Mayor’s Trip to Cuba Stirs Anger in Pasadena

When Pasadena Mayor William M. Paparian was in Cuba last week on a trip paid for by the Communist island’s government, he received accolades and applause, urging that the U.S. trade embargo against that country be lifted.

But now Paparian is getting catcalls and criticism from some Pasadena residents and colleagues on the City Council.

“I’m angry as hell at you,” Pasadena resident Sam Sassounian shouted at Paparian at a heated City Council meeting Monday night, packed with more than 300 people.

Dozens of protesters--who were both pro- and anti-Paparian--lined up outside City Hall, chanting, shouting slogans and waving placards. Police officers kept an eye on the protesters and monitored the crowd inside the council chambers.

“I hope you are removed from office,” Sassounian, president of the Upper Hastings Ranch Homeowners Assn., told Paparian.

Other speakers threatened to initiate a recall movement against Paparian.

Some of the speakers, however, supported Paparian’s visit to Cuba.

“You have taken a courageous move by visiting Cuba,” said peace activist Tom Hansen. “The people who suffered the most from the blockade are the young and the old.”

When mayoral aides announced Paparian’s trip on July 8, a day after he left, there were raised eyebrows and more than a few disparaging remarks from residents and the City Council.

“As mayor of Pasadena he has no business poking his nose into U.S. foreign policy,” Councilman William E. Thomson Jr. said before the meeting, adding that even a personal trip by a public official would reflect on the city as a whole. “If I had gone to the old Soviet Union when I was mayor and spoken in favor of its control of Armenia, [Paparian] would have gone berserk.”

The mayor’s trip to Cuba coincided with renewed wrangling between the Clinton administration and U.S. trade partners over tightening the United States’ 33-year-old embargo against the nation 90 miles from the tip of Florida.

But what caused some residents and council members to become apoplectic was a Cuban press agency report that Paparian said he was speaking on behalf of “many” Pasadena residents who oppose the embargo--an account the mayor vehemently disputes.

The July 8 announcement from Paparian’s office said he and his family would spend the week in Havana on an “unofficial trip” paid for by Cuba. Paparian informed the U.S. State Department before his trip, as required by regulations on travel to the restricted country, his aides said.

The statement also said Paparian was going to Havana as a private citizen and would not be representing Pasadena.

Paparian was invited to visit Havana after a February visit to Pasadena by Jose Luis Ponce, a Cuban representative in the United States.

The invitation was made after the Pasadena mayor told Ponce that he personally backed a different approach in dealing with Cuba and wished for better communications between Havana and Pasadena, according to a city spokeswoman.

Paparian says he would take the trip again even if he knew ahead of time how fierce the reaction would be from some in his city.

“I think it is a tempest in a teapot,” Paparian said Monday afternoon. “I suppose it has been good for the economy, it helps sell newspapers in Pasadena and helps people talk about the embargo.”

Paparian blamed poor translation for the brouhaha following his speech last Tuesday before Havana’s mayor and other Cuban officials. “I said others in my country share a similar opinion but never said many do in my city,” he said.

And although he said the Cubans were aware he spoke only for himself, he said he took part in public ceremonies, including one where he was made an “illustrious guest of the city of Havana.”

Some of Paparian’s council colleagues said they were initially upset because the announcement about the trip and who would pay for it was not made until after he and his family left the United States.

In addition, some added, they were concerned by angry phone calls from residents. Now the council members and their constituents are asking why Pasadena needs a foreign policy.

Councilman Paul Little said Monday afternoon that going on vacation is one thing but giving a “policy speech to one of the world’s most oppressive regimes is another thing. Private citizen Bill wasn’t invited,” Little said. “Mayor Bill Paparian was invited.”

Vice Mayor Chris Holden didn’t wait for Paparian to return to Pasadena before issuing a statement expressing his displeasure with the trip, insisting that the city does not endorse the mayor’s position on the embargo.

“Bill Paparian is a U.S. citizen with 1st Amendment rights and I will not criticize his right to speak about any subject,” Holden said. “This world-renowned community has been pulled into the middle of what may be construed as an official initiative embraced by the city of Pasadena.”

Pasadena resident Brian L. McCarty said he wants Paparian removed from the ceremonial post by the council, which picks a mayor every two years from among its members.

“His comments in Havana are not the issue,” McCarty said. “He should not have gone at all.”

James Plotkin, who was appointed by the mayor to a city commission called the Pasadena Operating Co., said that for as long as he is mayor, Paparian can never be just another private citizen.

“I thought a lot about this and I’m willing to resign my seat over this issue,” Plotkin said about the commission, which oversees such city facilities as the convention center.

Paparian said his family traveled freely during their visit, and described a society in a time warp, with old buildings, 1950s cars and a plethora of bicycles. But he also said the nation has strong medical and educational systems that probably produce more university graduates than any other Caribbean nation.

“I’m not naive that human rights violations are going on,” Paparian said. “But I think they are been held to a different standard than other countries in the world.”

And he added: “The morale of people in public service is extremely high.”