Power Politics in Pasadena : Feuds, Staff Resignations and Management Errors Have Put City Officials on the Defensive

Pasadena has often worn its political controversies on its sleeve. But the most recent accusations and sometimes painful admissions of mismanagement are forcing the city’s leadership into a new era of self-examination.

The city attorney recently resigned under fire for allegedly discriminating against female staffers. And officials are now investigating whether black employees were denied promotions and subjected to racial slurs.

A string of respected department heads have left the city to take jobs elsewhere, and the city manager is under attack.

To make matters worse, the city still feels the sting of the dismal failure of its summer soccer festival, as well as the embarrassment of being cited by the state for not properly equipping firefighters to battle last year’s Altadena fire.

Two council members recently suggested that the city look at a new form of government, perhaps going to a full-time mayor and changed roles for the council and city manager.

“There are some leadership problems that we’re having to deal with,” said Councilman Chris Holden, who, along with Councilman Rick Cole, would like to reshape Pasadena government.

Complaints range from financial failures to allegations of institutional racism. For instance:

* Small business owners were incensed last summer when the city’s poorly planned soccer festival, Soccer Carnaval, flopped and vendors lost thousands of dollars. One reason for the failure was that World Cup officials exercised their contractual right to keep the festival from opening on game days. The city, which had assured the business owners that they would be able to open and sell to throngs of game-day fans, has paid settlements totaling $58,000 to 10 merchants to defray their losses. Eleven claims are pending.

* In response to complaints from Pasadena firefighters, the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health cited the Fire Department in July for using torn protective clothing and for failing to supply protective shields during last year’s firestorm in Altadena. The Fire Department is taking corrective action to satisfy Cal/OSHA.

* City Atty. Victor Kaleta resigned in August under fire from the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People and women’s groups. A consultant hired by the city to probe complaints against him found that Kaleta discriminated against female lawyers, including one African American, by failing to include them in a round of promotions in 1992.

The resignation prompted its own storm of criticism, largely against Mayor Kathryn Nack for changing her mind and providing the fourth vote needed to force Kaleta out.

* City Manager Philip Hawkey admitted that the city should have been doing more to promote African American employees after the Pasadena Black Municipal Employees Assn. appeared before the council twice in the past two months complaining that too few blacks hold administrative positions. The group also said black employees have been subjected to racial slurs and more stringent discipline than have other employees. Hawkey is investigating the complaints; his report is to be completed by Oct. 24.

* A number of department heads have left the city recently, including Library Director Edward M. Szynaka, who oversaw last year’s campaign for a library tax, which voters approved. Ramon Curiel resigned as the city’s affirmative action director last month, and Health Officer Dr. Jacqueline Stiff has announced her resignation effective Friday.

* The City Council’s infighting and critical nature have chipped away at employee morale, contributing to the departure of Szynaka and others. Councilman Isaac Richard often sparks council infighting by railing against what he sees as injustices against blacks at City Hall and in Pasadena. Cole is Richard’s favorite target, but the councilman at times has taken on Nack and others. Richard also has gone into tirades against city employees, including City Clerk Maria Stewart, an incident that drew a censure from the City Council.

The city’s factions agree that these developments are troubling, but there is little agreement on what should be done to prevent such problems in the future.

Richard is the only prominent city leader to publicly call for Hawkey’s ouster. But council members and community leaders have made it clear that they fret about Hawkey’s ability to run the city.

“It all started on April 24, 1990, the day that 800 to 1,000 black people showed up in City Hall and protested the hiring of one Philip Hawkey,” said Richard, an African American, referring to the day that Hawkey beat out two black candidates for the post.

Councilmen Holden and Bill Crowfoot said they have questions about whether Hawkey is the right man for the job.

Their primary complaint is that Hawkey and his staff don’t always keep them well-informed about key city issues and projects.

Crowfoot said he was caught unprepared when Soccer Carnaval vendors appeared before the council demanding reparations. The councilman said he voted to approve the festival with the understanding that a private firm hired to stage the event would be liable for any losses. City lawyers belatedly pointed out a contractual clause that made it clear that the city was obliged to offer cash settlements, the councilman said.

The council “is sitting completely unprepared to deal with the issues coming before us,” Crowfoot said.

Holden said he didn’t know about the promotion problems in the city attorney’s office until they hit the public arena with full fury.

“If these type of things don’t come to the surface, and come to the surface in a dramatic way, we don’t know about them,” Holden said. “We’re on a dinghy without a compass in the fog.”

