Pasadena Vetos Parole Office in Civic Center

The Board of Directors voted unanimously Tuesday to remain opposed to a San Gabriel Valley parole office in Pasadena, despite pleas from East Pasadena residents that city directors accept a scaled-down version near the Civic Center.

“It just makes sense to deal with the (State) Board of Corrections,” said East Pasadena resident Ann Ziol, who urged the board to accept the state’s offer of a smaller, downtown office serving only 500 resident Pasadena parolees.

But City Director Rick Cole said he believes the residents are being manipulated by state officials who want to pit city groups against each other. City Director William Thomson accused the residents of self-interest.

“I’m a little surprised to have you standing here telling us to negotiate,” Thomson told them. “Aren’t you saying, protect East Pasadena, and we don’t care what happens to the rest of Pasadena?”

The parole office has been an issue for the past two years, ever since the cities of Alhambra and Monterey Park urged state officials to move the Garvey Avenue office in Alhambra. Its lease will expire in July. Each city pledged to pay up to $100,000 in relocation costs for the office, which serves 1,100 parolees in the San Gabriel Valley.

Pasadena was selected as a possible locale for a new office because it has the largest concentration of parolees in the northwest San Gabriel Valley, said Jerome DiMaggio, regional administrator for the state Parole Division.

A Pasadena office would be more convenient for the estimated 500 Pasadena parolees and cheaper for the Department of Corrections, whose parole agents must visit parolees in their homes, DiMaggio said.

State officials first settled on a site in East Pasadena at 468 N. Rosemead Blvd. but withdrew their plans after East Pasadena residents traveled to Sacramento to protest.

The newest site, at 3400 Foothill Blvd., is also opposed by East Pasadena residents, who say the office would be out of place in a residential neighborhood. Members of three neighborhood associations staged a protest rally June 14 at the Nazarene Church. The rally drew more than 2,000 people, and was attended by DiMaggio.

Four days after the rally, residents asked the city to adopt a fall-back position of negotiating for a smaller, downtown parole office, saying that DiMaggio had proposed the idea as an alternative to the Foothill Boulevard site. DiMaggio has since said that he proposed the idea of a smaller office only for the Foothill Boulevard site and only rhetorically, knowing full well the intense opposition of residents to an office of any size on Foothill Boulevard.

Still, the city investigated the idea of a small, downtown office. According to a report given Tuesday by City Development Operations Administrator Marsha Rood, the city has only two possible parole office sites in the Civic Center: 9,000 square feet of privately owned office space at 333 E. Walnut St., and 7,500 square feet in the basement of the old YMCA building, which is being converted to a low-income residential hotel, Centennial Place.

But Directors Holden and Thomson both objected Tuesday to placing a parole office in the Civic Center, arguing that such use was never included in the Civic Center Master Plan and that a parole office would be out of place among upscale housing projects, luxury hotels and civic uses, such as the library, in the area. Thomson also said the city has already borne its share of state and county offices that serve the entire valley population.

The board voted to urge gubernatorial candidates Pete Wilson and Dianne Feinstein to oppose a parole office in Pasadena. Board members also decided to send Mayor Jess Hughston and Directors Thomson and Chris Holden to Sacramento to lobby state officials and urge passage of state Assembly Bill 242, sponsored by Assemblyman Pat Nolan (R-Glendale).

The bill would ban the opening of new parole offices within 500 yards of public or private schools, nursery schools, day care centers, public parks or residential neighborhoods. The legislation passed the state Assembly in January and is now being considered by a Senate committee.

DiMaggio, reached by phone in his Los Angeles office, said the Department of Corrections is concerned about passage of the legislation because only a handful of the state’s more than 100 parole offices now meet the criteria outlined in the bill.

But, he added, although the proposed Walnut site would be banned under the bill because of apartments behind the office building, the Foothill Boulevard site might qualify. The building is surrounded by land zoned for industrial use, and the nearest residence may be farther than 500 yards away, he said.

Negotiations are under way with landlords at both sites, DiMaggio said. The Department of Corrections is also pursuing sites in other San Gabriel Valley cities, he said. Even though the lease on the Garvey office in Alhambra expires in July, the office will continue operating on a month-to-month basis until a new site is found, DiMaggio added.