City Council Organizational Meeting: December 12, 2022

mayor and council we are live good evening everyone. Welcome to today's city council meeting today's DECEMBER 12th twenty twenty two and it's not a typical council meeting. Our agenda related to normal city business is not on the agenda. Today's the organizational meeting where we welcome a new council member to new council members, newly elected council members and also thank the vice mayor for his many years of service to the city. Let's start with the calling of the role. Thank you, mayor council member hampton is absent. Councilor jones here, COUNCILMAN Madsen here, COUNCILMAN Massouda, your customer service here. COUNCILMAN Williams here, vice mayor wilson here, mayor here . There's a quorum of the council present and next we will move to the pledge of allegiance and I'll ask vice mayor wilson to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Be my pleasure. Please stand place your right hand over your heart again. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under GOD indivisible with liberty and justice for our thank you. Thank you, vice mayor wilson. Next I'll turn to the city clerk to report on election results and the canvass of the NOVEMBER 8th 2022 general municipal election results. thank you, mayor. So recapping the JUNE seven twenty twenty two primary nominating election results the following persons were reelected and elected to office . John jay kennedy having received fifty eight point nine percent of the total votes cast for the office of members of the city council from district three was declared to be reelected to that office just reverse having received ninety seven point six percent of the total votes cast for the office of a member of the city council from district five was declared to be elected to that office. Jason lyon having received fifty one point six percent of the total vote cast for the office of a member of the city council from district seven was declared to be reelected to that to be elected to that office on JULY 11, 2022 the city council adopted resolution 1998 accepting a certified election results reported by the los angeles county registrar recorder county clerk as stated as a result of councilor mckinney sad and unfortunate passing on JULY 21, 2022 to district three seat will become vacant at the time the city council adjourned senada and the new term of that for that seat begins regarding the general municipal election on NOVEMBER eight. Twenty went to the city, held an election for measure l the library special tax measure and measure h the pass the charter amendment initiative petition measure imposing rent control measure l received forty thousand yes votes seven thousand two hundred and eighty no votes with the yes votes receiving eighty four point six percent to be approved measure required a two thirds majority of yes votes and is therefore deemed approved by the voters measure h received twenty five thousand twenty nine yes votes twenty one thousand four hundred ninety three no votes with the yes votes receiving fifty three point eight percent to be approved. Measure h required a fifty percent plus one majority of yes votes and is therefore deemed approved by the voters with forty eight thousand eight hundred fifty two ballots cast and eight hundred eighty eight thousand two hundred ninety one registered voters in pasadena. The voter turnout for the NOVEMBER eight, 2022 general election was fifty five point three percent. The results of the general election in pasadena, incorporated. In the certificate a certificate of canvass prepared by the los angeles county registrar recorder county clerk and submitted the city council as exhibit a to the resolution. It is recommended that the city council accept the canvass prepared by the county registrar's office, adopt the resolution, accept the election results and approve the staff recommendation before you as part of the agenda report. Thank you mayor. Thank you. And before I entertain a motion to accept the results we do have public comment and then we do the first speaker is alan shay followed by jane adam gadahn followed by a shay patel and then aaron levy allen is not here so we'll go to jane that's for two minutes. Go ahead. Thank you. Um, I'm really excited that today uh, measure is uh officially becoming part of the city of pasadena pasadena's charter. I wanted to just address the public and let everyone know that the uh the provisions of the measure will be coming into effect in ten days and although a rental board is not constituted yet, there are several provisions that will impact renters in the city immediately in particular there is a rent rollback meaning that anyone who is a unit that is covered by the rent control part of the measure which generally is most rental units excepting those that are single family homes or which are built after nineteen ninety five if you live in one of those units your rent will revert to its level on MAY 17th twenty twenty one or on the day that you moved into your unit if that day was after MAY 17th twenty twenty one in practice this means that most tenants who will pay rent on JANUARY 1st should have a reduced rent on JANUARY 1st of this year and it's really important that we all assert our rights to this rent roll back and to that end the tenants union has prepared a sample letter to help people inform their landlords about the rent rollback and you can find it on the on the yes on measure website and tenants union website and we'll be circulating it and we had a press conference earlier today and hopefully a toolkit should be linked in some of the reports on that press conference. And I would also encourage the city council to to swiftly move to inform tenants of their rights to this rent roll back since it will be going into effect very, very soon. Yeah, and that's all I wanted to say. I'm really excited for our city today and I'm really grateful to everyone who helped make this happen. Thank you. Ashleigh patel for by aaron levy followed by jill schook who's not yet in the meeting. We still haven't been able to find alan shay so we'll just MR. Patel, welcome and you hear me? Yes. We can go ahead to get great things. This afternoon the pasadena tenants union held a press conference on the steps of city hall to congratulate tenants and inform them of their new rights under measure h. I want to thank jesse revis and jason lyon for committing to a smooth implementation of this law. The other members of this body have not yet answered our request to do so. I urge the council to put aside political differences and commit to a smooth implementation. The city charter has now doubled in and the council has a responsibility to inform residents of their new rights. Of course the tenants union will continue our efforts to educate tenants. But it is the city's job to inform all citizens of the city that significant changes are taking place. We're happy to work with you to help make that happen and we are watching like hawks to make sure that it does. Furthermore, tenants who live in a rent controlled unit are entitled to a rent reduction back to rent charged on MAY 17th twenty twenty one or the day they moved to the unit. If they moved in after MAY 17 they must be informed of this right as soon as possible and we urge the city to use its ample resources to make sure that people know about this significant change. Thank you. Thank you MR. Mitchell. Aaron levy for by