21st State Senate District

The battle between Rep. James E. Rogan (R-Glendale) and state Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) for the 27th District congressional seat has drawn most of the attention surrounding this fall’s local elections, as befitting a race where millions of dollars are being spent.

But smack dab in the same neighborhood, another million-dollar campaign is being waged between Assemblyman Jack Scott (D-Altadena) and South Pasadena Councilman Paul Zee, a Republican, for Schiff’s state Senate seat.

Scott has raised more than $1 million and Zee close to that in the race to represent the 21st District, which includes parts of Glendale, Burbank, Sunland-Tujunga, La Canada-Flintridge, Altadena, San Marino and South Pasadena.

Elected to the Assembly four years ago, Scott is the former president of Pasadena City College. As an assemblyman, he is most closely identified with gun control issues. A son, Adam, was killed in a gun accident in 1993.

Scott also chaired the Assembly Insurance Committee, which conducted hearings into the practices of scandal-plagued Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush, who subsequently resigned.

Zee is a classic American immigrant success story. Born in China, he was raised in Hong Kong and educated in the United States. He moved permanently to the United States in the 1970s, and now owns and operates a company that manufactures industrial safety equipment.

Zee has served on the South Pasadena City Council since 1992 and was mayor of that city.

The Times, as part of its series of interviews with candidates from select races, recently talked with Scott and Zee about their views on issues and their campaigns.

Jack Scott

Question: What do you offer the voters of your district?

Jack Scott: I went to the Legislature with the idea in mind that I could make a difference in terms of policy, in terms of leadership.

I’ve had 47 bills signed into law. They’ve dealt with everything from education to health care to gun control to getting tough on crime.

I was the chair of the Assembly committee investigating the [former Insurance Commissioner Chuck] Quackenbush scandal, and we really were able to bind together the Republicans and Democrats. It was evenhanded, it was impartial, it was bipartisan, and we did the work of the people. We protected the consumer whereas the Department of Insurance, which was supposed to protect the consumer, didn’t.

Whether it’s initiating legislation or giving leadership in terms of committees or whatever, I think I can do the job. That’s more or less my platform. It simply says, “Here’s somebody who can do the job for us in the next four years and deserves to be elected to the [state] Senate.”

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Q: As you walk the precincts, what do people tell you are their greatest concerns?

A: Education remains a very central issue to a lot of people. They want to see the public schools improve. I think they are favorably inclined toward public education, but they’re concerned about the deterioration of quality of the schools.

Health care is a big issue. People are deeply concerned about the numbers of the uninsured, about how they’ve been treated by their HMOs. I don’t sense that crime and violence is quite as high on the public agenda as it was maybe 5 to 10 years ago, although that’s still a topic.

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Q: Is that because the district is relatively safe?

A: No, I think it’s the reduction in the violent crime rate because we have stepped up police activity. Still, people are concerned. You read about this young Latino youth who was killed, allegedly by Armenian gang members . . . the possibility of ethnic tensions are there.

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Q: What about those tensions? What can be done about them?

A: Gov. [Gray] Davis just signed a hate-crime bill I wrote that says $2 million will be set aside so that high school students can go into places like the Museum of Tolerance to learn something about the whole issue. Hatred is taught. And we can teach tolerance. We can teach respect.

I don’t think we can wave a magic wand and get rid of all the ethnic tensions in the world. But leadership on the part of both of those communities can help. As someone who wants to be a voice of rationality and peace, I want to be active in that. I want to be involved in teaching and mediation.

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Q: A lot of candidates and sitting legislators are talking about term limits and whether they should be modified. Your views?

A: Given the time in my life that I entered politics, it doesn’t affect me. My own sense is that it might be wiser for there to be terms that are a little longer. I remember when this was on the ballot. There was an option of the Assembly at 12 [years] and the Senate at 12, and I voted for that option. I thought it made more sense. It seems like it still represents the will of the people.

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Q: Back to education, what do you think about the school voucher initiative?

A: I’m opposed to it. Frankly, I think it’s poorly written. One of the things that concerns me is that we have 700,000 [students] already in private schools, and they will give $4,000 to all of them. That’s $2.8 billion gone just like that. And we need that for our public schools. It would take away a lot of money from our public schools.

And also I’m deeply concerned over the fact that the voucher initiative has absolutely no standards set for private education.

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Q: Do you favor a voucher plan under any circumstances?

A: I’m not sure. I’d want to make sure that we put our public schools first. I really want to see the inner-city schools improved. And I’d like to see more choice within public schools. I’d like to see that if an inner-city school is not performing, a parent would have the option of making sure his child would get in a public school that did perform.

And I supported Gov. Davis’ plan that would give additional funding to low-performing schools, but if in three years they didn’t turn around, there would be drastic steps taken, even to the point of a state takeover of the school. We’ve got to have a plan to improve the poorest schools.

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Q: What about the initiative that would reduce the number of votes necessary to pass school bonds?

A: I favor that. Frankly, I’ve never quite understood why one vote is equal to two votes. When 65% of the people are in favor of a bond measure and they’re frustrated by 35% of the people, you’re really saying, in effect, that you have to get twice as many votes to get the measure passed as the opposition does.

