Blacks Plan Protest Over City Manager : Pasadena: Critics cite Philip Hawkey’s difficulties with minorities in Toledo. Hawkey, however, says his negative image comes from bad press.

The selection of Philip Hawkey, city manager of Toledo, Ohio, to replace retiring City Manager Donald McIntyre has sparked outrage among some Pasadena blacks, who say that Hawkey is insensitive to minorities.

A number of black community members plan to protest the choice at Tuesday’s Board of Directors meeting. Hawkey, meanwhile, attributed the negative image to bad press, and said he is confident he can overturn the image once his critics get to know him.

The directors’ choice of Hawkey came in a 4-3 vote in a closed session Wednesday. Mayor William Thomson and Directors John Crowley, Kathryn Nack and Bill Paparian supported Hawkey.

Chris Holden, the city’s only black board member, lobbied for Jack Bond, county manager in Durham County, N.C., but secured only the votes of Directors Rick Cole and Jess Hughston.

“This is a very diverse community we’ve got here,” Holden said. “The fact that Phil Hawkey came from a community 80% white made me doubt his ability to manage such a diverse community.”

Pasadena is 46% white, 25% black, 19% Latino, 6% Armenian and 4% Asian, according to city government.

Holden said he was disappointed with the selection. “When the chips are down, there may be opportunity for everyone, but I wouldn’t say it’s equal,” Holden said. “It makes me feel kind of hollow inside.”

William Anderson, a black Pasadena doctor who is organizing the protest, said he considers the selection of Hawkey a “moral injustice.”

Chief among Anderson’s complaints is that Hawkey has run into difficulties in Toledo with minorities. These troubles include a pending discrimination lawsuit against him by a former Toledo City Hall employee and criticisms of the Toledo Police Department’s treatment of blacks during his tenure.

Anderson expressed concern that Hawkey will bring that history to Pasadena, where some black residents already are unhappy with city hiring practices.

But Thomson defended the board’s decision, saying it was based on Hawkey’s experience and competence compared with the other candidates.

The board had considered three finalists from among 75 initial applicants: Bond; Larry Moore, city manager of Richmond, Calif., and Hawkey, who also worked as assistant city manager of Cincinnati.

Bond and Moore are black. Hawkey is white.

Hawkey, 43, reached by telephone in Toledo, said he will accept the Pasadena offer, pending salary and benefits negotiations. The new manager is to start in June.

He said he can change his negative image among some Pasadena blacks. “They don’t know me,” Hawkey said. “I’m confident that once they get to know me, we will work well together.”

He attributed his image problem to stories in Toledo’s daily newspaper, the Toledo Blade, which he said has conducted a campaign against the council-manager form of government.

Because the paper wants a strong-mayor form of government in Toledo, Hawkey said, his actions have been severely criticized in the newspaper. The newspaper stories have influenced public opinion in Pasadena, he said, but he added that demonstrations against him will not sway him from taking the post.

John Robinson Block, editor-in-chief of the Blade, denied that the paper was unfair to Hawkey. He said the Blade’s editorials favored a strong-mayor form of government, but its news stories were independent of that position.

“Our City Hall reporters tend to be aggressive but fair in covering Phil Hawkey,” Block said. “I know he wants to blame all of his troubles on the newspaper, but he has been hounded by many difficulties associated with his style of management.”

Thomson said Hawkey’s selection was based on “the depth of his experience as a city manager as opposed to a county manager.”

The mayor also said Hawkey’s jobs in cities the size of Toledo and Cincinnati exposed him to a greater variety of urban issues than Bond or Moore have experienced.

Finally, Thomson said, Hawkey “has demonstrated a sensitivity to racial issues and issues affecting minorities. He will do a superb job in Pasadena.”

Hawkey’s salary has yet to be negotiated, Thomson said, but the city is prepared to pay up to $125,000 annually. The new city manager will be responsible for 1,600 employees and an annual budget of $226 million. Hawkey has served as Toledo city manager since May, 1986, overseeing 3,200 employees and an annual operating budget of $275 million.

Hawkey was chosen after the city spent more than $53,000 to hire recruiters, hold public hearings and send Thomson and three other directors to travel to the candidates’ hometowns.

Hawkey’s candidacy had generated mounting opposition among some in the black community in the past few weeks.

Attorney Joe Hopkins, editor of a 6-month-old black weekly newspaper called The Pasadena Journal, had circulated a special edition critical of Hawkey. In addition, Hopkins had made available newspaper stories about Hawkey’s difficulties in Toledo.

Those difficulties included the firing of a veteran black City Hall employee who has since filed a racial discrimination suit against Hawkey. Toledo blacks also were upset in 1988 when the Toledo police chief, who reports to Hawkey, directed his officers to detain and question black youths in an effort to cut down on gang activity. The practice was stopped only after protests and lawsuits.

And last year, a 16-year-old burglary suspect drowned in the rain-swollen Ottawa River while fleeing police. Although a later investigation by the FBI found no violation of the black youth’s civil rights, the death prompted 13 community activists to stage a sit-in at the Toledo City Hall, protesting what they alleged was a delay in efforts to rescue the boy. The activists were arrested when they refused to leave.

In Pasadena, the new city manager must tackle complaints of racial discrimination at King’s Villages, a 313-unit, low-income housing project in Northwest Pasadena. Last week, city directors ordered city staff members to examine housing project records to determine the validity of the complaints.

Meanwhile, the city is also completing a unit-by-unit check of city health and building code violations at the project.

In addition, the Jan. 18 death of Robert Earl Holloway, a 28-year-old black who died after a tussle with project security guards, prompted public outrage. A coroner’s report found Holloway died after his windpipe was crushed in the fight. No charges were filed. Thomson has asked the district attorney to reopen the investigation into how Holloway died.

The city last year finally hired a consultant to study its personnel practices, after complaints that minorities and women were being discriminated against in hiring and promotions. That report is due at the end of this month.