Mass Resignations Urged in Pasadena in Name of Balance

In a move aimed at correcting the under-representation of the city’s poor and middle class, three members of the Board of Directors have called for the resignations of all appointees serving on municipal boards and commissions.

The proposal by Directors Rick Cole, Jess Hughston and William Thomson would open more than 250 commission seats to allow the board to appoint more commissioners from poor and middle-class neighborhoods.

Thomson said he expects most of the current commissioners, who oversee a variety of issues, including redevelopment, land use and transportation, to be reappointed.

“We have a body of expertise that we don’t want to lose,” he said. “There is no perfect way to do this. But we believe this is the easiest and most equitable way to do it.”

Mayor John Crowley said he supports the proposal but suggested that steps be taken to prevent the board from making a wholesale sweep of commissioners. He recommended that panelists with long terms remaining be guaranteed reappointment.

Caught Off Guard

The recommendation, which has the support of a majority of the board, startled some commissioners after it was proposed Monday during the regular meeting of the Board of Directors.

“My first reaction is that it seemed pretty drastic. It caught everyone off guard,” said Kathleen Shilkret, chairman of the Parks and Recreation Commission. “There’s been no indication that anyone has done a bad job.”

Despite their surprise, some commissioners accepted the possibility of losing their positions.

“The commissions are designed to serve the board. It’s really up to them,” said Nancy Leon, chairman of the Transportation Commission. “Most people choose to serve not because they’re after something, but because they really want to help the city. If we’re not reappointed, it’s not a personal slap.”

Design Commission Chairman William Ellinger said the proposal would foster a “Los Angeles-ization” of city politics in which special interests and neighborhood representatives would fight territorial battles over citywide issues.

But Cole called that possibility a “worry in search of a problem.” He said directors do not intend to make residency the sole criterion in judging candidates for a commission.

“It’s one criterion, but so are many other things,” he said.

New System

The proposal grew out of an informal meeting Saturday at which Cole, Hughston and Thomson discussed ways to restructure the panels to correct the under-representation of neighborhoods in northwest and east Pasadena.

Under a new appointment system agreed to in August, each director is allowed to appoint one member to each of the city’s 31 advisory panels, as seats become vacant.

But because of staggered terms, the three directors believed the phase-in process would be too lengthy and complicated.

Under the new proposal, the board would “start from scratch,” Thomson said.

By Jan. 31, each of the seven directors would select one candidate for each of the panels. The selections would be reviewed by the full board.

The mayor would appoint additional members on commissions that have more than seven members, drawing from a list of candidates recommended by other board members.

Director William Paparian urged using direct mailing and newspaper advertising to attract applicants.

“It all has to do with the dissemination of information,” said John Kennedy, head of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People’s Pasadena chapter.

Special Concerns

Over the last decade, the city has named dozens of ethnic minorities and women to city panels and has created several commissions to deal with special concerns of minorities and women.

Despite these gains, the city’s most impoverished and troubled neighborhoods have remained outsiders to City Hall.

According to an informal survey by The Times of 12 municipal commissions that deal with citywide issues, including planning, parks and utilities, residents from the poorer northwest and central Pasadena areas, who make up 30% of the city’s population, hold less than 10% of positions on the panels. About 10 of the 107 members on these 12 commissions live in these neighborhoods.

Some of the most impoverished neighborhoods, where the median family income can dip as low as $9,800 a year, have virtually no representation.

The lack of representation is not limited to the poor.

In east Pasadena, a swath of middle-class neighborhoods above Foothill Boulevard between Allen and Sierra Madre Villa avenues has even fewer appointees on municipal commissions--about seven of the 107 members on the 12 panels. About 13% of the city’s population lives in that area.

“It’s a serious omission,” said Hughston, whose district covers part of that area. “It just happened with no one planning it.”

One exception to the lack of middle-class representation is an area of north-central Pasadena that straddles the districts of directors Cole and Loretta Thompson-Glickman. About 14 commissioners out of the 107 live in the area, which makes up about 8% of the city’s population.

One reason for this exception, Cole said, is that young, well-educated professionals interested in serving on city panels are moving to these neighborhoods.

Wealthy Neighborhoods

But municipal panels are dominated by the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods, such as Linda Vista, San Rafael, Oak Knoll and Lower Hastings Ranch.

Residents from those neighborhoods and surrounding areas, where the median income ranges from $28,300 to $48,700 a year, make up nearly half of the 107 appointees.

