Super Bowl, Secrecy Top Pasadena Issues

The campaign for four seats on the Board of Directors in Tuesday’s election has focused on attacks from challengers against the board that include complaints of secrecy, ineffectiveness and inaccessibility.

The four incumbents--Mayor John Crowley, Rick Cole, Jo Heckman and William L. Cathey--have admitted that there are problems in City Hall, but contend that they are not as bad as challengers claim.

They say that despite their mistakes, they deserve reelection because of a host of accomplishments and their experience in solving complex problems.

The candidates in the election, which is decided by district vote, are Crowley and Maurice Simpson in District 1; Cole and Billie Williams in District 2; Heckman, David Rodger Headrick and William M. Paparian in District 4, and Cathey, Nina W. Cash and Kathryn Nack in District 6.

May Be Runoff

If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote on Tuesday, there will be a runoff election on April 21 between the two highest vote-getters for each seat.

Cash and Paparian have led the complaints by repeatedly questioning the board’s handling of city affairs. Their complaints have centered on a secret vote in December in which Cathey was appointed to replace former Director William Bogaard, and what they say was the board’s inappropriate handling of 700 Super Bowl tickets.

As part of the contract with the NFL to play the Jan. 25 game at the Rose Bowl, the city was allowed to buy 1,200 tickets. Each board member bought 100 tickets, which they said they resold at their $75 face value to friends, business acquaintances and political supporters.

Both Paparian and Cash have questioned the high number of tickets given to the board members and the lack of information about who bought the tickets and what they did with them.

Two directors have acknowledged that some of the tickets they sold at face value ended up in the hands of scalpers, who sold them for more than $75.

“This city is notorious for not opening up the process of government,” Cash said. “The board seems to love these little labyrinthine plans.”

Focus on Heckman

Paparian has focused most of his complaints against Heckman. But he said that other board members must also bear responsibility for the secret vote and the ticket controversy.

“It’s time for a change,” he said. “City Hall as a whole is giving the impression of not running with common sense, and most importantly not openly and publicly.”

Cole said he agreed that city government could be opened up more, “but I don’t think there is the widespread frustration and anger these candidates are expecting.”

Heckman added that many of the issues Cash and Paparian have raised have been hashed and rehashed over the past few months.

“We make mistakes, but we own up to them,” she said.

Secret Vote a Mistake

Heckman said the board has already agreed that the city must change its policy on handling Super Bowl tickets. The board has also admitted that the secret vote was a mistake, although members had been advised by City Atty. Victor Kaleta that the procedure was legal, she added.

“If we had to do it over, we wouldn’t do it,” Heckman said about the vote. “No one did it with a malicious intent.”

Challengers Williams, Headrick and Simpson have also complained about how the board has dealt with crime and unemployment.

Williams, for example, said the board has particularly failed in northwest Pasadena, where crime and unemployment are major concerns.

“Crime is something we’ve been hollering about for years,” said Williams, a founder of the Altadena chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. “All of a sudden, crime is a big issue for all of the candidates. Somehow I can’t believe that.”

Foot Patrols Started

The incumbents have countered by pointing to projects and police programs that they say have helped to reduce crime and unemployment, such as the construction of the King’s Plaza shopping center in northwest Pasadena, and the start-up of police foot patrols in Old Pasadena and parts of the northwest.

Paparian’s complaints against Heckman and the board have turned the race in District 4, which covers northeast Pasadena, into one of the liveliest.

Paparian is a Pasadena attorney who has raised $9,900 as of Feb. 19, the latest reporting date.

Heckman, who has raised $1,700, had originally suggested the secret vote to avoid alienating candidates seeking the appointment.

After the vote, the board only released the final tally, and would not say how each member voted, an action Paparian said was an apparent violation of the state’s open meeting law. Directors Cole, Crowley and Jess Hughston disclosed their votes that day, but Heckman, William Thomson and Loretta Thompson-Glickman refused to do so for two weeks.

Inaccessibility Claimed

Paparian has also complained that Heckman is inaccessible and is more concerned with her real estate business than residents’ problems.

“The folks in District 4 have not been listened to,” he said. “The only interests she has represented are the real estate lobby.”

Heckman denied that she is inaccessible, saying that she works out of her home and can be reached easily. She added that she has kept her city work separate from her real estate work and has removed herself from any vote where there is a potential for conflict of interest.

Heckman is being investigated by the county district attorney’s office in connection with allegations that she used her position on the board to get a use permit for property on which she was acting as broker.

Heckman said that few can match her qualifications for the board. She has been involved in city government for more than 20 years, including terms on the Planning Commission, the Finance Committee and the Burbank Glendale Pasadena Airport Authority.

Knows About Zoning

As a real estate agent, she said she has a thorough knowledge of zoning issues and understands the problems of both residents and developers.

“I can see both sides of questions and work to settle problems,” she said. “I think my record speaks for itself.”

Headrick, the third candidate in the district, acknowledges he is a “dark horse” for the $50-a-meeting position on the city’s top governing body.

Headrick, who calls himself a “Christian conservative,” has based his campaign on conservative moral issues.

“Someone has to stand up, and I am going to be that person,” said Headrick, who has raised no funds for his campaign.

