Last-Ditch Try to Bar Parole Office Ordered : Pasadena: Directors tell city attorney to look for a legal way to keep the state facility out of the Civic Center area.

The Board of Directors, surprised Tuesday by the news that the state is mere days away from approving a lease to open a parole office in the Civic Center area, undertook a last-ditch effort to bar it.

The board voted unanimously to reaffirm its longstanding opposition to a parole office in Pasadena and directed the city attorney to research legal moves against the state.

“I can think of no worse location for it,” said City Director William Thomson of the state’s plan to open the office at 333 E. Walnut St.

Building owner Elizabeth Lim has signed a 10-year lease with the state, which is scheduled to move there in March and to occupy the entire 10,000-square-foot building, state officials told the city. The lease is being reviewed by parole officials in Sacramento, the directors were told.

Thomson said the site is next-door to an apartment complex that houses senior citizens and is close to the Pasadena Public Library.

The state, which has offices on Main Street and Garvey Avenue in Alhambra, began looking for new quarters for one of those offices after Alhambra and Monterey Park residents protested the opening in late 1988 of the Garvey Avenue office.

Residents cited an increase in crime at the Garvey location and the incompatibility of the office with surrounding residential neighborhoods and a nearby elementary school. The parole office on Main Street will remain in Alhambra.

After Alhambra and Monterey Park pledged to provide the state with up to $100,000 in relocation costs, the state began looking at sites in Pasadena, home to 500 of the 2,500 parolees served by the two offices.

But after the state found sites in predominantly industrial areas in East Pasadena, residents near those sites protested.

Members of the Lower Hastings Ranch Neighborhood Assn. lobbied for a bill proposed by Assemblyman Patrick J. Nolan (R-Glendale) that would have banned parole offices within 500 yards of public or private schools, day-care centers, public parks or residential neighborhoods.

Then, over the summer, East Pasadena residents dropped their opposition to a parole office after the state decided to put it in downtown Pasadena. The Nolan bill stalled in a Senate committee in August.

“These offices always seem to land in areas where there is less affluence,” said Director Chris Holden. “The people of East Pasadena vote, and it’s an election year, therefore, it’s not a difficult decision for state leadership.”

No East Pasadena residents spoke at Tuesday’s meeting. But Clifford Benedict, president of the Lower Hastings Ranch Assn., said later that the downtown location probably is best because it is two blocks from the police station.

Barbara Messina, an Alhambra City Councilwoman who has been active in the fight to close the Garvey office, said the office belongs in Pasadena.

“I think it’s only fair, since they have the majority of the parolees,” she said. “We don’t mind having one office, but not two.”