FIRST LADY UNDECIDED ON BOWL CONCERT ROLE

First Lady Nancy Reagan has yet to decide whether she will act as sponsor of a major anti-drug benefit concert April 26 at the Rose Bowl that was given the go-ahead by Pasadena city officials Tuesday.

Mrs. Reagan was touted by concert promoters as the major sponsor of the event. Publicist Michael Jensen, speaking on behalf of concert promoters Global Media Ltd., told city officials Tuesday night that they should be embarrassed to reject the concert after the probable Rose Bowl location was “leaked” to the public before Nancy Reagan’s official announcement.

However, according to Mrs. Reagan’s press secretary, the First Lady has made no decision regarding participation or sponsorship of the event, billed as the Concert That Counts, and plans to review the project today. Mrs. Reagan has been on the road for a week and must consult with her special projects coordinator, Ken Buren, before deciding whether to be a part of the project, press secretary Elaine Crispen told The Times on Wednesday.

Crispen said that she could not say when Mrs. Reagan would make any announcement regarding her participation.

Late Wednesday, a Global Media liaison to the White House on drug-abuse policy who requested anonymity, said Mrs. Reagan’s staff was aware of the concert and had given it a positive recommendation.

City officials said they were told by concert promoters that Mrs. Reagan would not formally announce details of the 11-hour extravaganza until Feb. 28. The concert is being produced by the Marina del Rey-based organization whose two founders--Hal Uplinger and Tony Verna--masterminded the international telecast of last summer’s hugely successful Live Aid concert.

Global Media spokeswoman Leigh Bonnelle said Wednesday that no public statement was ever made about Mrs. Reagan’s involvement. Company documents and statements made by Global Media to Pasadena city officials about the First Lady’s sponsorship were “confidential,” Bonnelle said and were never released. She said she did not know why city officials had a 26-page company brochure about the concert.

She said an official statement would be made soon.

Listed among the confirmed participants in the brochure are such pop stars as Madonna, the Beach Boys, the Moody Blues, Aretha Franklin and George Michael of Wham!

Madonna’s press secretary said Wednesday that the pop star had received an invitation to participate but had not confirmed that she would appear.

Although Rose Bowl-area residents made it clear that an expected 100,000 rock fans will not be welcomed in their neighborhood, the nation’s largest football stadium was approved for the benefit.

Five of Pasadena’s seven elected city directors approved promoters’ plans to proceed with the project at Tuesday’s meeting. (The board acts as Pasadena’s City Council.) Pasadena Mayor William Bogaard abstained; Vice Mayor John Crowley left before the vote was taken.

Before abstaining, Bogaard chastised city staff for not informing him or the public sooner about plans for the bowl event.

“The manner in which this question has been handled by the staff has been a scandal,” he said. “I’m astounded the city staff has been drawn into a conspiracy of silence.”

Rock concerts have not been held in the Rose Bowl since the summer of 1982 when the noise and traffic from a daylong concert resulted in a storm of protest from residents, who successfully blocked the Jacksons from performing there in 1984. The final six Victory Tour concerts were held at Dodger Stadium.

“I think it’s incumbent upon us to make sure we harness this good cause,” said City Director Rick Cole, prior to approving Global Media’s proposal.

“What happened at Live Aid and Farm Aid is that people changed their ideas about music,” Cole continued. “It’s not just something to get stoned by. This was a major maturation and we should not help negativize this music . . . by ghettoizing it physically at the Coliseum.”

Unlike the other Aid concerts of the past year, the anti-drug Concert That Counts will not solicit contributions with a toll-free telephone number. According to its promoters, it will still be a nonprofit venture, but not in the same way as Live Aid which took in more than $80 million to fight African famine.

Whereas Live Aid depended upon call-in pledges for the bulk of its money, the Concert That Counts plans to garner its funds from concession vendors, souvenirs, broadcast license fees, ticket sales and royalties from a proposed record album and motion picture that would be made during the concert, promoters said. Global Media Ltd. would recoup its operating costs from gross receipts before turning over surplus monies to the Nancy Reagan Drug Abuse Fund and other anti-drug agencies, officials said.

The Pasadena city directors are requiring that Global Media contribute to Pasadena’s own municipal drug abuse programs. The council designated half of the city’s expected $226,000 profit from ticket sales to be used to help Pasadena drug victims. The other half would go into the city’s general fund.

In addition, the city is seeking 1% or 2% of the total revenue taken in from all concert sources, including any films made of the event.

City officials were told by Global Media that tickets for the event would be about $15 apiece. No word was given on when or where the tickets would be made available to the public.

Global Media’s Verna told city directors that he would bring the city’s proposal before his company’s charity advisory committee.

Verna said it’s “in the spirit of things” and not unreasonable for a community to demand a small percentage, considering the problems that residents will have to put up with.

Neighbors of the 105,000-seat stadium claim the all-day event will bring increased noise, traffic, crime and fire hazards to their Arroyo Seco community. Fresh in their minds are the incidents that blighted a rock concert held in the Rose Bowl three years ago, during which people sat on residents’ roofs, blocked driveways and urinated in yards, according to neighborhood activist Idelle Cowles.

Two years ago the city adopted an ordinance prohibiting another rock concert in Pasadena.

Residents didn’t criticize the concert’s charitable purposes or its intent to raise public consciousness over the issue of worldwide drug abuse, but many did suggest that some other community take on the burden of hosting the concert.

“This concert doesn’t have to be in the Rose Bowl, L.A. or in California,” Cowles said. “It could be anywhere in the world. If Nancy Reagan thinks it should be held in a residential neighborhood, maybe she should have the rock stars perform in her backyard.”

Besides the 16 stars reported confirmed for the concert, another 27, among them Whitney Houston, the Dream Academy and Sting are listed in the “expected” column of a talent lineup sheet.