2 Pasadena Directors Face Challenge, 1 Unopposed

Minority politics dominate the District 2 Board of Directors race and party politics the District 6 race, as the two incumbents face serious challengers.

Meanwhile, District 4 incumbent William Paparian is running unopposed in the March 5 election and will coast to a second term that he says will be his last.

District 2, in mid-Pasadena, includes commercial South Lake Avenue and the prosperous areas surrounding Caltech as well as parts of Northwest Pasadena, the city’s poorest minority neighborhood. Although only part of the Northwest lies within the district, challenger Ed Bryant has made it a mainstay of his campaign.

“There needs to be a voice in the City Council that speaks to the heart of this district,” Bryant said. “We are so poorly represented in Northwest Pasadena, it’s not funny.”

Bryant, a 27-year resident of the city, is a municipal court counselor who has worked extensively on youth services. He accuses the city of neglecting the Northwest, which he says is faced with crime, drugs, gangs, unemployment and a lack of adequate housing and recreational programs for youth.

He says the district’s problems have continued to grow despite Rick Cole’s eight years on the board. “I think people are tired of that old political jargon; they’re tired of full-time politicians,” Bryant said. “They want representation from the everyday, working-day man.”

On citywide issues, Bryant criticizes cost overruns on city projects such as the police and Hale buildings. “We don’t have a need problem; we’ve got a greed problem,” he said. “If we stop overspending on these projects, I don’t think we’d have a deficit problem.”

Cole, who holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and has worked in city government jobs in Pasadena, Los Angeles and West Hollywood, agrees with Bryant on District 2’s needs.

But he says his eight years in city government and his coming two-year rotation as mayor in 1992 will provide him with the experience and influence to accomplish more than a first-term board member could.

He cites accomplishments in Northwest and central Pasadena that include the construction of more than 300 affordable housing units, a supermarket in the Northwest (which didn’t have one eight years ago), three redevelopment projects with minority ownership or participation and the creation of an enterprise zone to encourage development through tax breaks.

“I’ve been the board’s most outspoken voice in the last eight years on the need to pay more attention to Northwest Pasadena,” Cole said. “As long as one-fourth of this city is dramatically poorer and less empowered than the other three-fourths, we’re not living up to our potential as a city.”

Citywide, Cole says, he is concerned about neighborhood preservation, the environment and promoting Pasadena as a cultural destination. As mayor, he hopes to oversee a new general plan that will “pull together a consensus vision” of the city’s future, he said.

In District 6, the campaign pitches from City Director Kathryn Nack and her challenger, Paul Hrabal, are nearly identical.

Both say the city needs to spend more on children’s services and help the Pasadena Unified School District improve education. Both say they understand the city’s business community and its need to stay strong.

Both criticize city finances and million-dollar cost overruns on city projects and say they seek cuts in government.

The candidates themselves, though, are very different: Hrabal, 24, is a Republican Party activist and 2 1/2-year resident. Nack, 66, is a traditional, nonpartisan politician and 45-year resident.

“Local politics are traditionally nonpartisan and must stay nonpartisan,” said Nack, seeking election to a second term. “When partisan politics intrude into the local scene, it changes forever the tone of politics. Local issues lose ground.”

But Hrabal, who last year ran Pasadena’s Republican Party headquarters office and was active in fund raising for GOP campaigns, says partisan politics already influence the board, now dominated by Democrats. He cites its approval of the city’s affirmative action policy and its tracking of minority hiring by percentages, which he says comes perilously close to quotas.

“The district needs a conservative, Republican political line,” he said. “The key is liberal versus conservative.”

District 6, in the southwest portion of the city, includes Ambassador Auditorium and the upscale neighborhoods around San Rafael Avenue and South Orange Grove Boulevard. Its registered voters are 51% Republican.

Hrabal, an independent financial counselor with a bachelor’s degree in economics from Occidental College, says he’s the only board candidate who operates his own business.

Nack, who narrowly beat incumbent William Cathey in 1987, says she wants to finish tasks she’s begun over the past four years. Among them is strengthening family services. She and Cole suggested the new position of assistant city manager for human services. And Nack recommended that Pasadena follow a Minneapolis program to obtain grants to establish city-run health clinics on elementary school campuses.

Nack said she also wants to continue working to meet expected budget cutbacks next year.

Paparian, who represents District 4 in northeast Pasadena, is the only incumbent running unopposed. The district includes Washington Boulevard, dominated by Armenian-operated businesses, and Eaton Canyon.

Despite no opposition, Paparian, 41, an attorney, said he will spend all of the $17,000 campaign war chest he raised last year. The money will be used on mailers that were prepared before Democratic Party activist Larry Hoffing withdrew from the race, Paparian said.

PASADENA CANDIDATES

DISTRICT 2 CANDIDATES

Rick Cole, 37

Incumbent city director

Co-founder in 1983 of the Pasadena Weekly. Has served as field deputy to Jess Hughston, now Pasadena mayor, and Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre. Ran the nonprofit West Hollywood Marketing Corp. and Pasadena Democratic headquarters.

Ed Bryant, 54

Pasadena Municipal Court counselor

Founder of the 25-year-old Pasadena Youth Christian Center. Served on the Pasadena Police Chief’s Advisory Board and the Foothill Community Area Services board.

DISTRICT 6 CANDIDATES

Paul Hrabal, 24

Independent financial counselor

National spokesman for the Hunger Project and co-host of a local cable television show on computers. Ran the Pasadena Republican Headquarters office last year.

Kathryn (Katie) Nack, 66

Finance director, Nack & Sunderland, a Los Angeles engineering firm

Incumbent director; former planning commissioner and Pasadena Unified School District board member.