Farewells Begin for the Bully

After Pete Schabarum’s farewell Monday, I walked down the long eighth-floor corridor of the County Hall of Administration to visit his most durable opponent, Supervisor Kenny Hahn.

So, you outlasted him, I said. Although Hahn’s speech has been slowed, and his body weakened, he’s still the hall’s fastest man with a quote.

“Praise the Lord,” replied the old supervisor.

Praise the Lord. I know there are several others who must have expressed that sentiment when they heard Schabarum had decided against running for another term. To be blunt, that’s because he’s considered a bully.

Not a bully in the usual sense of the word. Bullies are supposed to torment the weak. Schabarum torments the strong as well, treating high county executives with the same contempt he shows for representatives of the poor.

That’s why the head celebrant at Schabarum’s extended going-away party might well be one of county government’s most powerful officials, Richard Dixon, the county administrative officer. Schabarum believes himself to be a far better administrator than Dixon. As a result, the administrative officer must sit silently during Tuesday meetings while the supervisor, his voice contemptuous, rakes him with questions about investment policy, labor contracts and leases.

Joining the celebration, I’m sure, will be Schabarum’s conservative colleagues, Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Deane Dana. Although Schabarum spent thousands of campaign dollars to help get them elected in 1980, Schabarum has told friends the two have committed the worst of all sins: falling captive to Dixon and the rest of the county bureaucracy.

Schabarum hates compromise. Dana compromises--on scores of medium-sized to small issues that come before the board. So does Antonovich. Schabarum felt that Dixon, Antonovich and Dana would team up against him on these matters. Schabarum expressed this belief in conversations with reporters and assistants, and he underscored it by letting his voice drip with scorn in debates with Antonovich and Dana.

But what’s important is that the three were together on the big issues--voting against more spending for health care or promoting fast development of county-controlled lands in Malibu, the Santa Monica Mountains and the far northwest San Fernando Valley. Ideology can be stronger than friendship.

There was, however, a plus to Schabarum’s bullying. As Hahn once said, county government is like a glacier, and the supervisors, incapable of controlling it, can only ride on top, shouting “Get out of the way!” In grappling with such a monstrous bureaucracy, only a bully can get results.

When CAO Dixon and Dana, who represents the coastal district, couldn’t negotiate a rent increase from waterside business owners at the county-owned Marina del Rey, Schabarum brought in a high-powered attorney, Richard Riordan, who resolved the matter and wrangled more money for the county. Although the unions hate him for it, Schabarum called in tough private lawyers for labor negotiations--and the county won some victories. Schabarum bullied government agencies into creating a separate bus line, run by a private company, for his San Gabriel Valley district, over the opposition of county transit officials and unions.

Schabarum relished those victories. He also enjoyed all the details of county government, visiting government offices, always curious about how they were running. Only Hahn, before his stroke, knew as much as Schabarum about the insides of the county monster.

But increasingly, he was on the losing side. His Republican colleagues on the board had begun to treat him with contempt; a final blow was their refusal this year to support his proposal for a two-term limit.

Pete Schabarum, who felt he should run things, was being ignored. Anyone who’s ever been passed over for promotion or stuck on a dead-end job knows the feeling.

And Schabarum’s district was changing. The mostly Anglo, Republican middle-class East San Gabriel Valley, which had sent local football hero Schabarum to the state Assembly 25 years ago, had become home to Asian, Latino and black families. The Anglo blue-collar, working-class neighborhoods around Bell Gardens, Downey, Huntington Park and Norwalk--Schabarum territory--were becoming mostly Latino. Although there were enough Schabarum voters--and he had enough money--to win another term, his district was becoming alien to him.

It all showed on the job. Schabarum became even less tolerant of those who disagreed with him, and he didn’t respect the people who bowed to his attacks. He was a disappointed man. His family and friends will welcome him. His enemies will bid him a not-so-fond farewell. That’s the way it goes with bullies.