Star Power Lights Up a Pasadena Civic Plan

Pasadena Water and Power customers got an interesting bit of mail last month: a personal plea from Arnold Schwarzenegger. But it wasn’t a pitch for his latest Hollywood blockbuster.

It was about their utility bill.

Some 60,000 Pasadena utility customers are slated to receive power rebates totaling $14.9 million this summer. And that money, Schwarzenegger’s plea suggested, could support after-school programs.

Schwarzenegger is pictured on the front of the postcard, biceps bulging, one hand supporting a barbell on which five kids perch, the other pointing outward in a kind of Uncle Sam-wants-you pose. “Show the strength of your heart,” a message from the former Mr. Olympia reads.

The campaign, brainchild of Pasadena Unified School Board Member Ed Honowitz, is part of an innovative partnership between the school district and the city to replace two nonrenewable federal grants.

“The idea was, even if a very small percentage ended up making a donation, you could wind up generating some significant funds,” Honowitz said.

In 1996, in order to compete in a deregulated electric industry, Pasadena Water and Power restructured utility rates and instituted a five-year surcharge.

Last year, city officials realized that the surcharge, which was to expire in July 2002, had already created a debt reserve of almost $150 million. They decided to end the surcharge a year early--and to rebate its customers almost $15 million, the amount collected since July 2001.

About the same time, the Pasadena Unified School District was trying to figure out how to replace two expiring federal grants. The first, for $1.2 million, funded eight elementary and middle schools, expired June 30. The second, for $987,000, supports another six schools and will expire next June 30.

The program, Pasadena LEARNs, serves 2,000 children a day in 19 schools, providing students with some academic enrichment after school.

Honowitz, who won election to the school board last year, said the idea to marry the two programs came after he heard a talk by Phyllis Currie, general manager of Pasadena Water and Power.

“She was discussing the overall rebate of that ... surcharge, and that led me to think about what the district’s rebate would be,” Honowitz said. “Then, in some discussions around that with my wife, we had this ... idea of allowing people to donate their rebates to support the program.”

The city quickly approved the plan in May, and the school board set aside $41,000 for publicity.

Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard, who knows Schwarzenegger through a mutual friend, enlisted the actor’s help in the campaign.

Schwarzenegger, a proponent of a November ballot initiative, Proposition 49, to increase state funding for after-school and early-morning programs, offered his support for the donation effort and his image for the postcards.

Bogaard in turn said he has agreed to endorse Proposition 49. The Pasadena City Council adopted a resolution in support of the measure Monday night.

Pasadena LEARNs director Margaret Shoemaker said the Schwarzenegger mailer was the “tipping point” in the campaign to raise awareness of the program.

Individuals and businesses that donate their rebates will receive a tax deduction courtesy of the Pasadena Educational Foundation, the school district’s nonprofit wing. Residential customers will receive an average rebate of $75. Business customers account for about $11 million of the total utility rebates.

“It’s a very creative program,” said Stephen Norton, a spokesman for Pasadena-based office products firm Avery Dennison, which plans to donate 25%--about $12,000--of its rebate.

Other businesses also say they plan to donate rebate money, too, but LEARNs has only about $11,000 in hand so far.

Because of the cyclical nature of PWP billing, city officials said they will not be able to measure the true yield of the donations program until mid-September.

Mary Dee Romney, who ran against Honowitz in the 2001 school board election, said LEARNs has failed to develop a track record for enhancing academics. She questioned whether seeking donations is the best way to help a program that already has uncertain funding.

“They are expanding the program without any financing for the original schools,” she said. “It’s a very costly program.”

Lisa Fowler, a former school board member who is a special assistant to the city manager, is one of several Pasadena officials who said she sees the rebate donation program as an example of the innovation that can occur when city officials think creatively.

“Regardless of how successful it is financially,” she said, “it has raised the profile of the program. It has increased the credibility of the district and the board in the eyes of the city. One thing the city of Pasadena has done is to make sure that the public is aware of these programs. And what better form of publicity than a campaign like this?”