jill. Schook, if she checks into the meeting aaron. Hello. Can you hear me? We can go ahead. I'm sure we thank great. Um yeah. I just want to also comment on implementation of better age. We are very excited that the people of testing have spoken and introduced and passed is really important protections for renters in our city and I wanted to second the requests that this body use its communication tools, things like the newsletters that council members like my council member tyrone hampton send out to residents constituents at things like the you know, basically any any tools available to the city to communicate the meaning of this new law to especially tenants. I want to read briefly from the measure in section eighty seven a which essentially is the section on the rents increases allowed under the measure upon the effective date of this article, no landlord shall charge rent for a covered rental unit and an amount that exceeds the sum of the base rent plus any lawful rent increases actually implemented pursuant to this article. So starting in ten days landlords should not be charging rent exceeding the base rent which is the amount charged in seventeen twenty twenty one or whenever the tenancy was started and rent increases pursuant to this article are explained in section eighty eight and so in particular in order to implement rent increase which would be limited to seventy five percent of inflation between MAY twenty twenty one and MAY twenty twenty two in order to implement such a rent increase tenant must be notified of the existence of the article along with the rent increase and notified of their rights to petition against any rent increase in excess of the general adjustment as well as notified of the fact that no rent increase should take effect until the requirements of this subsection have. So your time has expired. thank you. Thank you MR. Lewis. The last speaker would would have been jill shook so I'm confirming she is not checked into the meeting. So with that we have completed public comment on item number two, sir, a motion to approve the city clerk recommendation moved second then moved and seconded questions or comments seen on roll call. COUNCILMAN COUNCILMAN hampton is absent. COUNCILMAN Jones yes. COUNCILMAN Mason yes. COUNCILMAN Massouda yes. COUNCILMAN Reeves. Yes. COUNCILMAN Williams yes. Vice mayor wilson. Yes. Mayor gordo. Yes. The motion is approved without opposition. Thank you. Next we go to presentations I'd like to welcome senator portman teno who's in the chambers with us and I believe we have someone from assembly member holden's office who will be joining us and then we have jenn's weyden from the rboc and then the city manager will present on behalf of the executive leadership team and then I will present to vice mayor wilson a gift from the full city council as we all this is vice mayor wilson's final meeting with us as a member of the city council. I'm not going to say a final meeting. I suspect he'll remain engaged in the community and we'll hear from him on a number of issues important to vice mayor wilson and to his neighbors, residents of passing in general and of course he'll remain engaged in other roles that we hope he will serve. But I personally would like to at the outset thank vice mayor wilson for his many years of dedicated service to pasadena having had the pleasure of working with him. I can tell you he's a very dedicated public servant here in pasadena and beyond and so I'll have more to say when it's part of my formal presentation. So let me recognize senator portman. Teno, in the meantime, thank you. Uh, thank you, MR. Mayor and council members. It is and it's on I said thank you, MR. Mayor and council members it's always an honor to be in this wonderful council chambers in this fantastic building to, uh to speak to you and tonight to congratulate council member ivison on her election and to uh obviously for MR. Wilson's successor as well. Jason lyons. It's an honor to serve in local government and certainly in a city as special as pasadena and so I just want to congratulate them and then as the mayor said ,council member wilson has been a long time tireless advocate for this great city and served well as its council member and vice mayor. And so I just wanted to add my note of appreciation as a partner in government for your time on the city council. Thank you. and to present you with the california state senate certificate commemorating your service to this great city. So if I MAY, MR. Mayor, with your permission, present this to vice mayor wilson on behalf come on down on behalf of the california state senate, I join the pasadena city council in thanking you for your outstanding contributions and the entire pasadena community, your exceptional dedication to our community in leadership role you have undertaken is a continued inspiration to those who have worked alongside you. Your commitment to enhancing the quality of life of the citizens of pasadena is truly appreciated. Congratulation and best wishes. Senator anthony porten, thank you very much. Dominance over there. All right. We got one more over here. One more over here. Your thanks group. Yes. And I will come. So I uh we received from assembly member chris holden's office in place mary wilson, if you'll join me here at the podium and I'll present to you on behalf of assembly member chris holden the assembly certificate and recognition and it reads honoring your service to the city of pasadena as its vice mayor and representing 7th district on the city council and on the numerous city commissions as well as your leadership role in local organizations that serve the community make your voice continue to be heard and your efforts appreciated. Signed assembly member chris holden DECEMBER 12, 2022. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, MR. Holden. Thank you very much. As soon as we got it. Thank you. This way. Thanks. Next I'd like to ask jens weyden to join me. Thank you. Council vice mayor wilson on behalf of the rosebowl operating company we could have done a cert but I think you've got enough certificates and we have some of the best swag around so we decided to swag you up. But in all seriousness, you've been a great driver for the rose bowl. You there's there's a need to continually get better in whatever you do and it wasn't lost on us that had every opportunity. You really pushed our organization to to get better and to think think bigger I think widen the aperture is the term that you use quite a bit and and it did make us better and I think that's I know that's a vision that as we go forward with the rosebowl with really challenging times ahead that will we'll lean on and we'll we'll remember that and and I have no doubt that you also be relatively close and and helping us with other matters as we move forward and we welcome that. And so we as a token of our appreciation, we have a little gift here of some rosebowl items that you'll you'll be able to wear to show people that you were you were involved in making this place better like that back hold the bag up so they know good to know seniority counts for something the next. I'd like to ask the city manager to say a few words on behalf of the executive leadership. MR. City manager, thank you very much. Vice mayor wilson. I actually have three gifts for you today. The first is a very special one that I have a pleasure of as city manager the pleasure of as city manager giving every