Pasadena Election Sends Mixed Signals to City Hall

PASADENA — City officials are pondering the results of Tuesday’s election like Indian scouts studying the warm ashes of an abandoned campfire, looking for telltale signs.

There’s a double message from the voters there in the smoky remains, some officials acknowledge--both an affirmation and a negation of the city’s leadership.

On the one hand, the voters appeared to affirm the fiscal course that their city government is pursuing, at last sweeping past a troublesome, longstanding period of distrust about revenue-raising proposals coming from City Hall to approve a $17-million bond issue to pay for a new jail and police station.

A similar bond issue was defeated two years ago, falling short of the required two-thirds vote by about 8%, and a vocal homeowners rebellion last year scuttled a proposed assessment district to pay for capital needs in the city.

Mayor Jubilant

“We’ve had our problems in the period of the past several years,” said a jubilant Mayor John Crowley, who had proclaimed Proposition AA, the general obligation bond initiative, the most important local measure on the ballot. “Now we’ve re-established our ability to communicate with the public.”

On the other hand, though, a majority of the voters broadcast the message that the city government itself should be significantly reshaped, approving an advisory referendum for the direct, citywide election of the Pasadena mayor. For at least the past 65 years, the mayoralty has been rotated among the Board of City Directors.

At the same time, the voters strongly endorsed the so-called “council-manager” form of government, with a non-elected city manager making executive decisions.

“This was not a mandate for radical change,” said City Manager Donald McIntyre. “It’s clear that the voters don’t want a ‘strong’ mayor.”

Machine Politics Feared

A “strong” mayor would run the city without a city manager, making the executive decisions himself or herself. Some city leaders had expressed the fear that voters would, by voting for an elected mayor and rejecting the council-manager form of government, endorse a boss in City Hall, leading to the introduction of Chicago-style political machines in Pasadena.

But Ozro Anderson, co-chairman of Citizens for Representative Government, the property-owners group that championed the City Charter-amendment measures, said the vote indicated a widespread dissatisfaction with the thrust of city government. “In the beginning we were like a voice in the wilderness,” he said. “But now more and more people are aware that there’s a need for a city leader who’s more than just a part-time amateur.”

Proposition AA, the jail bond issue that required two-thirds of the votes for approval, eked out a 67% majority, with 22,779 “yes” votes and 11,162 “no” votes.

Proposition DD, the directly elected mayor proposal, got the approval of 18,833 voters; 13,860 voted against it. Proposition CC, the “council-manager” question, got the most clear-cut affirmation, with 22,575 “yes” votes and only 9,130 “no” votes. Both CC and DD were advisory measures, with no binding effect on the charter.

Committee Action Expected

Crowley said the question of how the mayor is elected would probably be sent to a committee to work out the specifics of a possible charter amendment.

The voters also approved a proposal to amend the charter to require only a simple majority of the board to fire or overrule the city manager. The charter had required a majority of five of seven board members for such action. The charter amendment, Proposition BB, passed with 17,630 “yes” votes versus 11,162 “no” votes.

A total of 36,634 voters went to the polls in Pasadena. There are 66,264 registered voters in the city.

The bond issue had been described by city officials and proponents as the linchpin of a master plan to cure Pasadena’s fiscal ills. The idea is to sell to private developers the present police station, on valuable property at Arroyo Parkway and Holly Street, putting the proceeds into a burgeoning capital fund.

$4 Million Annual Interest

“The fund works like an endowment fund, generating $4 million to $5 million a year in interest,” said John B. Wells, co-chairman of Volunteers for a Safer Pasadena. He said the revenue generated by the fund would be used to finance infrastructure improvements as well as to help pay off the bond obligation.

Even some of the bond measure’s most ardent supporters expressed surprise at its passage Tuesday. “I don’t think we’d get a two-thirds vote for anything else,” said board member Rick Cole.

He ascribed the support as largely a vote of support for the Pasadena police. “The police are highly regarded for their direct approach in breaking up the drug trade,” Cole said. “There’s tremendous support for our police chief (James Robenson) and the dramatic gains his department has made against crime.”

David Morrisroe, co-chairman of Volunteers for a Safer Pasadena, ascribed the passage of AA to work on its behalf by a citizens group. “Because we were relatively independent of the governmental mechanism, the issue got a lot more credibility,” he said. “I think the electorate believed us. We were believers. This has just convinced me of the power of belief.”

Scare Tactics Charged

But Dale Wopschall, one of the bond issue’s foes, said the opposition couldn’t compete with the resources of the issue’s supporters. “There was a lot of high-powered corporate financing behind this thing,” he said. “I think they used a lot of scare tactics, too. The voters believed what they were told. A lot of it isn’t true.”

McIntyre said the city can now proceed with a four-month analysis of the space needs of the Police Department, after which an architect will be contracted to do the new building’s exterior design. According to police, the present structure is dilapidated, overcrowded and subject to crippling effects from earthquakes.

“In the meantime, we’ll be proceeding to select a financing team--both legal counsel and bond adviser,” McIntyre said.

He said that if things developed smoothly, the city could have a new police building by late 1989. The city already owns the proposed site for the new building, at Walnut Street and Garfield Avenue.

Questions Raised

The advisory propositions raise a series of other questions, said Charles McKenney, chairman of a specially appointed Charter Review Committee, which framed them ballot measures.

“Now you get into questions such as, ‘Will the mayor be full time or part time?’ ” McKenney said. “What will the mayor be paid? Will he or she sit on the council? Will the mayor have any other powers besides being elected at-large?”

Cole, a supporter of the mayoral election measure, said there are ample examples of elected mayors in the state. “My sense is that the form best suited to Pasadena would be a mayor who relies principally on a mandate for leadership rather than on a particular set of powers,” Cole said.

He said the city of San Diego was one such example, where, under then-mayor Pete Wilson, the city’s chief elected official employed “consensus building and strong leadership” to direct the city.