State Delays Picking Site for Parole Office

City officials have won a temporary delay in the establishment of a state parole office on Rosemead Boulevard while they help corrections officials find an alternate site.

Mayor William E. Thomson Jr. said the state Department of Corrections has promised to delay signing a lease while the search goes on. But if a suitable site cannot be found in a month or two, Thomson said, the department has made it clear that it will go ahead with plans to move the regional parole office from Alhambra to a building at 468 N. Rosemead Blvd. in Pasadena’s Hastings Ranch.

Alhambra Opposition

This is the second time in recent months that state officials have run into opposition to the location of a parole office in the San Gabriel Valley.

Community opposition to the parole office in Alhambra prompted state officials to promise to move it by Oct. 1. Alhambra and Monterey Park police contend that crime has risen since the office, which is near the border of the two cities, was opened last year.

Thomson, City Director Jess Hughston and Harold Britton, president of the Lower Hastings Ranch Homeowners Assn., met last week in Sacramento with state officials to argue against the Rosemead Boulevard site. Hastings Ranch residents say they fear that bringing parolees to their neighborhood will increase crime. State officials deny there is a link between parole offices and crime rates.

The city delegation met with Joe Sandoval, secretary of the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency; Craig Brown, undersecretary of the agency, and Stephen Blankenship, the governor’s deputy legislative secretary.

Thomson said the parole office requires 10,000 square feet on a ground floor at a site that has 30 to 40 parking spaces and is accessible to public transportation. He said the state does not insist that the office be in Pasadena, but only in the general area.

He said that, in order to minimize concern by the public, the office should be placed away from homes, schools and parks.

“It’s going to be very difficult to find a site that will have only minimal concern, much less be free of community concern,” the mayor said. Nevertheless, he said, the city, aided by real estate brokers and community groups, will work with the state to seek a better location.