employee and a member of the city council and everybody else a birthday gift when it's their birthday and I know it's not your birthday yet but one day short tomorrow tomorrow. But let me start by and why don't you come down here because I have three gifts to give you so we won't sing happy birthday but happy early birthday. Thank you for that. Secondly, as the net gets a little bigger here myself as one of your appointee's and michelle norris as your city attorney and mark chomsky in recognition of your many years of dedicated service to the city of pasadena, this is to certify that a city tree will be planted in a park location in a city council district seven in honor of your service and there is an individual's contact information you can contact and then find out where my tree is. That's right. and I expect it to be very fast. You get a lot of walking to from your tree every single answer to that tree. Thank you very much. Let's do and one more one we'll take a picture first, ok? Which way we like the tree the tree that the beautiful water bottle down when you go and you want to be sure this is cool. I love the tree I amenable to this idea if great ok now and then their final gift comes from the whole executive leadership team. This is for you. It is a blanket with city of pasadena. Very nice blanket. I don't know if you want to open it up now but take a quick look at it way. Very cool. Help them hold it up. Oh yeah. You don't have to hold it you get it right. Yeah yeah yeah you go and awesome. Thank you. That's a wonderful I MAY need that outside for an or so on behalf of all of us. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank thank you so much. Good thing I brought my suv today a little stuff for next I have the pleasure of presenting vice mayor wilson with a gift from the city for his service as vice mayor and as we all know this is presented at the end of the vice mayor's vice mayor service as vice mayor and so on behalf of the city of pasadena, I'd like to thank you specifically for your service as vice mayor of pasadena from 20-20 to 2022 with great appreciation from your council colleagues and your leadership as vice mayor of the city of pasadena. This is presented to you on DECEMBER 12th of twenty twenty two thousand. Thank you, mayor ray drop this is I like this. Thank you so much. Check that out. And next on behalf of the city council, I'd like to present a gift but before I do that let me recognize another vice mayor and from the city of burbank who's visiting with this today, constantine anthony. Thank you, vice mayor and I think you're soon rotating to the role of mayor of burbank. So welcome and congratulations . Let me begin my presentation of the council's gift by recognizing andy wilson, vice mayor wilson for his years of service. You know, I was here when we first appointed andy and then watched him really develop as a member of the city council into a leader on the city council. I remember andy's first budget hearing and at the and he joined us just as we were finishing the budget hearings and decided that he was going to at the end of the process suggest a stop sign be inserted into the budget and a cut all of the members of the city council by surprise because we completed the budget. We're taking the the final vote and he suddenly says, well, you I'd like to insert a stop sign. I think you remember andy oakland and the the entire staff nearly fell over the council say who's who is this guy doesn't understand we're we're going to approve it today and as things got a little hectic and he looks at me and says what do I do next after after of course members of the council voiced their opinion that the budget was done. The city manager did the same thing and andy says what do I do next? And you know, certainly growing from that moment to one of the leaders on this city council and really a leader in the region whose widely recognized as someone who not only understands the budgeting process but understands the role as a city council members to represent the people of your district as well as people citywide as a member of this body. And so I've I've watched andy grow into a very strong member of the city council always doing the right thing for residents of his district. But also keeping in mind that as a member of this body we have to work together in order to ensure that we're doing the right thing for the right reasons for the entire city of pasadena. And so andy's done that with distinction, always keeping an eye on civility, ensuring that we're all working together and I take great pride in calling andy a friend and and a colleague and thank him for his many years of dedicated service not just to our collective constituents but to the city of pasadena as an institution and also to all of our families in the city of pasadena who have benefited from your stable leadership as a member of this body. So thank you, vice mayor wilson, council member wilson andy wilson. So come on down and this is a gift that I'd like to present to you that all of the members of the city council have contributed to purchasing in this picture of one of our favorite if not our favorite building as members of the city council. Thank you, mayor. That's gorgeous. And MAY I just add that the the photographer is thomas almos who's well known and well respected and is a cherished and signed photo spread of tovo speaker that photo this together picture I think we're going to take a formal picture afterwards but if any will be right oh no, no before we go downstairs. Yeah. Did we want to take one? Well what do we do that is part of the formal picture because we never took a formal picture as a council previously this council because of covid we weren't in the room. So I will before we take that picture invite vice mayor wilson to mayor. If you worked, did you want to let the public comment go? Oh, no, thank you. And then we can let vice mayor wilson so first to speak for public comment is margaret mclaughlin followed by me? Anderson. Hello, marty. go ahead. Hi, colleagues and friends. I wanted to take a moment to add my voice to the chorus of voices in thanks and recognition of council member and his service. When I was on the council, new members often came through neighborhood advocacy or we're lawyers but andy didn't come to the council in the usual way. This background in computer sciences and technology he brought new ideas and in fact a new language to the council after being appointed to the seat for a two year term council member wilson faced a bitter and negative campaign battle to retain seek another term yet he never had negative even in the face of an expensive and hostile campaign environment and he brought a fresh face, fresh background and indeed fresh vocabulary to the diet on the municipal services committee we began to hear more words like dashboard and metrics and data and his ideas brought the council more meaningful and interesting ways to provide accountability to our constituents and his interest on the council were varied and served his constituents well whether it was traffic, historic preservation, essential municipal services or housing and he has always taken every issue to heart and gave every reasonable idea a hearing. Thank you andy for your service and for your unflagged representation of your district and the city and the city as a whole. My best wishes thank you, margaret. Thank you. And will have MISS Anderson join us. Thank