Paul Little took an unusual path to get to the post he now holds as chief executive of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association. His first full-time job was as a steelworker. Then he went back to college, and later worked in the film business and as a public relations representative. In the 1990s, he won a seat on the Pasadena City Council as a slow-growth neighborhood candidate. His main accomplishment during his three terms was championing the Gold Line light-rail line. Instead of running for a fourth term or moving up the political ladder, Little kept his public relations job until he got a call from a chamber search committee looking to replace their long-serving chief executive. Little took the job and has since tried to re-inject the chamber into local politics and policy-making, and to upgrade the chamber’s use of technology. Little met with the Business Journal in his chamber office to review his career experiences, chat about why he entered and then left politics, and his goals for the chamber.
Question: I’m surprised to learn you were once a steelworker.
Answer: When I got out of high school, I went to college for one semester. But neither college nor I agreed with each other. So I worked for about two-and-a-half years at a company called Electric Boat, which was a unit of General Dynamics in Groton, Conn. I worked on a production line for nuclear-powered submarines for the U.S. Navy. This was the early 1970s and the defense industry boom was still in full swing.
Q: What was that like?
A: I was actually a steelworker, building a steel frame for all the nuclear submarines that had city names, like the Los Angeles class submarine. It sounds really cool and like I had a lot of responsibility, but it really was cutting three pieces of steel for the frame and having somebody weld them together.
Q: So what happened?
A: In 1975, the union went on strike. We were on strike for more than six months. While we were on strike, the union paid us $35 a day to picket for two days a week. But I took the time to do some thinking and figured this would be a good time to go back to school.
Q: Why did you pick Loyola in New Orleans?
A: Because it was warm. I had just spent the previous three winters handling cold steel in a factory that opened up right onto the ocean and all I could think about was going someplace warm.
Q: You majored in political science yet you decided to go into film production. What happened?
A: I started out wanting to be a lawyer, but by the time I got to the University of Texas at Austin and actually got to see how first-year law students were faring, they were absolutely miserable. It all seemed so demanding, with law professors who were absolutely tyrannical. So I looked at what else I could do. I knew I loved movies, so I decided to specialize in film production.
Q: So that’s what brought you to Los Angeles?
A: Not exactly. I met my wife at the University of Texas. We married while we were still in school. When she graduated, she went into teaching and she got recruited by the Los Angeles Unified School District. So, we came out here. After about three months, I found a job as a production assistant at Fries Entertainment. This was the early 1980s and the video market was just starting to take off. I worked on direct-to-video films, which were cheap to produce.
Q: What kinds of films did you work on?
A: Horror movies and thrillers, mostly. The one that was most well-known was “Phantom of the Mall.” We got to blow up the Sherman Oaks Galleria, which was really cool. That was one of the first times I actually got a chance to do some actual filming with one of the 16-millimeter cameras. Fries Entertainment was a really good place to move up the production chain.
Q: So why did you leave Fries?
A: The direct-to-video market dried up. The big studios moved in and took it over. I got an opportunity to work for Gerald McRaney, one of the stars from that 1980s TV show “Simon and Simon.” As part of his contract with Universal, he was allowed to have his own production company that made a couple of television movies a year. I got to work on those movies until he lost his deal with Universal.
Q: Why did you leave the film business?
A: It wasn’t really by choice. I did get some offers, but they all required extensive travel, typically being away for home four or five months out of the year. There was runaway production back then, too. By this time I had two young children, and taking one of these job offers would likely have meant the end of my marriage. So I looked around for something else I could do. I had done some freelance writing, so I decided to go into public relations. At first, I helped people promote companies; then I landed a job as communications director for the Pacific Asian Museum and, after that, the Claremont School of Theology.
Q: Are you religious?
A: No, not particularly. But I did make lots of friends there. The program there is twofold: They train ministers and they have an academic department that offers religious studies courses.
Q: How did you get into politics?
A: It was all because of my dog. I would take my dog on these long walks through the neighborhood. I had already been active in attempts to preserve our neighborhood in Pasadena and walking my dog enabled me to meet a lot of my neighbors. On one of my walks – this was back in 1994 when a council seat had just opened up – one of my neighbors suggested that I run. Up until that point, I had never considered running for office. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I had a lot to offer. I talked it over with my wife and she said she was OK with it.
Q: What was the focus of your campaign?
A: The main issue at that time was growth and how to make sure growth didn’t overrun the neighborhoods. We were very wary of development interests. I was one of the people who ran afoul of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce; they certainly did not endorse me.
Q: Were you surprised that you won?
A: Not really. I had a very organized campaign and a lot of support in the neighborhood.
Q: Were you prepared for life as a public official?
A: To some extent, yes. I had the support and advice of Councilman Bill Crowfoot. But I was not prepared for the issues I faced. One of the first things was the deregulation of the electricity industry. Pasadena has its own water and power utility and there was a real fear that many of the large customers would defect to other electricity providers and basically bankrupt the utility. I had to get up to speed on this very quickly.
