City Council Elections: Q&A with Diana Mahmud

The only thing that comes between Diana Mahmud and South Pasadena politics is gardening. That’s another way, of course, of saying that Mahmud is retired, but anyone who thinks she isn’t busier than the bees in her backyard would be badly mistaken. While many retired couples spend weekends watching movies at home, Mahmud and her husband Richard Helgeson—both retired lawyers—watch City Council DVDs from two to four years ago in their Camden Parkway residence, where they have lived for the past 25 years. (Oct. 22 marked their 25th anniversary in the house.) In recent weeks, according to Helgeson, he and his wife have walked to just about every precinct in the city, knocking door-to-door for Mahmud’s Nov. 5 City Council election campaign. 

In a recent interview with South Pasadena Patch, Mahmud outlined the reasons why she’s running for the city council and why she thinks she’s suitable for the job.

South Pasadena Patch: Why are you running for a seat on the City Council?

Diana Mahmud: I’m running because I’m at a special point in my time where I am retired and my children have all flown the coop. I have no grandchildren and none on the horizon. So I have the time as well as the professional expertise. Most of my legal career was spent doing contract and construction work, providing legal services to large public utilities. For example, I advised MWD [Metropolitan Water District] at a very tumultuous time in the electric utilities industry, as it transitioned from a strictly regulated industry into one that, at least in the wholesale market, is subject to competitive market forces. Many of the issues that are directly addressed by the city council are areas where I used to render professional advice. Frankly, I’ve gotten frustrated by the way I’ve seen certain things being handled and I know that if I were in the city council I would pay better attention. 

I also want to make a contribution to my community. For the vast majority of the time that I’ve lived in South Pasadena I was a working mom and my time was focused on my family and my career. I just didn’t have time to devote generally to the community. I also have a history in my prior life of being active. I’ve volunteered and tutored children when I was in high school and at UCLA. I got involved in the consumer movement while at UCLA, which led to my involvement in student government. 

Patch: How would you describe your political orientation? What are your political and social values like?

Mahmud: I was an economics major and I’m so grateful for that because I think it’s one of the most practical majors that one could possibly have. Socially, I’m progressive. I strongly embrace environmental values. But probably fiscally I’m more on the conservative side.

Patch: And politically?

Mahmud: I’m a registered Democrat.

Patch: That answers everything, right?

Mahmud: I don’t think so! You could be out there like a kind of Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer kind of liberal. Or you could be a Dianne Feinstein liberal. And if I were to identify with anyone—any woman currently—it would be Dianne Feinstein. I think she is a very well-respected voice not only within the Democratic Party but within the state in general.

Patch: Who have been your political heroes over the last century?

Mahmud: I would probably say FDR. My family was very adversely affected by the Depression. My grandfather was out of work, my grandmother had to work at a factory that manufactured men’s overalls. I think FDR helped to bring in place not only a lot of social programs that helped to stimulate employment but he also established a strong regulatory framework. So, while I was an economics major, I don’t think you can let markets run unregulated. The energy crisis that we experienced 10 years ago is a very fresh reminder of that.

Patch: What would you say is the most important issue facing South Pasadena today, and how would you tackle it if you were on the city council?

Mahmud: Our dilapidated infrastructure. Thank goodness, our city council has started to address it, with respect to the water system. But one area that has not garnered as much attention as it should have is street repairs.

Patch: Isn’t the city beginning to fix the streets?

Mahmud: We are barely beginning to fix our streets. I have a city council report that was prepared in January of 2009 following the city council’s employment of a financial consultant and another consultant who looked at the state of our infrastructure—water, sewers and streets. At that time, the consultant referenced a figure from 2007 that identified $27.4 million worth of street repairs that were needed. 

Now, you talk to [Public Works Director] Paul Toor and ask him today what is his estimate of the cost of street repairs, it’s ballooned to $50 million. So within six years our needs have just about doubled. And yet council has significantly increased our reserve [fund]. The incumbents [in the Nov. 5 elections] tout this as part of their platform in their campaign. But we’re earning .5 percent interest on our reserves. And they’re now to a point—and I have this verified in the minutes of a city council meeting about our 2013-2014 fiscal year budget—that our reserves are 55 percent of our general fund. 