you, MR. Damski. My name is MISS Anderson and I'm here representing the pasadena complete streets coalition. We are pasadena's advocacy group for a complete streets which is the idea that we are all entitled to streets that as public civic spaces promote a variety of safe, healthy and sustainable ways to get around our city. Andy wilson, in your service as council member you have not only embraced good ideas but also have done your homework, dug into the data, ask difficult questions, engaged in dialog and stayed open to competing ideas and creative solutions. You embrace modern tools to make this city one where all its people can thrive. These are complete streets values to in particular we love that you among other things apparently had the guts to ask for a stop sign your first budget hearing at that you famously walk to as many of your pasadena meetings as you could that you were the first council member to say yes to organizing district walks for our annual OCTOBER event you participated in walk to school day at mckinley elementary school. You supported the creation of the union street protected bike lanes scheduled to open this spring. You worked with dotti to get new crosswalks to key streets so people can better access their schools, businesses and goldline in the early days the pandemic you worked with dot to try to make our intersection signals more favorable to pedestrians when we weren't driving in support of the arroyo link proposal at mzee and council not only voicing your support at david wolfe's presentation to council in twenty nineteen but then organizing a walk with city staff this summer to explore the nuts and bolts of extending the proposed path to the rose bowl. You truly walk the walk MR. Damski. The box please. Therefore on behalf of the pasadena complete streets coalition I am pleased to present you with our first ever golden shoelaces award for setting the gold standard for leadership in complete streets for the people of pasadena. We'd also like to recognize your dog and for the many miles of sidewalk his little paws have lived with you for his service. We present our golden bone award. Thank you so much. We look forward to seeing the both of you strolling the city as private citizens. Thank you and thank you to all the complete streets advocates and members. It's been a pleasure working with you mayor and council that completes public comment on this item. Now we can turn to vice mayor I'm sorry, did you want to go or other council member is going to make comments or yeah. We want to make other council comments first or allow maybe allow vice mayor wilson to speak first and then circle back. He probably wants the last word ok, especially after he hears me for sure. I like the last word. Ok, MR. Madison will know. Mayor, I think you know along with yourself I've served you know, the entire time with vice mayor council member wilson and have really benefited from his services in his district the entire city have and he's famous for walking of course and many of those walks he would sort of like the north koreans or something transgress into my district and then I'd get a text or an email, you know, with a complaint or a problem, a hot spot that we suggestion suggested. But I was grateful for that and I am a little sad that you we had a PRESIDENT's club of council members kennedy, wilson and madison who were all named if not after presidents with the same name and now I apparently will be the last member of the PRESIDENT's club. But andy brought a real business sense to the city council and especially serving on edtech as we did for so many years. It was respect that's really needed because so much of what we want to do for our residents and in our city requires that economic engine, that vitality economic development. So we're really going to MISS Yandi and I know that you'll be very involved in the community from here forward. But thank you for your tremendous service. Thank you, steve. Thank you, MR. Matsuda. China unmuted. Andi ismir I really enjoyed sitting next to you for your first five years on council and that's of course before the pandemic you were a great leader, a friend and a true professional. I enjoyed really working with you because you have your humor and you are very honest. You're a straight shooter, andy, and I know you at least I know all the council members feel that way and and the people in your district feels that way. You're a very honest person and I really appreciate you your business sense, your terrific understanding of innovation, technology, economic issues and urban planning. We all learned a lot from you so take care and I wish you the best and I know I'll be seeing you around. Thank you, andy. Thank you very much, jean. Next council member woolens followed by councilor rivasi. Thank you so it's been great sitting next to you because you come into the council chambers so that's been really fun. I knew you before from the convention center days we were both on the convention center board. That was the first time I met you. I will really MISS Your thoughtful analysis and really trying to do what's best and coming up with a balance and a compromise that's very difficult to do especially in this day and age. But you do it very well and very eloquently and back it up with data and numbers. I'll MISS Having my fellow land-use wonk on the on the council with me as well as finance wonk but I will definitely see you around and at events you're always at the events as well just like me and it's been really fun and great hanging out with you and we'll see you at more events and I will see you at the burbank airport. Congratulations. Thank you felicia. Thank you, MISS Rios. Thank you, mayor. Of course I echo everything that's already been said but I really wanted just highlight or or give even more attention to you just your collegiality and how you bring everyone in. Make sure we're having a conversation that everyone's heard and really build consensus. I can you know, of course on nsc which you chaired and we served on together. But one highlight for me was the council meeting where we reached the consensus on church zoning which was looking like for a minute maybe we wouldn't but I think you really had a huge part in bringing us all together to get something done. So I wanted to thank you of course for all your years of service and just really working with so well with all of us. So thank you and congratulations. Thank you so much. yes. Ok, next ok mr hampton is joining us. Yes go ahead. Ah we are I'm sorry I don't oh we're for some reason I was I'm the PRESIDENT The meeting started there. I apologize that we we are thinking vice mayor wilson for his service to the city. Oh yes. Andy, I just want to get well first and foremost, you know, thank you so much for your service to our city as a resident of the city also feel you know, as a as a member of the city council I still feel like I am being represented by the whole city council as a whole no matter how we vote on things. And andy, you've been an amazing representative of your district not only of your district but the whole entire city. Your knowledge your connection to those within pasadena is amazing and I've learned so much from you and I just want to you know, thank you for your service to your district and your community as well as to me and the whole city council. Now you get to get your your weekends back, which is probably something you and your wife and your family are going to enjoy. But I know that you're going to be extremely involved and I'm probably pretty sure that based on your level of involvement I'm pretty sure that we will not be this will not be the last time we hear from you at all. Of course you will be serving our airport together but I'm sure you'll be riding in public comment so enjoy your time. Thank you so much, andy for your friendship, your your knowledge and your service to our city. