his car and drove away.

That kind of intensity has marked the career of Patsaouras, a wealthy, politically ambitious San Fernando Valley businessman involved in many major activities in Los Angeles.

“Whenever he does anything, he throws himself into it completely,” said former Los Angeles City Councilwoman Peggy Stevenson, a close friend of Patsaouras.

Metro Rail Proponent

Patsaouras (pronounced Pat-sigh-or-us) is perhaps best known and--with his distinctive Greek accent--most recognized as one of the most vocal proponents of Los Angeles’ proposed Metro Rail subway. He has been in the forefront of an intense and uphill political struggle to put together the complex, delicate and still elusive financing plan for the $3.3-billion project.

Besides presiding over the nation’s largest bus system, Patsaouras, 41, is board chairman of Los Angeles-based Marathon National Bank. He is a partner in an electrical engineering firm. He is chairman of the Los Angeles Board of Zoning Appeals. He is a leader in Los Angeles’ Greek community. And, politically active Los Angeles attorney Mickey Kantor said, he is “one of the most significant fund-raisers in California,” primarily supporting Democrats like himself but some Republicans too.

“He’s really made himself a political force in Southern California in a very short time,” said former Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Robert Philibosian, a Patsaouras friend and neighbor.

A once-poor immigrant who became a millionaire in his mid-30s, Patsaouras is--Stevenson said--”the personification of the American dream come true.”

“Here is a man who came here at age 17, with little knowledge of the language, without anybody, and because of hard work and determination became a successful businessman,” said Stevenson, herself of Greek descent.

Dedicated, Hard Working

A handsome, impeccably dressed man, Patsaouras starts his day with a 5:30 a.m. workout at his health club and often doesn’t return home until after midnight. He is a dedicated, hard-working man who, on the night his wife, Sylvia, gave birth to the first of their two children, returned to his engineering office until 4 a.m. to finish a job he promised would be ready that morning.

He does not like to play second fiddle. When asked to serve on the Southern California finance committee for Democrat Walter F. Mondale’s 1984 presidential campaign, he demanded to be named chairman. He got his way. As a result, he said, he personally raised between $150,000 and $200,000 for Mondale’s campaign, a figure that Democratic Party officials do not dispute.

He is direct and impatient. Critics say he is abrupt and rude. While presiding over RTD meetings, Patsaouras often says “thank you” to board members while cutting them off in mid-sentence to speed up the proceedings. At one recent meeting, Patsaouras told fellow board member Jay Price, “You already spoke twice. Say something new.”

“His style is no-nonsense,” said a colleague of Patsaouras’ on the RTD board who asked not to be identified. “I think he feels there is too little time in this life to spend on niceties.”

“I don’t like small talk,” Patsaouras said. When he takes a business call, he said, “I don’t want to hear someone ask, ‘How was your weekend?’ I want to conduct business.”

Greek Dancing

Patsaouras’ favorite pastime is dancing Greek-style alone on the dance floor in a taverna.

“Sometimes, I go to a restaurant and say to myself, ‘I’m just going to have a drink. I’m not going to dance,’ ” Patsaouras said. “But when I hear that bouzouki, it does something to me. It makes my whole body awaken, and I get up and dance,” he said, referring to a Greek musical instrument.

But his passion is politics.

“I like being able to influence decisions,” he said. “I’m good at it.”

“He likes the role of kingmaker,” said Peter Katsufrakis, a retired Los Angeles municipal judge who serves with Patsaouras on the board of the Hellenic-American Chamber of Commerce, a group that Patsaouras founded in 1982 to promote Greek culture.

“He wants to be a mover and a shaker,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky. “He feels that America has given him a great opportunity, and he wants to give something back.”

Actor Telly Savalas, a Patsaouras friend, said, “He’s a guy who’s paying the country back.”

Others feel that Patsaouras, who ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 1980, has a burning ambition to make himself better known for another try at elective office.

“Nick has political aspirations,” said an RTD board member who requested anonymity. “I don’t think it’s a secret to anybody.”

Patsaouras said he has no plans to run for elective office--he was appointed to the RTD board--but he added, “I never say never.”

Patsaouras was born Dec. 4, 1943, in Athens. The son of a telephone company clerk, he said he came to the United States at age 17 to attend college because entrance to Greek colleges was restricted to members of influential families. Once here, he attended Valley College and California State University, Northridge, where he earned a degree in electrical engineering.

Established Bank

At age 25, he started his own engineering firm, designing electrical systems for high-rise buildings. In 1983, he expanded his business interests by calling together a number of wealthy Greek friends to establish Marathon National Bank, of which he serves as board chairman.