Headrick has advocated banning pornography in the city, imposing the death penalty for child molesters, and allowing prayer in public schools. He has chastised the board for failing to take a stand on those issues

‘Just Walk the Fence’

“They don’t stand for anything,” he said. “They just want to walk the fence.”

Headrick, a furniture salesman, unsuccessfully ran for governor of New Jersey in 1985. He said if he loses the board election, he intends to seek the U.S. Senate seat now held by Sen. Alan Cranston.

The race in District 6, which covers the southwest corner of the city, has become the most expensive contest. Candidates Cathey, Nack and Cash have raised nearly $56,000 and spent $51,500, as of the latest reporting date.

Cathey, who has raised nearly $29,000, is a lawyer with the Los Angeles firm of Munger, Tolles & Olsen, and has been on the board for three months. He previously had been a member of the city’s Development Mitigation Task Force and the Community Development Committee, which advises the city on economic development.

Cites Experience

“No one is running with the amount of directly related experience that I’ve got,” he said. “The issues that are most controversial are exactly the issues I’ve been dealing with on the Community Development Committee.”

Nack, who is director of finance for the Los Angeles engineering firm of Nack & Sunderland, has raised $24,000. She was a member of the Planning Commission, the Pasadena Centennial Coordinating Committee and is a past president of the school board.

“I’m not a rabble-rouser; I bring people together,” she said. “Cooperation gets us further than antagonism.”

Nack, the only challenger who has refrained from attacking the board, has lived in Pasadena for 40 years and served eight years on the Board of Education.

“I think it’s very important in a city like Pasadena that there is a historic perspective on any decision,” she said.

Streamline Bureaucracy

Nack said she supports closer cooperation between the city and the school district and streamlining the bureaucratic procedures that residents face when they go to City Hall.

Cash, who has raised $2,900, has held no elected positions in the city, but she attends nearly all of the board’s meetings and frequently speaks up on local issues, such as problems with traffic and barking dogs in residential neighborhoods.

A former teacher and management consultant who is now co-publisher of the newsletter, City Hall Observer, Cash has based her campaign on a pledge to open up city government and make it more responsive to “the little guy.”

“The little guy doesn’t have a cadre of consultants or attorneys,” she said. “And who has the time to fight City Hall. It’s just plain old aggravation.”

Cash has promised to become a full-time director if she is elected.

Debate Refused

In District 2, which covers north-central Pasadena, Cole and Williams have clashed over Williams’ refusal to debate last month.

Cole had hand-delivered a letter calling for the debate to a local newspaper. The paper ran an article about the challenge the next day, when Cole and Williams were scheduled to meet with the Pasadena Board of Realtors in a candidate forum.

Williams refused to debate, saying that Cole should have issued the challenge directly rather than going through the press. Williams called the incident an attempt by Cole to embarrass him in front of the Board of Realtors and manipulate the media.

“He did it especially for that meeting,” he said. “Rick is shrewd. He’s a very smooth manipulator.”

Cole, a public relations consultant who has raised $14,300 for the race, said, “I’m sorry he is making an issue of something that is of little importance concerning the next four years. It’s sort of ridiculous. The point is he won’t debate.”

Campaigns on Record

Cole, who has been a director since 1983, has based his campaign on his record of being an advocate for tighter budgets and strong neighborhoods. He said he was instrumental in starting the city’s anti-graffiti program, banning more fast-food restaurants on North Lake Avenue and restoring police foot patrols in the Lake Avenue-Washington Boulevard Area.

He said crime prevention is his top priority and he plans to continue to urge increased police protection in his district.

“I’ve been working for the last four years on crime and development in northwest Pasadena and we’ve made more progress in the last four years than at any time in the past,” he said.

Reducing crime is also a top priority for Williams, a co-owner of Berry & Sweeney Prescription Pharmacy and a former field representative for Crowley. Williams, who has raised $5,600, said he would urge a thorough study of crime in the district before advocating specific programs.

“I’m really hot on crime,” he said. “I don’t think the board has done what it could.”

Light Opposition

In District 1, which covers northwest Pasadena, Crowley has faced light opposition from Simpson.

Crowley, who has been on the board for eight years and has been mayor since May, said he has not seen Simpson at any candidate forums or community meetings and has no idea who Simpson is.

Simpson, a U.S. Postal Service supervisor, said he has purposely avoided debating Crowley “so I wouldn’t have to face a lot of questions I couldn’t answer.”

Simpson said the board withholds too much information from the public and he would not be able to compete against Crowley in a debate.

Simpson said the main focus of his campaign is to reduce crime and unemployment, which he said the board has failed to do.

‘City Looking for Change’

“I think the city is looking for a change,” he said. “Nothing substantial has been done by this board.”

Simpson, who has raised no money for his campaign, offered no specific programs to solve the problems, saying that he would begin studying the problems once he was elected.

Crowley said he has focused his campaign on his role in forging a “better tomorrow” for Pasadena. He pointed to his part in helping devise a financial plan for the city and redevelop the Lincoln Avenue and Fair Oaks corridors.

Crowley, who has raised $5,300, is asking voters to return him to the board so he can complete the unfinished development of the two corridors and the implementation of the financial plan.