Court Restraining Order Issued Against Pasadena Councilman

The contentious history of Pasadena City Councilman Isaac Richard has entered a new chapter, with a fellow councilman obtaining a temporary restraining order against him after a shouting match over football tickets.

Councilman Chris Holden said Friday that his volatile colleague had confronted him in the Rose Bowl press box during the UCLA-UC Berkeley game last Saturday and challenged Holden on his role in depriving Richard of free game tickets, ordinarily a perquisite of council members.

“Frankly, just looking at the anger and intensity in his face and the fact that he was holding a motorcycle helmet in one hand, I felt he was trying to provoke a fight,” said Holden, who maintained that Richard appeared to be ready to swing the helmet at him.

Richard was served Thursday with the restraining order, which prohibits him from coming within 100 feet of Holden or his family except during council events. A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 4.

Richard denied Friday that he threatened Holden, but he acknowledged that there had been an angry disagreement. “He got up like he wanted to fight, and I told him, ‘Come on,’ ” Richard said.

In a related development, interim Rose Bowl Director David Jacobs, a city employee, said he was consulting with an attorney about alleged threats by Richard early on the same day.

“Obviously, when city employees are threatened with physical violence, it’s not a safe work environment,” Jacobs said.

Richard’s colleagues voted three months ago to censure him after he allegedly cursed a roomful of city officials. One of the conditions of the censure--the second since Richard became a councilman in April, 1991--was that he lose such council perquisites as free Rose Bowl tickets for one year.

According to Richard, the recent disputes were touched off early Saturday when a secretary telephoned to tell him that a packet of free tickets to that day’s football game had arrived at the Rose Bowl office. But shortly afterward, Richard said, Jacobs called and said that City Atty. Victor Kaleta had advised that the tickets were not to be issued to him.

According to Jacobs, the councilman said that he would come to the Rose Bowl office to demand the tickets--and would “come packing,” which Jacobs interpreted to mean carrying a weapon.

Jacobs called police, who were at the Rose Bowl when Richard arrived. Police searched Richard and, at Richard’s insistence, Jacobs. Neither was armed.

Richard attended the game with a pass he has as a member of the Rose Bowl Operating Company, the quasi-independent board that administers the stadium. It was then that he encountered Holden and challenged him on his role in the censure.

Richard maintains that his colleagues’ action in depriving him of perquisites is unconstitutional.