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. And now we turn to mayor wilson for some comments. Thank you, mayor, for the opportunity and I promise not to use any f bombs. I understand those were high demand yesterday and city of los angeles. So breathe easy it I have to say it is truly been an honor and privilege to serve the wonderful residents of pasadena in close collaboration with our professional staff and you my colleagues I always thought of myself first as a public servant and a politician second ,every day I remind myself when I wake up my commitment and obligation to serve our amazing committee community to the best of my ability and a city as diverse and complex as pasadena I've come to realize that progress only comes through collaboration and compromise. I suspect the path forward is likely a lot easier in smaller, more homogeneous cities like samarian or kenyata. Those are nice cities but there ain't no pasadena. We have so many worthy and often competing agendas that we must navigate and reconcile for example more affordable housing without overidentification sensitive community policing while keeping our neighborhoods and streets safe, respecting the rights of our own house neighbors while maintaining quality of life for citizens and our businesses enhancing walkability and biking while acknowledging that cars still play a significant role for many people. None of these issues lend themselves to all or nothing solutions but instead require a delicate balance of competing interest. We must find reasonable pass forward avoiding paralysis while knowing that some advocates on evilly dissatisfied with compromise, however, is the world has become more polarized. The ability and benefits of honest collaboration and compromise are at risk rather than focusing on improving the human condition we now find politicians and activists often mired in dogma and factionalism too frequently opting for name calling rather than civil discourse. The recent fiasco in the city of los angeles is both grotesque and telling this is a losing game in my view I think we must serve our communities by creatively fighting paths forward which requires a collective and coordinated collaboration among the elected and the staff, advocates and residents at large honesty, integrity, transparency, and civility are critical prerequisites for such an approach as a prime example of such collaboration, I like to highlight to activists as a wonderful example. I point out jill shook and anthony magnus's like them. i am personally deeply committed to creative housing solutions though they are certainly times where we don't agree. But rather than becoming combative they doubled down on education and thoughtful engagement. If that fails they don't assume it's a result of some grand conspiracy or nefarious deeds but accept that well-intentioned minds can also pursue different paths towards a greatly value their collaboration and other many committed advocates who adopt similarly constructive approaches. You indeed make us better as policymakers and our community better all overall. Thank you. Similarly I see good governments akin to team sport. We must all work together. Passing the ball to the team can score on behalf of our community. I lead the staff for being a critical part of this team and encourage them to continue to be creative and bold. I dare not start recognizing specific staff members by name as there are so many of you have shown exemplary leadership and unwavering commitment to our community that being said, I do want to specifically recognize my incredible field deputy panthera. I read for her wonderful service through my seven and a half years and previously from the many years with my predecessor terry tarnak and said tyler would also like to briefly acknowledge each of my talented city council colleagues justin jones, jonesy though our past has only crossed briefly I admire your focus, intellectual rigor and positive attitude. I know you will go places. Felicia williams. You're indeed a force of nature you're not afraid to get in the details or ask the hard questions. I'm super excited to continue our service together at the burbank airport. Just revisit your commitment to progressive causes is amazing. I know you govern from the heart and appreciate humanity you bring to the council tyrone hampton it it's been exciting to serve with someone like you who share such a deep passion for economic development and so highly valued the impact of jobs. Your positive disposition is always so uplifting. Gene massouda I've always been impressed by your deep commitment to the priorities of district four and your consistent and gentle, kind and gentle nature. You're so lucky to have joanne by your side on this journey of service. Steve madison I've been continuously impressed by your mastery of the council role, especially the wisdom you bring to various legal and litigation matters which he always seem seemed to have too many. Mayor gordo, I'm grateful for your guidance and your mentorship even in that first meeting when I was working with the budget in your consistent positive attitude, even faced with difficult challenges, I feel so lucky to have served with such a wonderful set of colleagues that perhaps one day I would join you once again. But for now I'm committed to exploring new high impact opportunities to serve our media. Our amazing city and our dynamic region. So in closing I challenge all of you to continue to champion your best ideas every day. Never let the political process prevent you from bringing your game. I assure you that our city will never be all it can be if we sit by cautiously on the sidelines. So be bold and creative and pursue in your pursuit of community betterment. Myself and others will be cheering you on. Pasadena is truly an amazing community but only thrives. We all work collectively. I've tried to live and model this approach purposely during my years of service. I urge the staff, my colleagues, our new city manager marquez and our community as a whole to continue to nurture this winning strategy. It has indeed been a great pleasure and honor. I will MISS Serving our wonderful city and working so closely with all of you. Thank you and GOD bless. Ok, thank you vice mayor wilson and again on behalf of all residents of passing the thank you for your service and your continued service for those of you who MAY not know in the public vice mayor wilson continues his service on behalf of the city as a member of the airport authority and so will be will be hearing more and more about you and the airport authority in the future. So thank you. Before I ask for a motion to adjourn canadia, I'd like to also recognize council member justin jones for his service in in and answering the call of duty when we tragically lost council member john kennedy. It's it's of course a pleasure to serve with you on this council and I look forward to working with you and serving with you in years to come. So thank you and will we'll