In my view, council has made a grave mistake in continuing to add money to our reserves when we are so desperately in need of street improvements. And the more we delay the worse it gets. I’m concerned that we’re digging ourselves into a hole that it’ll be extremely difficult to dig out of. I think it’s misguided policy to accumulate that much money when costs are escalating so much in areas that are vitally needed. Our residents really want better streets.

One of the things that I would do is I would use a lot more of our reserves to spend on street repairs. I know the city council has increased the amount that is being spent on an annual basis on street improvement. It’s just that the need is so great that we’re not keeping pace. Rather than spend on street repairs, they have chosen to increase the reserve. It just doesn’t make any sense to me when our costs are going up 10 percent a year and we’re getting .5 percent interest on the reserve.

Patch: Have you asked the council why they’d done that?

Mahmud: I have only heard [Councilmember] Philip Putnam provide an explanation. But his explanation doesn’t make any sense to me. He likened it to, Well, if you have a family and you lose income then you’re supposed to have six months worth of income [in the bank]. But we’re not that. It’s not as if our sales tax revenue is going to fluctuate significantly. Last week, at a panel interview at the Pasadena Star-News, he [Putnam] said that we’re very fortunate because we have very stable revenues, which I think is true. And if you have stable revenue, you really don’t need this huge reserve. I don’t understand it.

Patch: Of the four candidates who are running, is there an issue that you think only have raised and the others haven’t?

Mahmud: Probably the fact that all the others are employed full-time. And I am retired—I retired from full-time employment in 2008. And so I have the time to fulfill all of the responsibilities of being a city council member—to attend the meetings and thoroughly review the agendas, which, based on some of the votes that I’ve seen, I don’t think is occurring.

Patch: Candidate Alan Reynolds, who comes from an engineering background, has been saying that the council needs to be more diverse—that it’s over-represented by lawyers and doctors. Do you agree? What’s your idea of diversity?

Mahmud: I think your background is irrelevant if you don’t have the time to serve. You’ve got to have the time to do the job. You can slice and dice yourself only in so many ways. You can’t do a lot without compromising your ability to do any one of the things that you’re involved in well. And that’s why I would not have possibly considered a run for city council unless I was retired. If I do anything I want to do it well. 

Part of it is the diversity of topics that the city council addresses. One day you may have a zoning controversy and the next day it may be the state of the water system. So I think it’s helpful to have diverse backgrounds, but more than anything, I think it helps to have time. But with respect to diversity among lawyers, we all come from very diverse backgrounds. Philip [Putnam] describes himself as a business lawyer. Michael [Cacciotti] works in the Attorney General’s office, and within it, I think he’s assigned to represent the department of consumer affairs. Nobody has the substantive professional experience that I have with respect to public works and contracts.

Patch: Speaking of the incumbents, which issues do you think they handled well, and which issues would you say they didn’t handle well?

Mahmud: One issue comes to mind, and that’s the global water contract last year. And that’s been extremely upsetting to me because that was the contract under which the city decided to outsource utility billing services. I went to a city council meeting where they had hired a consultant, and I looked at the proposed contract [with the firm] that was in the agenda packet. It was very poorly prepared. I saw what had been done. The city just took information that had been given to it by the consultant, and they accepted it. 

So the proposed contract had a lot of self-serving language protecting the vendor with regards to the proprietary and confidential nature of the software platform for the utility billing. It [the contract] had very vague, and in some respects inapplicable, provisions regarding what it was going to do for us, particularly with respect to implementing a water budget. So, in public comments I raised this issue with the city council. And because there were concerns, the matter was referred to a sub-committee, where I expressed my concerns again. The contract wasn’t changed and now we’re having problems with the vendor. We’re now on our third project manager and I understand that even the vendor is interested in renegotiating the contract.

Patch: What would you say the incumbents have done pretty well?

Mahmud: I think Councilmember [Michael] Cacciotti has done a very good job of making the city council vey aware of environmental issues and in pushing for more environmentally friendly practices to be adopted. And I think Councilmember Putnam from time to time raises some good questions on some issues.

Patch: What would your goals be for the city if you’re elected and how would you meet them?

Mahmud: I think my overall goal is to help our city run better. And by that I mean that we pay a lot more attention to what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. And I would do that by carefully reviewing everything that we’re doing. 

Related: City Council Elections: Q&A with Alan Reynolds

Tomorrow: Q&A with election incumbent Councilmember Philip Putnam.