PASADENA : City Councilman Cole Won’t Seek Fourth Term

Pasadena City Councilman Rick Cole, known for championing liberal causes such as community policing and minority rights, announced Thursday that he will not seek a fourth term in the March 7 municipal election.

Cole, 41, said he was retiring from the council to pursue, as a citizen, his goal of improving and increasing community participation in local government. Cole, who joined the City Council in 1983, said he had not settled on a job or volunteer position to do that.

Most recently, he worked as the Los Angeles County campaign director for unsuccessful Democratic gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Brown.

A community activist before winning election, Cole continued that role as a council member.

In 1993, for example, when he was mayor, Cole shocked the local Establishment by wearing a shirt that said “Tournament of Racists” while riding in the Rose Parade. Cole supported calls for the largely white Tournament of Roses to integrate.

He also will be remembered for helping controversial Councilman Isaac Richard, who was censured for a third time earlier this week, to win election in 1991. The onetime allies are now bitter enemies whose heated arguments during council meetings are infamous in Pasadena.