see you soon. So with that I would ask for a motion to adjourn scindia so moved back in second set I heard council member joan zoback and so moved by vice mayor wilson who appears to be in a hurry to get out of here and seconded by council member jones local council member hampton yes. Councilor jones yes. Councilor madsen yes. Councilor massouda yes. Customer reeves yes. Customer williams yes. Vice mayor wilson yes. Mayor gordon yes. The motion is approved without opposition group. Thank you. Thank you all. And next the council will resist the organizational meeting to conduct swearing in ceremony of a newly elected members of the city council. The swearing in will occur in the rotunda downstairs and then we'll return here to the council chambers I will call the meeting to order. Ok, welcome everyone. We were upstairs in the chambers thinking vice mayor wilson for his many years of service and I'd like to just one more time say to now retired vice mayor wilson or mayor of vice vice mayor or whatever he turns into. Thank you for your years of service and to our great city. We're very fortunate to have had you, uh so now we now we tu attention to our new newly elected, um, members of the city council. The I tell people that serving on the passing of city council is a tremendous honor. Uh, and it's it's certainly an honor that comes with tremendous responsibility. Uh, we have a responsibility to serve not just our constituents in the city of pasadena but uh in our or your respective districts. Um, but all of the residents of pasadena uh and we have a responsibility to work together to achieve the goals of the city and always do what's in the best interest of residents of the city of pasadena. And I've certainly I certainly have a lot of confidence, uh, that the two of you uh, council member elect soon to be council member jason line and council member elect jessica riva's and soon to be again council member uh jessica riva's. So we we you know the other thing I say to people is it takes a lot of guts to put your name on the ballot. It takes a lot of guts to hold yourself out to be judged as someone who believes they can make a difference for all residents of pasadena. And so I'd like to thank everyone who's taking the time to say, you know, the people of pasadena deserve the best city council and put their name on the ballot and hold themselves out to be judged and you know, it's not an easy thing to do. The two of you have done that and understand what I'm talking about and here you are. Uh, you said to the residents of your district that you could do the job and that they should elect you and trust you and they did and so here you are. Congratulations to the two of you and to your family and friends and supporters and to our collective constituents. Uh, for having selected two good very good representatives for your districts and for the city in general. So I will now invite the city clerk to come in and make it official and swear the two of you in raise your right hand I speak your name jason lyon do solemnly affirm do solemnly affirm that I will support and defend that I will support and defend the constitution of the united states, the constitution of the united states constitution of the state of california and the constitution of the state of california against all enemies, against all enemies foreign and domestic, foreign and domestic that I will bear true faith and allegiance. I will bear true faith and allegiance to the constitution of the united states, to the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the here to california and to the constitution of the state of california that this obligation that I take this obligation freely without any legislation, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion or purpose of evasion and that I will welcome faithfully and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties discharge the duties of the house in pasadena council upon which without and upon which to enter. Congratulations. Thank you. Now will starting with uh council member riva's ask each of our newly minted council members to say a few words. Thank you mayor. And I'll be brief because it's too cold right now. All right. So good afternoon everyone. I'd like to start by thanking my family, namely my husband alex, our daughter natalia for their love, support and patience. They've put up with a lot over the years first my nine years in the army reserve which meant weekends, weeks and sometimes months away from home and now my service on the city council which doesn't require the same amount of time away from home but still a very significant commitment. I was of course honored and humbled to be appointed to the council back in FEBRUARY of twenty twenty one and when I decided to run to continue serving I was grateful that I was able to work with a campaign manager who knows our city so well. So I would like to think jackie robinson who we all know served as vice mayor and council member for her expertize was in wisdom through the course of the campaign. It MAY have been her easiest campaign since I was running unopposed but it was surprisingly still a lot of work. So I also want to be sure to thank all of my endorsers, donors, volunteers who helped us reach neighbors to get out the vote. And it was really important to me that I do that even though I was running unopposed I wanted to make sure everyone knew who I am and what my deal is. I want to make sure that pasadena is a place that works for everyone. That's not just a campaign slogan. It's a statement of my strongly and deeply held values and guides everything I do as a council member. Passantino works well for many of us probably most of us here today. But so many residents are struggling and their experiences that need to be centered in our policymaking that's I was proud to support hero pay for our essential workers in grocery stores and pharmacies. They were not only their health but their family's health and so higher rates of infection and death along many of us to stay safe at home during our first year of the pandemic before the vaccine was available and instead of a sharing record profits with their workers, the largest grocery chain spent billions in stock buybacks instead. It's why I oppose ending our eviction moratorium before our own local emergency order lifted. And while the council still continue to remotely and a recent report by our housing department staff explained since the sunset of the city's eviction moratorium the volume of requests from us for assistance from passing tenants received by the housing rights center and the housing department has increased markedly. Recent data released by the liberty hill foundation shows los angeles county eviction filings have surpassed pandemic levels. It's why I opposed removing campaign contribution limits and support significantly lower limits the current forty nine hundred dollar amount for many reasons but especially so that regular working folks who don't have wealthy personal networks that they can tap into to fundraise are not at such a stark structural disadvantage in our elections. And it's why I was proud to endorse measures which will prevent excessively large rent increases that amount to de facto eviction notices and will provide real eviction protections for renters who are the majority of district five residents and the city as a whole. None of these are radical positions and have wide support throughout the