Hawkey met with the council members in a closed session Monday to talk about their concerns. The council, which can fire Hawkey at any time, reassured him that his position is safe for a year. The council also voted 6-0, with Richard abstaining, to extend Hawkey’s potential severance pay from two months to the industry standard of about six months to a year.

Nack read the following statement after the session: “The council repudiates the confrontational attacks upon the character of the city manager and pledges to maintain an environment of fairness and respect within which the city manager’s performance can be measured.”

The city manager acknowledges that there have been some blunders, including Soccer Carnaval and the Cal/OSHA violations.

But Hawkey said he has presided over successes as well, including the rebirth of Old Pasadena as the area’s hot nightspot and the overall staging of the World Cup, which produced $2 million in revenue for the city and millions more for the local economy. (Richard has disputed the figures, which are scheduled for review by a council committee.)

Hawkey acknowledged that he doesn’t pass every detail of city business along to the council. In some cases, the bickering of council members would put an unnecessary damper on staff initiative, he said.

“Every time we bring (an item) to the City Council, it’s the target of criticism,” Hawkey said.

*

Black community leaders also are critical of Hawkey--primarily because they believe that he has not moved quickly enough to promote African Americans into management positions. They are waiting to see how he resolves the complaints of inequities from black employees.

A primary complaint is that too few African Americans have moved into top spots in city government. Blacks account for 16% of Pasadena’s officials and administrators, while filling 52% of the city’s lower-paid service and maintenance positions.

“There’s a large number of people who don’t believe that a large number of changes have occurred since he’s been here,” said Joe Hopkins, an activist lawyer who represents the Black Municipal Employees Assn.

Hawkey agrees that there should be more minorities in influential positions at City Hall, but he also said he already had made some improvements.

Minorities now account for 56% of the municipal work force, compared with 50% in 1989, before Hawkey was hired.

Once the issue was highlighted by the black employees group, the city manager moved quickly to address its concerns. Hawkey formed a committee, which includes black and other minority employees, to investigate the allegations for the Oct. 24 report.

Also, one white supervisor who allegedly made racist remarks has been reassigned so he won’t be in contact with rank-and-file employees, Hawkey said. A review indicated that the supervisor did not make racial slurs, but he is gruff and pushed his employees to perform, Hawkey said. Although the allegations were untrue, Hawkey said, he decided it was better for the department to transfer the supervisor.

In addition, Hawkey recently appointed African Americans to the positions of planning director, acting director of affirmative action and special assistant to the city manager, a rotating position that is seen as a steppingstone to top administrative assignments.

“I wouldn’t call Hawkey a racist, but I will say he’s the top manager of an institution that really subordinates people of color,” said Prentice Deadrick, Hawkey’s new special assistant, a member and former president of the Black Municipal Employees Assn. “That’s a classic definition of institutional racism.”

From the start, Hawkey seemed destined for the proverbial frying pan, and race has always been an issue providing much of the heat.

The council hired him on a 4-3 vote after thinking long and hard about allegations that he was unfair in dealing with black employees in Toledo, Ohio, where he was previously city manager.

Hawkey, like Richard, also has the date that he was hired etched in his mind. It was the day that Richard, a community activist who would soon win a council seat, vowed to make the new city manager’s life miserable.

Richard has done just that. At times, the councilman walks over to Hawkey during a meeting to pledge he will “get” the city manager. Richard has attacked Hawkey and other city employees as incompetent or racist.

The attacks on Hawkey have prompted a multiracial group of prominent residents to come forward in his defense. They said they fear that the allegations of discrimination will lead to the ouster of the city manager--a replay of Kaleta’s forced resignation.

With all its quarreling and contentiousness, the City Council has deprived Hawkey of the support he needs to do the job, said the group’s spokesman, Bob Monk, a longtime community leader.

Monk blames Richard, saying he poisons the atmosphere at City Hall by sparking council infighting and overly criticizing some city employees. But he also blames the rest of the council, including Cole, for trading barbs with Richard and adding to the acrimony. Nack draws fire from Monk for failing to throw Richard out of the council chambers when he begins a tirade.

“No city manager is going to be able to function in that atmosphere of chaos down there,” Monk said. “How do you expect to have a tranquil city government when the elected leaders of this town are in chaos?”

The conflicts have contributed to the departure of some key city administrators.

Szynaka, the library director who resigned last summer, said he grew weary of a meddling council that wanted to micro-manage and was prone to flip-flop on issues, frustrating city administrators.