Q: What were your major achievements on the council?
A: First and foremost, the building of the Gold Line light rail. I had volunteered to be the city’s appointee to the authority charged with building what was then the Blue Line to Pasadena. I thought it was going to be a straightforward task, but I didn’t realize all the politics involved. But we persevered and once we selected Rick Thorpe as the chief executive of the authority, we were able to build the $1 billion line.
Q: Why was this so important to you?
A: Because it changed forever the development patterns in Pasadena and changed them for the better. People now want to live near the train line.
Q: Instead of staying on the council or running for Assembly or state Senate, you gave up politics. Why?
A: I didn’t want to go to Sacramento and be in the state Legislature where the political parties run everything and I would only be able to have a couple things accomplished each year. I liked the feeling of being able to accomplish things at the local level and see the impact within a week or two. As for running for more terms, I found that I had accomplished much of what I set out to do. Also, my wife felt that the family had sacrificed enough and she wanted our evenings and weekends back.
Q: How did you get the chamber post?
A: That was a real surprise. When I left office, I still had my day job, working at a public relations firm owned by Valerie Martinez. But then one day, out of the blue, I got a call from someone on the search committee looking for a candidate to replace chamber Chief Executive Lynne Hess, who had to step down after 12 years for health reasons. At first, I thought he was kidding. But then I realized he was serious. It wasn’t something I had considered before, but when I talked it over with my wife, she agreed and within three weeks, I was on the job at the chamber.
Q: You’d never actually run an organization before. How did you adapt?
A: I found that much of the work in dealing with members was very similar to my dealing with constituents as a councilman. And many of the issues of economic development are the same, though I’m viewing them from a different perspective.
Q: On the council, you were a slow-growth neighborhood advocate; has your perspective changed?
A: That happened while I was on the council. I gained a new appreciation for the importance of business: Without revenues from business, the city couldn’t do the things we needed to do, like get a handle on a crime problem that was out of control or get rid of potholes on the streets. Also, we went through that terrible recession of the 1990s, so we realized how much we needed policies that helped businesses grow.
Q: What are your major goals as head of the chamber?
A: Really two goals: boost the chamber’s civic profile and bring the chamber into the 21st century in terms of using technology to communicate with our members. On the first goal, when I took over, the chamber was not seen as a major influence in the city. Back in the 1990s, the chamber was in serious financial difficulty; Lynne Hess did a good job in stabilizing the finances. Now it’s time to reinject the chamber back into local affairs.
Q: What about technology?
A: There’s so much we can do here. When I took over, we still had no voice mail. Hard to believe in 2007 a company without voice mail. We also weren’t using online technology as effectively as we could to communicate with our members. We’re now trying to change that.
Q: And now you have your weekends and evenings back to spend more time with your family.
A: Well, yes, since most of my chamber-related activities are during the business day, I usually do have evenings and weekends free. But, of course, by the time I took the chamber post, my eldest son was already in college and this fall, my daughter goes off to college.
Q: So now you and your wife can travel, see those places you’ve always wanted to see, right?
A: Well, it costs quite a bundle to send two children to private college, so we don’t exactly have the money right now to go traveling all over the world. Yes, we do travel – we’ve been to a lot of places in California. But more extensive travel will have to wait a bit.
Q: Do you still enjoy going to movies? What’s your favorite movie so far this year?
A: Yes, I make it a point to go see as many movies as I can. I still love the movie business. My favorite movie so far this year is “The Hurt Locker,” that Iraq war movie about the bomb disposal guys. It was really intense and I was thinking about it days after I saw it. It was very well done. I also liked “Julie & Julia”; it was a fun movie.
Q: What kind of work do you do on your home?
A: Our home was built in 1913, so it needs a lot of tender, loving care. Nothing major, but a whole bunch of little things like repainting, replacing old light fixtures and replacing the bathroom floor. It’s in a historic neighborhood and we all want to keep it that way. That’s how I first got involved in political advocacy, making sure that the neighborhood would stay the way it has been.
PAUL LITTLE
Title: Chief Executive
Organization: Pasadena Chamber of Commerce
Education: B.A., political science, Loyola University of New Orleans; M.A., communications with specialty in film and television production, University of Texas, Austin
Career Turning Point: Receiving a call in November 2007 from Pasadena Chamber of Commerce search committee looking for new chief executive
Most Influential People: Charles Fries, founder, Fries Entertainment; former Pasadena City Councilman Bill Crowfoot
Personal: Married to Laurie Bollman-Little, who teaches English at Eagle Rock High School. Two children: son a senior in college; daughter entering college in fall. Lives in Pasadena home built in 1913.
Hobbies: Going to movies, reading, maintaining historic home