community so I look forward to a new term with colleagues old and new because together I know that we will be responsive to the community and work towards making palestine a place that truly does work for everyone. Thank you. I will likewise be brief because I'm shivering up here before I forget I want to thank my family for your love and support. I am so enormously proud of all of you and I would be remiss if I did not say happy birthday to my husband today is his fiftieth birthday and for those who know it's not surprising that I found a way to make it about me so you know, the mayor said a moment ago it's a it's an enormous honor and responsibility to serve the people of this city and I take that responsibility very, very seriously. I decided to run for city council because I am deeply committed to the notion that our elected officials should be servant leaders and not people who are trying to build a career out of government. And that's what I'm here to do. I'm here to as best I can faithfully serve the people of pasadena and of district seven and it is an enormous and humbling honor. I want to thank my predecessor andy wilson for his dedication and service to our district. He has been a model of servant leadership and of the other day he called himself a radical centrist which I thought was just beautiful because he he is careful to listen to every perspective and to try his best to incorporate it into the work of the city and I will follow that model. So thank you all for being here for your dedication to the city and for your faith in me. I hope I live up to it. Thank you. Thank you both and welcome welcome back and welcome council member line. Oh I get to be the first to call you council member council member elect. So with that again thank you everyone for making the time. The council will now recess to the council chambers again congratulations to all of the families family members of our elected council members and to your to friends and supporters. Congratulations to you. It takes a great sacrifice for those of us who serve on the city council. We know it takes a tremendous sacrifice on the part of our family and our friends and support group and so on behalf our newly elected council members and on behalf of residents of pasadena, thank you for supporting them in the work that they do mayor, we are live uh we have councilmember Masuda via the virtual meeting and all other council members present now we are at a point in time in our meeting where we nominate and elect vice mayor to the vice mayor position before we do that let me just county council member hampton's presence reminds me that we should recognize the john muir high school football team for a tremendous performance this year. Friend andre coleman out there, enthusiast basically responding because he's a must think and I want to congratulate of course MR. Hampton who also is a graduate alum of miller high school. You know, it's it's it's it's a great achievement on the part of the team, the coach, the supportive student body and the principal DR. Gray who did a great job guiding his school, his athletic department. So I'd like to congratulate the john miller mustangs on a very job very well done to get to the state championship is is no easy task and to compete for the state championship is a very difficult task. But the they did so and so congratulations to the john muir mustangs and congratulations to the parents all of those players who were very supportive every step of the way and and ensured that their kids could compete and compete for the state championship. So with that I'll turn it over to the city clerk. Why are we going into the election the vice mayor? yes. So according to the script uh, I would turn it back to you, mayor. Thank you. I'm just making sure you're reading from the same script. Yes, sir. So let me first record recognize that we have a vacancy on the city council today because of the passing of our friend john kennedy and I think it's appropriate to recognize that john kennedy served the council and the city well with distinction and we certainly MISS Him and his service and contributions to pasadena and now we will in a few days look to vote not to replace as many of us said council member kennedy, but to have someone serve out the term that he was elected to and but for his passing john kennedy council member kennedy would have served another four year term on his council. So with that I will open the discussion in the meeting to the election of vice mayor. Now is the time for the city council to conduct the selection of vice mayor in accordance with the city charter all organizational and its organizational meeting, the charter reads the city council shall elect from among the council members the vice mayor who shall exercise the powers and perform the duties of mayor during the latter's absence or disability. The city council will now conduct the election for the office of vice mayor for the term of office starting on DECEMBER 12th 20-20 to to december 9th 2024 nominations are now in order and I will receive nominations. MR. Mayor, I raised some questions last week so if you don't mind I'd like to MR. Him to have his name in the queue though MR. Hampton had his name in the queue and I don't want it around before we did you have questions, MR. Hampton or there are some questions informational questions if those questions need to be answered before. But I just would like to make sure that I'm back in the queue. Yes, the questions are answered well and to your point of congratulating john, your high school is actually congratulating the city as a whole. Yeah, those young men went out to the state championship and they represented pasadena extremely well and I just want to say thank you to all of you. I mean all of us to be congratulated we should be extremely proud of each and every one of those young men. Also there were women coaches as well that had something to do with making sure that our our john your mustangs were able to make it to the state championship, look forward to seeing another one of our schools make it to a state championship if not the john mustangs again next year. So super exciting exciting times for even passing in junior high school districts. So yeah, after the questions are answered I like to make a motion for for vice mayor. Thank you. but by when you say another school you past in high school. No I said another school you know blair you know marshall of also cal cicero city just so poorly you're that it is going down the list you know. Yeah we got you MR. Madison you had some quietly echo the comments about meurent mayor. You were really stand up to support your crosstown rival because they made it to the state and I know that made MR. Hampton and all of us very, very pleased about those are bragging rights for the rest of my time here in the city in general. So I no, I was at that turkey tussle. Now don't go. Okay, you know what is all about the balance back? It's not about where you bid. It's where you're going. Apropos of that mayor, you know, I did ask some questions last week and I've had sort of colloquy with the clerk and I just wanted to offer some comments about the vice mayor position. You know, I think for a long time we viewed it as being largely ceremonial and let me just say at the outset I will support you whomever this council and I think it's very important that we do come together. The mayor and I've talked about a retreat