But Szynaka, now director of the Indianapolis/Marion County Library system, also faulted Hawkey for failing to stand up to the council for the good of the city. Hawkey, after all, is the trained city manager. Although he must carry out council policy, the City Charter grants him broad powers, including the hiring and firing of all but a few top officials.

“Phil’s in over his head. He’s losing good people who have poured a great deal of themselves into making (Pasadena) a good city,” Szynaka said.

An example of the council’s willingness to get involved in personnel matters occurred two years ago after Hawkey hired a white woman to fill an administrative post in the city’s Department of Water and Power. Richard, who wanted an African American employee promoted to the position, and other council members objected that the city had not properly followed hiring procedures.

Hawkey investigated, found a problem with how the job was posted and rescinded the hire. The duties of the post were expanded, and the African American was picked for the new position.

“They didn’t tell me what to do,” Hawkey said of the City Council. “Of course, (Richard) did a lot of screaming and shouting.”

Curiel, the city’s recently departed affirmative action director, said he favored the initial hire because it would have brought another woman into a male-dominated area of City Hall. The woman ended up filing a lawsuit, which is pending.

“Many staff, including managers, felt Hawkey did not stand up to the council members,” Curiel said.

Staff morale also has suffered because of the council’s combative and critical nature, Hawkey and other officials said.

In addition to Richard, other council members harshly grill staffers who nervously search for answers. Part of the problem is that council members expect too much from a staff that has been reduced by budget cuts, Hawkey and others said.

“It’s no secret that city employees don’t like the idea of going before the council and always feeling like they’ve done something wrong,” said Lance Charles, acting affirmative action director. “It’s like, put on your (bulletproof) vest time, and that’s not the way it should be.”

But several council members said they have a responsibility to intervene.

“People voted for me to be a decision-maker and represent their interests,” said Richard, who added that his goal is to ensure that African Americans get a fair shake inside and outside City Hall. “I’m not here to let people get exploited under my nose.”

The recent ouster of Kaleta from the city attorney’s post added greatly to the tension at City Hall and to the consternation of community leaders. Almost everyone was critical of the way the matter was handled.

The NAACP and women’s groups criticized the council for moving too slowly after a consultant found that Kaleta had discriminated against the female lawyers.

Kaleta’s supporters felt that the council bent to political pressure instead of standing up for a strong city administrator.

Keeping Score in Pasadena

A look at some of the players in Pasadena politics.

Prentice Deadrick was recently appointed special assistant to City Manager Philip Hawkey, a position that is seen as a stepladder to top administrative positions in municipal government. Deadrick, a member and former president of the Pasadena Black Municipal Employees Assn., has pushed for more top-level jobs for African Americans. He says Hawkey is not a racist, but that the city manager presides over institutional racism at City Hall.

City Manager Philip Hawkey is investigating allegations that black employees have been ridiculed on the job by some managers, disciplined more severely than white workers and kept out of administrative posts. He has acknowledged that the city should have done more to promote black employees. His 1990 hiring was opposed by Councilman Isaac Richard; the two have been at odds since then.

Councilman Chris Holden has criticized Hawkey for not properly informing the City Council about key issues. Holden, along with Councilman Rick Cole, has proposed examining another method of city government, perhaps with a full-time mayor, to smooth out the city’s operations.

Lawyer Joe Hopkins, an activist Pasadena attorney, is representing the Pasadena Black Municipal Employees Assn., which contends that African American employees are denied opportunities for promotion, disciplined more harshly and subjected to racial slurs. Hopkins won a $585,000 jury award earlier this year for a former Pasadena employee who said he was denied promotion because he is black.

Community leader Bob Monk, a longtime community leader and director of the Pasadena Boys and Girls Club, is part of a group of prominent residents who stepped forward recently in defense of Hawkey. Monk calls the City Council chaotic and blames it for the city’s leadership problems.

Mayor Kathryn Nack was criticized for her actions after a consultant found that former City Atty. Victor Kaleta discriminated against female lawyers in his office. Nack, who initially voted to give Kaleta six months to bring harmony to his department, changed her vote and forced Kaleta’s resignation. Some criticized Nack for political grandstanding, but the mayor said she never felt comfortable with her first vote and had to follow her conscience.

Councilman Isaac Richard, the council’s most volatile member, blames Hawkey for the city’s problems and says he should be fired. Richard contends that Hawkey was unfairly hired over two black candidates. Some community leaders blame Richard for the city’s leadership crisis, saying he has sparked infighting on the council and never given Hawkey a chance. Critics also say Richard’s tirades against the city manager and other city employees have hurt morale at City Hall.