I think a majority is a majority.

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Q: You mentioned health care as being a concern. What can Sacramento do about it?

A: We can do a lot of things, and we’ve already done some things.

I like the Healthy Families program, for instance, which says that the working poor will have an opportunity to get health insurance, and I know Gov. Davis has been very aggressive about it. It allows people at less than 250% of the federal poverty level to put their children in a health insurance program for which there’s a payment on their part but also a subsidy.

Yes, seven million Californians are uninsured. I think that’s terrible. I think we’ve got to do something about it. I understand why the HMOs arose, but some HMOs have abused people. I had a bill, for instance, that was just signed by the governor that says HMOs have to pay up on time to the hospitals and to the doctors, and if there’s a pattern by an HMO of delinquent payment over a period of time, they’ll be penalized by having to pay 100% of the bills within 60 days.

I wrote a bill that said that all HMOs in the state would have to give a common matrix that explains exactly what they covered and didn’t cover.

To put it simply, we’ve got to make sure the doctors are making the decisions and not the accountants.

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Q: The film industry is a major player in this district. What can be done about runaway film production?

A: I think we can give some incentives. I just had a bill signed by the governor that gave additional funding for filming in Southern California. We’ve got to address that problem. And I will be looking at additional measures because it’s really the people behind the screen who are being hit the hardest by these films that go to Canada.

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Q: You were in the forefront of the gun control issue. Would you pursue more legislation in that area if you got to the state Senate?

A: Yes. I’ve had seven bills signed into law. Perhaps the best known is the trigger lock bill, which said, in effect, that every handgun in California would be sold with a trigger lock. That’s just a common-sense thing. We put safety tops on aspirin bottles; we ought to have safety locks on guns. Another one said that if you’re carrying a concealed gun and it’s not registered in your name, you can be tried for a felony. The police chiefs of California sponsored that.

I have a common-sense bill that I introduced this year. It got through the Senate, and I’d like to see it eventually be signed into law. [It] says we should license gun holders. It just says, in effect, that gun owners should go through a simple process of understanding the firearm laws of the state, pass the test and have some hands-on experience. We’re not talking about becoming a sharpshooter. We’re just saying that you should know something about loading and unloading guns, storing guns safely.

The governor wanted to hold off on that, and I agreed to hold off for a year.

But I’m interested in reintroducing it. I think it would reduce injuries and deaths and, frankly, I don’t buy the idea that guns can’t be regulated. It’s a dangerous product.

We regulate all other dangerous products, whether it involves motorcycle helmets or seat belts in cars. It’s all the same thing. It’s not confiscating guns, but it’s common-sense regulations that will cut down on the carnage.

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Q: Your opponent is an Asian American, and he has reached out to that community during the campaign. How do you stand with that voting bloc?

A: I’ve always received a sizable vote from the Asian American community. I guess it goes back to my work at Pasadena City College. I was a person who oversaw a very diverse student body. In fact, when I left there, 29% of our enrollment was Asians and Asian Americans, and I’ve had lot of contact with the Latino community, the African American community, the Armenian community.

I always look at diversity as a strength and not a weakness. There are quite a number of Asian Americans who are supportive of me.

Paul Zee

Question: What do you offer the voters of this district?

Paul Zee: Jack Scott is a nice person, a decent man; I respect him. However, this election is not about electing a nicer person. This election is about issues and who you think will represent your values.

When you really look at Mr. Scott’s voting records, his political philosophies, you will find that he’s out of touch with the district. We actually did a little survey and we found out that most people, including Democrats, identified themselves as conservative. And here I am to offer a different kind of view. I am absolutely not extreme left. I would categorize myself as a conservative, but somehow in the middle of the road.

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Q: How do you differentiate yourself from Scott on the issues?

A: Let’s look at taxes. We all know that this year the State of California has a $16-billion surplus. What does it mean when you have a surplus? It means the government has taken in more than it needs. I really think that the money should be returned to the taxpayers and to the local communities.

Take the gas tax, for example. Three times when a bill by Assemblyman Tony Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks) came up for vote, Scott declined to vote. He absolutely refused to support that bill. We have to realize that a $2-per-gallon gasoline price is almost unbearable to the working class. I just feel very disappointed that when the state has a $16-billion surplus, you can’t do something as common sense as reducing the price of gasoline.

And then look at local control. He does not have local government experience. This is why he supported AB 84, which basically said that if retailers such as Wal-Mart or Target want to come to your community, and if they are talking about 100,000 square feet or larger with 15,000 square feet devoted to selling nontaxable items, then the local communities would have no say in whether it was built or not. I think this is absolutely wrong. If the community doesn’t want this kind of retail store, fine, they should have a say. Or if a community truly needs this kind of store, they should have a say also. Fortunately, the governor vetoed that bill.

