West Pasadena Residents’ Association

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The 2023 West Pasadena Residents’ Association Annual Meeting

 

The West Pasadena Residents’ Association (wpra.net) convened its 2023 annual meeting on Wednesday, May 31, 5:30 – 8:30 p.m., in the Maranatha High School Student Center, 169 S. St. John Ave.

5:30 p.m.: Meet and greet

The evening started with an information fair (and sweet treats) featuring representatives from multiple city agencies, community groups and organizations exhibiting their services and programs. In addition, those attending the meeting had the opportunity to rub elbows with a number of local leaders including:

  • Victor Gordo, Pasadena Mayor
  • Steve Madison, Pasadena Councilmember (District 6)
  • Kathryn Barger, LA County Supervisor (District 5)
  • Chris Holden, State Assemblymember (District 41)
  • Anthony Portantino, State Senator (District 25)

6:30 p.m.: Business program

The theme of the meeting was “Pasadena 101: Meet our new City leaders.” Those who attended had a unique access to leaders of a number of critical city services, and an opportunity to discover more effective ways to access City services, resolve issues, get information, help shape City policy, and, of course, help make Pasadena an even better place to live, work, play, and raise a family. 

Delivering this information and guidance was:

  • Miguel Márquez, city manager. Before joining the City of Pasadena in 2022, Márquez served as the chief operating officer of Santa Clara County. Previously he served as an associate justice of the California Sixth District Court of Appeals, county counsel for Santa Clara County, general counsel of the San Francisco Unified School District, and deputy city attorney in the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office. A native of Sacramento, Márquez received a law degree from UC Berkeley Law School, a master’s degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Stanford University.

  • Sidney Jackson, general manager of Pasadena Water and Power. Jackson has a long tenure in the water-and-power industries. Before joining PWP, he served as the chief operations officer and deputy general manager at Austin (Texas) Energy, and chief operations officer at Rochester (New York) Public Utility. Jackson earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Kansas State University and a master’s in business administration from the University of Missouri.

  • Tim McDonald, acting director of Libraries and Information Services. After 11 years with the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, McDonald joined the Pasadena Library System in 2016 as manager of Library Services. Subsequently he was promoted to acting deputy director of Libraries and Information Services. McDonald earned bachelor’s degrees from Swarthmore College and DePaul University, and a master’s degree in Library Information Services from the University of North Texas.

All are  welcome to join us for this — our 61st — annual meeting.

The 2022 West Pasadena Residents’ Association Annual Meeting

All photos by Bob Reiter

For the first time since 2019, the West Pasadena Residents’ Association convened its annual meeting in person without assistance from Zoom.

WPRA Treasurer Blaine Cavena (above left), serving as the master of ceremonies, opened the meeting with presentation of the colors, led by the Blair High School Junior ROTC Color Guard.

District 6 Councilmember Steve Madison presented outgoing President Dan Beal (above left) with a Certificate of Recognition for “his outstanding contributions to the community and exceptional leadership from 2018 to 2022.” Cavena followed that up with a presentation of the ceremonial gavel (above right), on behalf of the WPRA, for Beal’s extraordinary service.

Special guests who attended include Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo (top left), District 6 Councilmember Steve Madison (top right), Pasadena Police Department Interim Chief Jason Clawson (above left) and Pasadena Fire Department Chief Chad Augustin (above right).

Evan Davis

The membership elected the WPRA’s 2022-2023 Board of Directors, and learned that Evan Davis (right) would be the 2022-2023 WPRA president. Members of the 2022-2023 WPRA Board of Directors are: Geoffrey Baum, Dan Beal, Dave Bise, Blaine Cavena, Evan Davis, Pete Ewing, Donna Furey, Avram Gold*, Mic Hansen, Kenyon Harbison, Joan Hearst, Susan Kinney, Mark Mastromatteo, Nancy Walker*, and Linda Zinn.

*Avram Gold and Nancy Walker have since resigned from the Board. After expressing gratitude to Gold and Walker for their considerable service to the organization, the Board appointed two new directors: Carlos Javalera and Lee Wallace.

This year’s annual meeting theme: “Pasadena and the tech revolution: Where we came from, how we grew and where we are going.”

Program moderator Avram Gold opened the themed portion of the meeting with a video featuring a series of historical images (see video above) that celebrated where we came from and how we’ve grown since then.

The following tech visionaries were asked to address why so many tech startups are coming to Pasadena, what’s actually happening in those fecund tech incubators, and how they view the future (from left) :

  • Julie Schoenfeld, an entrepreneur-in- residence at Caltech
  • Moderator Avram Gold
  • Aaron Fyke, founder and managing partner of Thin Line Capital
  • Hallie Kuhn, vice president Alexandria Ventures
  • Robbie Nock, associate vice president of entrepreneurship and assistant professor in the humanities and science at ArtCenter College of Design.