City Director Expects No Conflict With Role as Aide : L.A.’s Alatorre Hires Pasadena’s Cole

City Director Rick Cole has been hired as a legislative aide by newly elected Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre.

Cole, who will continue to serve on the Board of City Directors, will assume his new $35,000-a-year post on Jan. 4.

“I see it as an opportunity to learn more about local government,” Cole said this week. “I think the election of (a) Hispanic is a historic opportunity for Los Angeles.”

Free-Lance Journalist

A free-lance journalist and public-relations consultant, Cole has not held a full-time job outside City Hall for almost a year. City directors, who serve on a part-time basis, are paid a maximum salary of $250 per month. Cole resigned last December from Pasadena Media Inc., which publishes the Pasadena Weekly, citing possible conflicts of interests with the weekly newspaper that closely covers the board.

During his 1983 election campaign to unseat incumbent Stephen Acker, Cole was accused by Acker of having never held down a full-time job, a charge Cole vehemently denied. Before his election, Cole worked for Charles J. Reilly Co., a public-relations firm in Pasadena. He has also said he worked for Dennis Kucinich in 1979 when Kucinich was mayor of Cleveland.

Alatorre, a former member of the state Assembly, is the first Latino to serve on the Los Angeles City Council in more than two decades. He won the 14th District seat earlier this month in a special election to replace Art Snyder, who resigned after serving 18 years.

Cole, 32, said his job with Alatorre will consist of research and policy development.

He foresees no conflict with his new job, Cole said. “Unless you live in an ivory tower, you can’t rule out any conflict of interest,” he said. “Compared to being a Realtor, a banker or a lawyer, I think this is much less,” he said, in an apparent reference to the occupations of his fellow board members, Jo Heckman, who is a real estate agent, Bill Thomson, a lawyer, and Mayor Bill Bogaard, an attorney with First Interstate Bank.

Bogaard said he had not given much thought to Cole’s new job, but added that he did not think there would be any conflicts. “If the two activities--working within the jurisdiction of Pasadena and the jurisdiction of L.A.--are kept separate, there shouldn’t be any particular problem.”

Alatorre’s press deputy said Cole was chosen by Alatorre for his knowledge of municipal government. “(Cole) understands the pressures and concerns that elected officials have, being one himself,” Tom Sullivan said.

Sullivan said Alatorre had “always been very impressed with Rick’s abilities” and doubted that there would be a conflict between Cole’s two jobs.