City Council Picks Zee for New Mayor

In what many consider a personal affront to South Pasadena Councilman Harry Knapp, Councilman Paul Zee has been chosen by the City Council to serve as mayor.

Knapp, mayor from 1992 to 1993 and recently the mayor pro tem under Councilwoman Dorothy Cohen, was next in line to take the city’s rotational mayoral post. But Zee won the position by a 4-1 vote Tuesday night.

“I told Paul [after the vote] that what he did was wrong,” Knapp said. “He had a lot of guts to come over and try to shake my hand.”

Knapp declined the handshake, and told reporters that the decision was a partisan one--Knapp is the only Democrat on the council.

Zee scoffed at that analysis.

“Partisan politics have nothing to do with City Council,” he said.

A pro-business councilman, Zee suggested that his quick ascent to the mostly ceremonial post was a slap at preservationists in general rather than Knapp in particular.

He added that his and fellow pro-business Councilman David Saeta’s victory in the March 4 election is further proof that the city disagrees with Knapp’s pro-preservationist stance.

Cohen, who frequently votes with Knapp on such contentious issues as development, said she supported Zee because he had already gained the majority of the votes.

“I’m a political realist,” she said.