Block Gets Pasadena’s Apology : Rose Parade: Sheriff agrees to let deputies provide security after mayor recants comments about alleged white supremacist group.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block said Wednesday that although he was still angry, a letter of apology from Pasadena’s mayor had persuaded him to let deputies provide security for the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl game.

Unlike an earlier statement by the Pasadena City Council, Mayor Jess Hughston’s letter “used the A-word”-- apology-- for council members’ comments about alleged “neo-Nazis” and “white supremacists” within the Sheriff’s Department, Block said at a news conference.

Block’s decision, with organizations representing the department’s rank and file agreeing, eased concerns about security for the parade and football game on New Year’s Day, Pasadena officials said.

The dispute was touched off last week, when the council voted to approve the customary allocation of $400,000 to hire 763 sheriff’s deputies for the New Year’s Day gala with the stipulation that members of a white supremacist club which allegedly operates in the Lynwood sheriff’s station be excluded.

It was the latest in a series of mishaps besetting the 1992 Tournament of Roses. Ethnic groups have vowed to continue protests of having a direct descendant of Christopher Columbus as the parade’s co-grand marshal.

The parade generally attracts about 1 million people to Pasadena.

Pasadena Police Chief Jerry Oliver had warned that hiring alternative law enforcement agencies could cost the city an additional $500,000, and council members issued a carefully worded statement Monday saying that they regretted misunderstandings about “our action last Tuesday evening by the Sheriff’s Department and Sheriff Block.”

But Block said that “was not an apology and I was prepared to reject it out of hand.” Leaders of the Assn. of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, representing 6,500 deputies, agreed with Block.

After receiving the Hughston letter Wednesday morning, Block said he was further mollified by a statement from the president of the Tournament of Roses, the organization that puts on the annual Rose Parade and Rose Bowl game.

Tournament President Robert Cheney said he supported the deputies and promised to try to have deputies paid by the tournament rather than by the city.

The arrangement would in effect make the city of Pasadena “a pass-through vehicle for funding provided by the Tournament of Roses,” Block said. It would allow sheriff’s deputies to work in Pasadena without doing business with the council.

Tournament Executive Director John French said the city and the tournament ordinarily share expenses and pool parade and Rose Bowl revenues, with the two dividing the profits afterward.

“If it makes a difference to the sheriff’s deputies whether the money comes from the city or from us, we’d just as soon pay them directly,” French said.

At his Wednesday news conference, Block attacked the allegations that a white supremacist, neo-Nazi gang called the Vikings operated in the Lynwood station as “hogwash.” He said U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter, who found that the Vikings operated with the knowledge of department administrators, was “totally hostile” to the Sheriff’s Department.

But despite the carefully structured peace accord, some members of the council were angry at Hughston for his unilateral apology.

“It doesn’t say in his letter that he’s not representing the council,” said Councilman Chris Holden. “I’m appalled.”

Councilman Isaac Richard added: “It’s a groveling, obsequious version (of the council’s statement), sent under cover of darkness, and it doesn’t represent the council majority.”