for this council once fully constituted. I think the mayor is committed to that. I think it would be good and appropriate with the with the comments tonight around the reorgs and the need for the council to work work together. But I think that the passing of john kennedy was a painful lesson and a lot of things but also sort of how we've ended up in a place through a series of of factors that MAY have led to some unintended consequences. And let me just amplify on that. So in the city charter and the city municipal code there's really very little that speaks to the vice mayor position and I think that is largely consistent with a history where we would have an organizational meeting pretty much every year and traditionally we would have one year terms. There was a custom and practice of appointing the same person for two successive one year terms and there was a long tradition of appointing the most senior member who had not previously served. Now if you go back far enough you will see when we are in the old rotating system. My understanding is there were some people more at the mayoral level but they could rotate and serve more than once. And I think if you go out and look at the at the pictures you'll see some examples of that that we have in the four yet. But what the charter says in section 407 is that you know, the council will select from council members a vice mayor and so the only qualification is that it be a city council member and then I think the the charter and under section two zero five point zero five zero of the code provide that in the event of absence or disability, the vice mayor shall execute all the powers of the mayor. Now I was vice mayor beginning 17 years ago when bill bogarde was the mayor and that was like being the maytag repairman. You know, you were never caught. You never ever needed and I'm sure it's like that now. But what I think MR. Kennedy is passing revealed is that we don't have the ability to to have a special election so for example, if the if the mayor were offered an ambassadorship you next month or something or chose to do something else, you know, whoever we've chosen for vice mayor would be the mayor of pasadena for the remainder of the term and my sort of informal poll is that's probably not what we originally intended and that we probably want to have the city clerk look that as part of an ongoing effort to have charter reform. I would also say, you know, we have to really impressive council members that I think would be next under that rota, that rotation and MISS Williams and MISS Rivas came in at about the same time. They're both about two years in MR. Lyons. Very impressive. He's about twenty minutes in you and and so you know, there's no question that we have highly qualified, impressive people to serve. But I will tell you when I went back and looked we have never in our city's history near as I could tell had a vice mayor who hadn't served at least four years on the city council number one and number two had not been reaffirmed by his or her constituents in usually almost always a reelection or in the case the rare cases of an appointment an election then following his or her service on the council and I would submit that those are important checks and balances, especially where as I said now because of moving to the county elections system ,we only have one organizational meeting every two years and we have no off ramp. We don't have any way to address a situation and in fact if if again the mayor decided to go do something else we wouldn't have and I'm not suggesting and I don't believe you are an near as I can tell but you know, if that situation none of us is bigger than the institution and again john's passing is a painful memory and lesson in the idea that things don't always work out the way the way that we want. So I would really ask that we as part of an ongoing review of the charter that we examine that aspect too and maybe we leave it the way it is. But my sense is nobody ever realized that we would be in this situation with the county elections and the consequences probably unintended that we we would have in that situation. So I'm anxious personally to see charter reform at least discussed and pursued and I really strongly encourage that mayor but also say in its self-serving to me but I think you know if one serves for a long time there shouldn't be a ban on serving as vice mayor again you and I think some people interpret the current practice as essentially like a de facto ban and that that I think is something else that that reasonable minds could differ about again and special especially in light of the fact that we've always chosen someone that's been at least one lap around the field, if you will, has served at least four years and like I said has been reaffirmed by their constituents as being someone that's committed and dedicated to to service. And again, that's not to say that anyone at this dais isn't to the contrary. You know, I believe that all all of us is so thank you, mayor. And I know that's probably consistent with andy's description of me as a legal policy wonk but there's something there to study, believe me. Thank you, MR. Madison. I see two members in the ok, MR. Massouda, did you have a comment to make you first before I turned to MR. So let me just say I appreciate the comments made by MR. Madison. It is you know, it's that change when we went to when we moved away from the municipal elections is a change that we recognize but didn't quite see all of the implications that you that you highlight. MR. Massouda. Thank you, mayor. I appreciate that what's been said. I appreciate what MR. Madison said because I had no idea that either you're qualified to be the vice mayor without serving at least one term. I thought that was probably a minimum of what you would have to serve. It doesn't mean that you can't serve as vice mayor as far as maybe not having the experience but I think that that would be a pretty good role. I would think and I'm sort of surprised that we don't have anything like that. I I thank you, mayor, for reading out what the charter read that we as a council decide who's who gets to be vice mayor so I have not talked to the other council members and but I I I'd be struggling with this that someone could be nominated and not have served at least one term. Thank you, MR. Hampton. Oh, thank you. You know, I have to say I agree with the comments that are made. I understand that we have a process and the process has been in place for a while and maybe we can think about those things. And I think as you mentioned, COUNCILMAN Medicine you know the highlight of our dear friend john kennedy did bring these to the forefront. I mean like now you're thinking we're thinking about all of the little details, you know, election there should be election versus us making the appointments. I think that we should have a significant conversation not just and actually make some change to have charter reform. There's other things that need to be reformed as well. I'm through a charter change but you know, this is almost like the ninth hour and you know, I don't want any you know, to be respectful of all my colleagues. This is a process that we've had in place and I do think that we should have that discussion and we should have that discussion soon. But with that being said, I'd like to nominate a council member. Felicia williams is our next vice mayor. I think she's going to do an amazing