For example, six of the nine members of the Planning Commission, which has wide-ranging power over land use and development, come from Hastings Ranch and neighborhoods south of Del Mar Boulevard.

Nine of the 11 members of the Parks and Recreation Commission live in Linda Vista or the areas south of Del Mar Boulevard.

The imbalance, according to several board members, grew out of the old appointment system, under which a nominating committee of three directors met in private to recommend candidates--a process that some say placed education and expertise above neighborhood representation.

“I think we’ve had a clear institutional bias that has discriminated against those who do not have law degrees and Ph.D.s,” Cole said.

Politics in the city has traditionally been dominated by the well-to-do who have the time and inclination to volunteer.

“Sadly, affluence gives you the luxury to donate the time,” said Lucy M. Howell, a housewife and member of the Community Development Committee, which oversees redevelopment issues.

But the problem is not just a matter of having free time.

Paparian, whose district covers parts of east Pasadena, said many residents have never been sought out to participate in city government.

“I think it is a product of institutional neglect,” he said. “The people who make the most noise get the most appointments.”

Ralph Poole, a 14-year resident of the King’s Villages apartment complex in northwest Pasadena and one of the founders of its tenants association, said the city has historically ignored appointing poor and middle-class residents, believing they were unqualified.

The result has been a deep mistrust and fear of city government that keeps residents from seeking political appointment, Poole said.

“Here I am a poor guy and I used to think, ‘How can I have anything to offer them,’ ” he said. “Now I realize that being in the community, the things I have to say have a great deal of validity.”

Proportional Representation

According to The Times’ survey, the racial and ethnic balance on the 12 commissions reflects that of the city.

Of the 107 commissioners, about 18% are black, 5% are Asian and 12% are Latino. This compares with a city population that is 21% black, 5.5% Asian and 18% Latino, according to the 1980 census.

The makeup of the commissions generally reflects the overall racial makeup of the city.

For example, four of the nine members of the Planning Commission and four of the seven members of the Community Development Commission, which oversees redevelopment, are black or Latino.

“There’s has been radical change in this city,” said Planning Commissioner Nickolas George Rodriquez. “Ten years ago it would have been unheard of to have minority representation on anything but a token level.”

Planning Commissioner Robert J. Davidson, who lives near Oak Knoll, said increases in minority representation, regardless of where they live, have increased sensitivity for the needs of the overwhelmingly minority northwest.

“As a black man I am extremely concerned about what happens in the northwest,” said Davidson, a local business owner. “I don’t think it matters where you live.”

But some believe the large number of commissioners from affluent neighborhoods has led to a subtle bias in favor of those neighborhoods and against under-represented areas.

“The point is, your sensitivities lie in the community you live in,” said the NAACP’s Kennedy.

Paparian pointed to a Planning Commission decision six years ago to allow the construction of nine to 16 homes per acre on a 16.4-acre site north of Pasadena High School on Washington Boulevard. Zoning in surrounding areas allowed a maximum of six homes per acre.

Developers have now proposed building 184 housing units on the site. Some residents oppose the Rose Townhomes plan, contending that the density levels, although within city zoning limits, are too high.

Paparian said that if a representative from this neighborhood had been on the Planning Commission, the density guidelines set six years ago might have been lower.

In the northwest, the lack of representation has been a longstanding source of frustration, said Sandra Knox, a Community Development Commission member who has lived in the area for nearly 42 years.

Knox said the area’s under-representation has led to a zoning mishmash. Residential neighborhoods have become entwined with retail, commercial, industrial and institutional uses, resulting in a steady degradation of the area, she said.

She cited as an example Lincoln Avenue. “You could have had a cement factory and a house on the same block,” she said. “You could do anything you wanted on Lincoln Avenue.”

The city formed a citizens’ committee to study the rezoning of the area in 1982. “Changes were made, but with great difficulty,” Knox said.

Kennedy said the construction of the King’s Villages apartment complex in northwest Pasadena is another instance in which local concerns were not heeded.

The 313-unit complex, which provided badly needed housing, was opposed by many residents who complained there were too many housing units on the 26-acre site.

The existing neighborhood was demolished to make way for the project, which today is beset by crime, vandalism and high tenant turnover.

“Very often the decisions are subtle, made by good people who mean no harm, but just don’t live here,” Knox said. “If you don’t live here, it’s easy for everyone to say it makes sense.”