Bill Paparian

William Mihrtad Paparian (born 1949 in Los Angeles, California) is an American politician, a former mayor of Pasadena, California, serving from 1995 to 1997. He was also a member of the Pasadena City Council from 1987 to 1999, and a Green Party candidate for Congress in 2006. He was the first Armenian-American mayor of Pasadena, as well as the only Pasadena mayor to visit Cuba during his term. Paparian has been known throughout his political career as an outspoken advocate of controversial causes, including ending the trade embargo against Cuba. He attracted national media attention for dispatching a Pasadena police helicopter to issue a citation to state aircraft spraying pesticides over the city, and for his urging Rose Parade observers in 2008 to turn their backs on the Chinese float, which he called the "Beijing Float of Shame."

Early years Paparian was raised in the Sherman Oaks section of the San Fernando Valley in the 1960s. While attending California State University Northridge, he was a theater student who also protested the Vietnam War. Yet, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1971 and was stationed at Camp Pendleton in San Diego County during the final years of the war.

Criticism of China Paparian has also been an outspoken critic of the People's Republic of China. In July 1996, Mayor Paparian welcomed the Dalai Lama to City Hall and presented him with a key to the city, ignoring concerns expressed by the State Department and the government of the People's Republic of China, that there could be dire consequences for the relationship between the United States and China. In December 2007, when Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard referred to China's human rights abuses in China "allegations," and invited China to enter a float in Pasadena's annual Rose Parade, Paparian wrote an article in the Pasadena Weekly urging parade observers to "Turn your backs on Bogaard's Beijing Float of Shame!"

Armenian activism As an Armenian-American, Paparian has also spoken out about the Armenian genocide. In April 1996, he was the keynote speaker at a ceremony attended by Elizabeth Dole and 7,000 others, remembering the genocide; the ceremony was held at the Armenian Martyrs Monument in Montebello, California. In his keynote address, Paparian noted: "Every year, we come to this hallowed site to honor the memory of our 1.5 million martyrs. Armenians the world over do the same on this day, each and every Armenian honoring our collective loss. But, we also know that the Genocide is not over. It continues silently, relentlessly, insidiously. The scars are not healed. The wounds are still festering, and the suffering is real."

Other issues In what the Los Angeles Times called "one of his best-known moments," Paparian led Pasadena's opposition to the state's use of helicopters to spray pesticides to eradicate the Mediterranean fruit fly. Paparian received national media attention when he passed an ordiance outlawing formation-flying at low altitudes, and dispatched a Pasadena police helicopter to issue a citation to the state's pesticide-spraying aircraft.

In 1997, Paparian became engaged in a legal battle with the Pasadena Star News. The paper published a front-page story on Paparian's personal financial troubles on the day of the 1996 UCLA-USC football game. Paparian sued the paper, charging that the reporter had used confidential credit records in an effort to embarrass him. The lawsuit was dismissed in February 1997.

Paparian has also been an outspoken opponent of the Iraq War and, in 2006, called on the California legislature to support and pass AJR 39, a California resolution calling for impeachment proceedings against George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

Electoral history