Mayor and Councilman Hit New Lows in Squabbling

Call it a deep-seated antipathy. Call it ideological loathing. Liken it to sibling rivalry. Whatever it is, the dislike between Mayor Rick Cole and City Councilman Isaac Richard reached new proportions last week.

The two former friends and political allies veered off from a heated City Council discussion of rewards for information leading to arrests and convictions in the murders of three Pasadena teen-agers to air some old, unsubstantiated charges--to the detriment of city business, according to some.

“It just went way out of control,” said Karen Hooks-Roon, a community worker with the American Friends Service Committee. “These two guys, who have known each other for years and years, were airing their dirty laundry.”

It’s no secret that Cole, 40, and Richard, 36, two of the most articulate and outspoken elected officials to come out of Pasadena in generations, have fallen so far out with each other that they are, as one mutual friend put it, “on separate planets.”

But last week, as the city was torn with anguish at the senseless Halloween night slayings of three teen-age boys, the persistent--”obsessive,” according to some--differences between the mayor and councilman had friends and associates groping for psychological explanations.

“A family therapist--that’s what the council needs,” said Pasadena attorney Chris Sutton, who has known both officials for many years.

In the heat of debate over a proposal by Police Chief Jerry Oliver to offer a $25,000 reward for information on the killers of Stephen Coats, Reggie Crawford and Edgar Evans, Cole publicly accused Richard of having shot a man years ago. And the councilman retaliated with an allegation that the mayor had once been arrested for burglary.

The “shooting” referred to an incident in February, 1978, in which, according to a newspaper account, Richard, then 20, was accused of shooting another man in the leg. Richard was never convicted in the case, and court records have been sealed.

Richard denied last week that he had ever shot anyone.

“If I shot someone, don’t you think these sorry (people) would put me in jail?” he said.

Richard’s burglary accusation referred to Cole’s work as a student newspaper reporter at Occidental College. In 1978, Cole and another student obtained confidential documents and wrote a story detailing a pattern of discrimination by college administrators, the mayor said.

Those involved with reporting the story were accused of having burglarized college administrative offices, but a student-faculty panel cleared them and no criminal charges were ever filed, Cole said.

The newspaper story won the Los Angeles Press Club award for the best California newspaper story that year.

“I’m proud of it,” Cole said.

But the details of what happened 15 years ago were less important to the two men’s colleagues than the prospect for continued hostilities that the charges brought out during last Tuesday’s council meeting.

“People had this stricken look, like people at a roadside accident,” said Councilman Bill Crowfoot. The comments, Crowfoot added, were “out of the blue.”

Cole expressed regrets that he had been “drawn into the personal aspect” of the debate.

“I said that (at the meeting) as soon as I could get a word in edgewise,” the mayor said.

Before Richard’s election to the council in 1991, the two men had been allies in a variety of causes, including Cole’s initial campaign for the council in 1983.

“I put him in office,” Richard claimed in an interview Thursday, saying that he had been instrumental in drawing an extraordinarily large black voter turn-out for Cole.

Both officials are products of Pasadena public schools, and aggrieved witnesses to a virulent public battle over the integration of the Pasadena Unified School District in the early 1970s. The pair once had such a natural affinity for each other that they co-hosted a community affairs program on a local radio station.

But after Richard was elected, with the endorsement of Cole, the two quickly fell out.

There were ideological differences, such as Cole’s early support of strict controls on new development versus Richard’s staunch pro-development stance. And Richard’s vituperative style in the council chambers quickly alienated his colleagues and led to two censure votes.

The rest of the City Council--Crowfoot, Chris Holden, William E. Thomson, William Paparian and Vice Mayor Kathryn Nack--has generally sided with Cole, viewing Richard as “disruptive,” or “confrontational.”

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Former Mayor Jess Hughston, who stepped down from the council last May after 12 years, said, “One after the other, he (Richard) alienated us.”

Hughston said he sought to reason with Richard.

“I said confrontational politics were counterproductive,” Hughston said. “He said it was the only way to get things done.”

But Richard’s friends insist that, although he can be offensive, he is not solely responsible for the open hostilities.

“Basically, everybody knows that Isaac has a short fuse,” said Sutton, Richard’s lawyer. “And Rick lights it.”

Sutton maintains that Richard offends a tradition of gentility in Pasadena politics. By censuring him--and depriving him of some of the privileges of being a council member, such as access to free tickets to the Rose Bowl--his fellow council members are violating his freedom of speech, the lawyer contends.

“They’re trying to enforce a Pasadena standard of civility,” Sutton said. “But you can’t have government enforcing civility or politeness in political debate. It’s contrary to American traditions.”

Sutton said he is preparing a legal paper alleging that the action of the council in depriving Richard of council perquisites is unconstitutional.

Despite all of the rancor, the council continues to plug away at city business, Crowfoot insisted.

After last Tuesday’s blow-up, the council voted to create a new redevelopment area in east Pasadena, discussed the regulation of cable television, negotiated with business leaders on a proposal to raise electric power rates and, finally, approved a $25,000 reward for information on the killers of the three boys--but only after Richard, whose lone opposing vote had blocked an earlier attempt--stepped out of the chambers.

“I’m concerned that people get the impression that nothing goes on at the City Council but fighting and weirdness,” Crowfoot said. “But our business does go on.”