Race for Elected Mayor Is Pasadena’s Costliest

Pasadena voters for the first time in seven decades go to the polls Tuesday to elect a mayor in what has turned into the most expensive campaign in city history.

The city’s 10 mayoral candidates are spending nearly half a million dollars, most of it by the three front-runners--all for a job that pays $18,000 a year.

In a city accustomed to doorstep politics, these mayoral candidates are spending their money at the post office. From potholders to a 60-page autobiography, a deluge of campaign materials has flooded voters’ homes.

In November, voters agreed to replace the city’s ceremonial mayor--chosen from among the members of the City Council--with an elected, full-time mayor.

Leading the pack are Mayor Chris Holden, former Mayor Bill Bogaard and City Councilwoman Ann-Marie Villicana, “largely because of the money” they have raised, said R. Michael Alvarez, a Caltech associate professor of political science.

Holden, a commercial real estate agent, said he has a good chance at winning. “I see the tape at the end and I want to be first across it,” he said, as he palmed a copy of his autobiographical booklet.

The 10-year councilman, whose father is Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden, is the architect of the city’s charter reform that created an elected mayor. So far, he has raised $160,000 to fill the seat. The liberal Democrat engineered the ousting of the longtime city manager last year.

Villicana, 32, a one-term councilwoman, has distributed her own Blueprint for Pasadena 2000 to 20,000 homes.

A Latina, attorney/Realtor, Republican and business booster, she compares City Hall to an automated teller machine because of so many legal settlements paid to ex-employees. She has raised $150,000.

Bogaard, 60, a former mayor and city councilman from 1978 to 1986, is promising to return civility to City Hall. The law professor and former corporate lawyer wants to preserve Pasadena’s neighborhoods and manage development. A Democrat, he has more than $110,000 in campaign funds, as well as the endorsement of eight former council members--many of whom were furious when Holden ousted City Manager Phil Hawkey last year.

Among the remaining candidates, William Paparian, a 49-year-old lawyer and a 12-year council member, is a contender. “Independence is my campaign,” he said. A progressive, he made a trip to Cuba while mayor, and engineered the city’s battle against aerial malathion spraying that sent a police helicopter aloft to ticket state helicopters.

Alvarez said a high turnout favors Holden while a small showing helps Bogaard and Villicana. “But the mathematics are against any one pulling off outright victory,” he said.

Holden’s wife is scheduled to stand trial March 29 on charges of having sex with a teenage boy, but the scandal has not been much of a factor during the race.

Most of the election debate in this city of 131,000 people centers on public safety, schools and development.

Holden promises to help the city’s troubled schools with a summer reading camp and after-school reading program.

Likewise, Villicana said she will raise $1 million a year from private donors to run her own after-school program. She also wants 65 more police officers and two more substations that will be paid with $8 million taken from other city departments.

Holden and Bogaard say that there is not that kind of money available. Besides, they add, crime is down. Holden wants the sale of cheap guns outlawed.

Bogaard said the city tends to ignore or minimize neighborhood concerns about such projects as the proposed South Lake Avenue retail and movie theater development. A compromise with angry neighbors, he said, would have avoided the lawsuit that has delayed construction.

Holden said he drafted a recent settlement that calls for no movie theater. “They ruined a good development,” Villicana said of Holden’s compromise.

She and Bogaard criticize giving city subsidies for private development. They single out the $15 million the city invested to build the Fair Oaks Renaissance Plaza shopping center in northwest Pasadena. Holden and Paparian support the deal.

Holden is concentrating his efforts in the mostly Latino and African American neighborhoods in the northwest section of the city. Bogaard is campaigning on the west and east sides while Villicana is spreading her message to Republicans citywide.

Six other candidates are running. They are Eleta Fellows; Roy Begley, assistant to city manager Lance Charles; transit official Jackline Matosian; antiques dealer Van-Martin Rowe; and food company owner Guido Meindl.