Pasadena Elects Bogaard Mayor; 2 Ballot Measures Fail in Compton

Pasadena voters on Tuesday overwhelming chose neighborhood preservationist Bill Bogaard over Mayor Chris Holden to become the city’s first elected mayor, while Compton voters soundly rejected a tax assessment for 75 new police officers.

With 63 of Pasadena’s 69 precincts reporting, Bogaard led with 60.9% of the vote, compared to 38.7% for Holden.

“My support has been steadily building throughout the campaign,” Bogaard, 60, a former councilman, said. “When I went door to door in my neighborhood, I expected support. But I was pleasantly surprised to find people across the city remembered my council years.”

In the closely watched Compton election, a special assessment measure for law enforcement was rejected by 89.2% to 10.8%, with all but two precincts reporting.

A second measure, a bond that would raise $107 million for school repairs in the Compton Unified School District, was losing by 67.2% to 32.8%, with more than half the votes counted. Both measures required a two-thirds vote for passage.

Bogaard, a law professor and former corporate lawyer, had been heavily favored to win after last month’s primary, when he received 44% of the vote. Holden, a councilman for eight years, barely made the runoff with 25%.

Tuesday’s election in Pasadena stemmed from the voters’ decision in November to replace the city’s ceremonial mayor, chosen from members of the City Council, with a mayor picked by the electorate. Holden had spearheaded that effort.

The race became a symbolic battle between those like Holden, who see Pasadena as a growing urban city, and Bogaard and his backers, who want to retain its suburban character.

The two candidates represent the two contrasting faces of the city of 131,000.

As a councilman from 1978 to 1986, Bogaard represented a mostly affluent section of the city. Endorsed by 10 former mayors, he supports neighborhood preservation over development and favors an end to public subsidies of commercial projects.

Holden, 38, a commercial real estate broker, has for a decade represented a predominantly minority northwest council district. He has said public subsidies are needed to bring business to some deprived areas.

The son of Los Angeles Councilman Nate Holden, he received more than $45,000 from business owners with development projects in the Koreatown section of his father’s council district. The contributions were solicited by a present aide and former aide to his father.

Those contributions mortally wounded a campaign that had struggled to mobilize voters, said R. Michael Alvarez, associate professor of political science at Caltech.

Bogaard imposed a $1,000 limit on contributions to his own campaign. And in a glossy mailer featuring newspaper featuring newspaper articles about Chris Holden’s campaign finances, he suggested his opponent would bring his father’s brand of L.A. politics to Pasadena.

In Compton, controversy developed over the designation of both ballot measures as “Measure C.”

In a move that some viewed as an attempt to confound voters, Charles Davis, Compton’s longtime city clerk, placed identical labels on the two very different ballot items.

Tuesday’s vote marked the school district’s third attempt at passing the bond, which narrowly missed the two-thirds majority required for passage the last time around. The bond, according to administrators, would be used to fix up aging classrooms, plumbing, playgrounds, roofs and cafeteria equipment, and to expand school technology. The cost to voters would be roughly 71 cents per $1,000 of property valuation.

The other Measure C sought to hire 75 new police officers, as well as necessary support staff and vehicles. The five-year plan would cost the average property owner $75 the first year, $141 the second year, $219 the third year, $293 the fourth year and $359 the final year.

In races for two Compton council seats, incumbent Delores Zurita appeared headed for victory in District 1 with 53.1% of the vote, and Amen Raah lead with 41.9% of the vote in District 4, with a third of the ballots counted. Raah’s closest challenger, Fred Cressel, had 29% of the vote.

In Pasadena’s race for Council District 4, on the city’s east side, Steve Haderlein was leading Tim Price, 61% to 38.7, with almost all precincts counted.

In the Pasadena Unified School District race, challenger Tommy McMullins led with 51.2% to incumbent George Van Alstine’s 48.2%.