1st District / <i> Northwest Pasadena</i> : Cordiality Marks Races for Pasadena City Council Seats : Candidates Portray Themselves as Mediators in Wake of Years of Acrimony at City Hall

Pasadena’s council chamber has long been a battleground, with Councilmen Isaac Richard, Rick Cole and others often slamming each other with verbal A-bombs.

In contrast, the campaigns for four council seats up for grabs in the city’s March 7 election have been cordial affairs so far, almost as proper as the annual coronation of the Rose Queen.

“I think it reflects a feeling in Pasadena that things have been too ugly in recent years,” said Cole, who is not seeking reelection. Richard and Mayor Kathryn Nack also decided to leave the council. “People are trying to say, ‘Elect me and things will calm down at City Hall.”’

The fourth contested council seat is held by Councilman William M. Paparian, who is running for a third term.

Council members Chris Holden, William A. Crowfoot and William E. Thomson Jr. are in the middle of their four-year terms, which expire in 1997.

If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote in his or her district, the top two candidates will meet in a runoff on April 18.

So far, the debate in the four district races has revolved around such issues as economic development, transportation and taxes.

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If fireworks are to erupt anywhere, local political observers agree that District 1 will be the site.

Richard, who was censured three times for cursing at other city officials, among other things, retired for personal reasons after his first term. He is backing candidate Saundra L. Knox, who is using Richard’s former campaign strategist Tim Brick to guide her campaign.

Candidates Joyce Streator and Porfirio J. Frausto have declined to attack Knox for the association. But Knox is quick to dispel any rumors that she has struck a deal with Richard.

“I will not hire Richard as my field rep,” said Knox, answering a reporter’s question before it was asked.

Knox is campaigning to improve economic and social conditions in Northwest Pasadena, which has a large low-income population. She supports completion of the planned community health center and expansion of redevelopment projects to bring new businesses into the district.

As the director of the nonprofit Pasadena Neighborhood Housing Services, Knox says she has the experience to do the job. Under contract with the city, the agency administers federal housing funds, giving loans and grants to rehabilitate homes in Northwest Pasadena.

“(The lack of) economic development is an overriding issue that is causing all the other problems,” said Knox, citing gang crime and drug use as chief among those problems.

Streator, a former field representative to Councilman Chris Holden and a former county probation director, is campaigning on much the same platform, calling for new jobs, more police and recreation programs to help divert youths from gangs. She said the council needs to set new budget priorities to accomplish that.

Frausto, who owns a landscaping business and is Blair High School’s football coach, also is campaigning for economic development to cure the ills of District 1. But he says crime is his top issue.

“We are concerned about violence in the streets, on our campuses, in our community,” Frausto said. “No jobs are going to come here until we clean up the crime.”

Frausto said he supports imposing a landing fee at Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport to raise more than $1 million to pay for officers.

Knox and Streator are considered the front-runners.

Ethnicity could weigh in the outcome. District 1 is 46% African American and 32% Latino. Knox and Streator are black. Frausto is Latino.