Patsaouras came onto the political scene in 1980 when he decided to run against incumbent Baxter Ward for a seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

A political unknown at the time, he was urged by friends to try a less ambitious race for his political debut. A candidate for Los Angeles County supervisor must reach more people--1.5 million--than a candidate for the City Council, state Legislature or Congress.

Joe Cerrell, the political consultant who handled Patsaouras’ campaign, said he didn’t want to get involved at first, but Patsaouras talked him into it.

“I was taken aback by this Greek immigrant who starts talking about the goodness of the American way, how much he wants to give back to this country what it’s given to him, and how he struggled as an immigrant to survive,” Cerrell recalled.

Intensive Campaign

Patsaouras waged an intensive and--to some observers--surprisingly effective campaign to increase his visibility among voters.

He finished third in a field of four candidates, with 37,531 votes or 9% of the total. Mike Antonovich received 179,999 votes and Ward had 168,313.

After being courted by both candidates, Patsaouras endorsed Antonovich, a conservative Republican, over Ward, a fellow Democrat, for the runoff election in the nonpartisan race.

“As far as I’m concerned, he helped enable Antonovich to become supervisor,” Cerrell said. Three months later, Antonovich appointed Patsaouras to the 11-member RTD board.

Antonovich and Patsaouras said the appointment was not in return for the endorsement.

RTD Presidency

In March, 1984, Patsaouras decided to try to take the RTD presidency away from Mike Lewis. But his election was no easy task. His accent bothered some board members.

“Nick does not speak clearly enough for everybody to understand,” said a former board member who worked with Patsaouras. “He has a heavy accent. Sometimes, Nick would have to write it down because we couldn’t understand what he was saying.”

Patsaouras lobbied his fellow board members hard. The result was that he beat Lewis by one vote in a secret ballot. He was reelected in March to another one-year term as board president, this time by a unanimous vote. Patsaouras receives no salary from the RTD, other than the $50 paid to board members for each meeting they attend, usually one a week.

Promotion of Metro Rail has occupied most of Patsaouras’ time as RTD president. He has made numerous trips between Los Angeles, Sacramento and Washington to lobby for passage of the project’s complex financing plan. The plan calls for the federal government to pick up the bulk of the subway’s cost, with the remainder being paid for by the state, a half-cent sales tax increase approved by Los Angeles County voters in 1980 and a tax imposed on businesses along the downtown Los Angeles-to-San Fernando Valley subway route.

Just how effective he has been is disputed.

Lobbies Aggressively

Mayor Tom Bradley said Patsaouras has been “very aggressive in telling the story of Metro Rail and in going to Washington and Sacramento and anyplace else to lobby for it.”

Barry Engelberg, the RTD’s director of government relations, said Patsaouras, because of the political contacts he has developed through his various activities, “has been able to smooth the way for our people to make entree to officials who we did not think we could get to see.”

Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Tom Houston, who has accompanied Patsaouras on lobbying trips, said the RTD president has worked hard to keep Metro Rail alive in the face of a number of setbacks, the latest of which is an effort by President Reagan to scuttle the project to help trim the federal budget deficit.

“He never gives up,” Houston said.

In fact, Patsaouras was recently in Washington again, this time urging Congress to reject the Administration’s removal of funding for Metro Rail. He argued, as he has on numerous appearances on radio and television, that other cities will get Los Angeles’ share of gas tax money for mass transit systems unless Metro Rail is built.

Rep. Bobbi Fiedler (R-Northridge), a leading opponent of Metro Rail, said, however, that Patsaouras has not been effective at all. “If his connections were so great,” she said, “RTD wouldn’t have to be spending a quarter of a million dollars for lobbyists.”

Political Fund Raising

Bolstering Patsaouras’ political activities have been his fund-raising efforts on behalf of political candidates.

Those who know Patsaouras attribute his effectiveness as a political fund-raiser to his ability to organize Los Angeles’ estimated 75,000 Greeks.

“He brought some awareness to the Greek community to the necessity of being politically active,” Philibosian said.

No one knows exactly how much Patsaouras has raised for political candidates. California law requires disclosure of the names of contributors, not the people who solicit their contributions. However, campaign reports show the Hellenic-American Political Action Committee, which Patsaouras’ operates, contributed $129,689 to more than two dozen candidates between 1982 and 1984. Among the recipients of these funds were Philibosian, $28,000; Stevenson $13,300; Bradley $7,000; Antonovich, $21,400; Assemblyman Richard Alatorre (D-Los Angeles) and state Sen. Art Torres (D-South Pasadena), $6,000 each.