And then you can move on and look at social issues. I have nothing against the gay community. If that’s their preference, fine. But again, when you look at Proposition 22 [that banned gay marriages] in the last election, I just think that it’s common sense that a marriage should be between a mom and a dad. And he doesn’t think so. He thinks that it’s perfectly fine to have a homosexual marriage.

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Q: When you meet voters, what have you found to be their greatest concern?

A: Two issues: education and public safety. Education is a foundation of our society. So if education fails, everything fails. The State of California is actually spending more than 50% of the budget on education. What have we bought? We rank No. 49 out of 50 in the country. So clearly we are failing.

There is nothing wrong with the teachers, nothing wrong with the students. It’s the system and it’s the Sacramento bureaucracy. Jack Scott is one of those who always voted with the bureaucrats.

Today, if you go to the L. A. Unified School District, there are more than 10,000 people doing nothing but shuffling papers. Those are nonteaching personnel. Do we really need that? I like to use simple logic. Education is nothing more than teach and learn. So, we don’t need a whole bunch of people shuffling papers around.

Now, let’s move to public safety or the crime issue. If you ask people whether or not they feel safe in their neighborhoods, a lot of people would say no. I think Mr. Scott is really missing the mark. Every time you talk about crime issues, public safety issues, even if you go to his Web site, you will see that all he brags about is, “Well, I passed a bill that when you buy a gun there should be a trigger lock.” Maybe it’s a good idea, but that has nothing to do with crime. Crime is how to catch the bad guys, how to do better to put the murderers, the rapists, the robbers in jail. A trigger lock may be a good gimmick, but that has nothing to do with suppressing the crime rate.

This will be a long process. The first step is educating our young people to stay away from drugs, stay away from crimes, stay away from gangs and violence. If it doesn’t work, then we have to be tough on enforcement. And we have to let people know that if you commit a crime, you’re subject to prosecution.

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Q: What about health care?

A: It’s also a concern. Unfortunately, if you ask around, nobody can give you a perfect solution. In my mind, ideally, everybody should have health care insurance.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. And I think this is an area that you truly have to use a public and private partnership. Again, it’s funding. How many times do we hear a major hospital say that it will have to close down a trauma center. When you look at the $16-billion budget surplus, isn’t it just common sense that you should return some of those moneys to the local communities?

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Q: How do you stand on the school voucher initiative?

A: Some 20 years ago, my wife and I had a choice of whether we wanted to move to a nicer school district or to send our kids to private schools. And we made a choice that we wanted to move to South Pasadena because of the school district. And this is a reason why my kids are products of the public school system. So I am a firm believer in public school education.

I don’t want to hurt the system. I think it’s very important because, after all, more than 90% of the young people still go to public schools. I don’t support this particular proposition because $4,000 is not enough to send a kid to a private school. When I look at the language of Proposition 38, I do not support it, but I support the concept. The concept is choice.

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Q: What about Proposition 39, the school bond initiative?

A: A lot of people try to mix up the issues. Oftentimes they would say, “Well, if you don’t support Proposition 39, that means you don’t support education.” I think this is totally misleading. Basically, it’s a tax issue. It’s about being fair to all property owners. Because, after all, it doesn’t matter whether you have kids in school or not, you are one of the property owners who will have to chip in money under Proposition 39. I just want to be fair, and I want to protect the spirit of Proposition 13. So I’m in opposition to 39.

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Q: In the last session of the Legislature, there was talk about term limits and whether they should be revised or done away with. How do you stand on term limits?

A: I want to take the middle-of-the-road approach. Having served as a City Council member for nine years, I understand how difficult it is for a layperson to get elected and serve the public. It takes time for that person to learn. So I think when you put a three-term limit, meaning six years, in the Assembly, that’s a little bit short. I would like to see everybody subject to a 12-year term limit. I think it’s reasonable.

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Q: Runaway film production is an issue in this district. How would you attack the problem legislatively?

A: All businessmen want to make a reasonable profit. If you are putting too many restrictions, too many regulations and too much cost on my production, and therefore I cannot make a reasonable profit, I move to another district, or I move to another country. So, if we truly want to support the film industry, we have to look at streamlining the restrictions and regulations, and this is the reason why, three years ago, when I was the mayor of South Pasadena, I welcomed the film industry. And I actually went ahead and streamlined a lot of those regulations.

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Q: In Glendale, there have been tensions between the Latino and Armenian communities. What would you do to deal with that?

A: Back in 1991, when I decided to run for City Council in South Pasadena, people egged my front door. Why is that? I don’t want to use the word “discrimination,” but I do want to use the word “resistance.” When people don’t know you, it’s human nature that there would be fear. People are scared of what would be happening if this Asian American becomes the City Council member.

So the key of the matter is we need to communicate with each other, we need to know each other, we need to appreciate each other. Now, after nine years, I’m proud to say that, if you really look around at all of the cities in the San Gabriel Valley, perhaps South Pasadena has the least racial tension. Why is that? Because that Asian City Council member has been performing just as good as anyone else.

Once we know each other, once we work with each other, this kind of resistance will automatically go away. So we have to promote this kind of communication between the ethnic groups. And I think I can really contribute a great deal because of my ethnic background.