City Panel Urges Bidding for Public Relations Contract

A City Council committee is recommending that Pasadena put out to bid a contract held until now by a public relations firm whose partner publicly supported former City Manager Phil Hawkey.

Less than a week after Hawkey resigned after a four-month power struggle, Mayor Chris Holden and Councilman William Paparian of the council’s legislative policy committee voted Thursday to seek new bids on a public relations contract for the Pasadena Blue Line. Councilman William Crowfoot, the third member of the committee, was absent.

They rejected a request from the firm, Pasadena-based Valencia, Perez and Echeveste, to extend its contract, which expires in about a month.

At the height of the battle over Hawkey’s job, Manuel Valencia, a principal of the firm, voiced support for the former city manager. Valencia spoke out in Hawkey’s favor as a member of Latinos for Economic Awareness and Development, a local Latino business organization. The group had asked that a U.S. Civil Rights Commission member attend a December council meeting to probe whether Hawkey’s race--he is white--was a factor in efforts to remove him.

Paparian noted that no one from the Valencia firm attended Thursday’s meeting. But Manuel Valencia said Friday that the firm had not been notified of the meeting. He said there is no connection to his comments on behalf of the Latino business group and his firm’s contract.

The full council must approve the plan.