Events

Annual meetings and periodic social activities. Most recent at top.

The 2023 West Pasadena Residents’ Association Annual Meeting

2 May 2023

WPRA to host its 61st annual meeting on May 31, 2023

The West Pasadena Residents’ Association (wpra.net) invites you to join us — in person — for our 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. [Free parking is available next to the school on S. St. John: general parking is underground (beneath the athletic field); handicapped parking is on the surface lot.]

5:30 p.m.: Meet and greet

The evening starts 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 will have an 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 is “Pasadena 101: Meet our new City leaders.” We hope to provide 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 will be:

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

13 Jul 2022

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).

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.

The 2021 West Pasadena Residents’ Association Annual Meeting

13 Jun 2021

On May 27, 2021, the West Pasadena Residents’ Association held its virtual annual meeting and informational program. This year we took a deep dive into the current topic many people are concerned about: our state’s housing shortage and how it severely affects California’s urban centers.

Two video program versions were placed on YouTube for public viewing.

CLICK HERE for the replay of the entire annual meeting.

CLICK HERE for the housing content only without WPRA’s business segment.

We kicked off our meeting with Dan Beal’s president’s message…

…and then we presented WPRA’s Community Service Awards to Rosa Laveaga, former Arroyo Seco Project Supervisor and to Priscilla Taylor who recently retired from our board after serving 26 years.

WPRA Board Director, Joan Hearst & Rosa Laveaga

We elected our 2021 to 2022 Board of Directors and moved on to our discussion topic: The Housing Crisis: How do we build our way out of the housing shortage, and especially affordable housing?

We started our focus on our local planning challenges within Pasadena, expanding the conversation to the LA County area and then widening the analysis even further to state legislation. Moderating was Avram Gold, WPRA Vice President of Communications. WPRA Treasurer, Blaine Cavena handled the webinar engineering as Tech Director.

WPRA’s treasure Blaine Cavena — Avram Gold, Moderator

Our lineup of introductory speakers were:

Pasadena Mayor, Victor Gordo

Pasadena District 6 Councilmember, Steve Madison

LA County Supervisor, Kathryn Barger

and our State’s District 41, Assembly member Chris Holden

Mayor Victor Gordo
Council member Steve Madison
LA County Supervisor,
Cathryn Barger
State Assembly member,
Chris Holden

We then followed these four reports with a panel discussion. Our special guest panelists were:

Our District 25 State Senator, Anthony Portantino

Pasadena’s Director of Planning and Community Development, David Reyes

Executive Director of nonprofit Heritage Housing Partners, Charles Loveman. Jr.

and nonprofit Abode Communities President & CEO, Robin Hughes.

Topics discussed were: more production vs the reach for more land, the lack of current state funding and existing county subsidies, the struggle to finance affordable housing, state vs local control, gentrification, communication breakdowns in Sacramento, developer influence and lobbying, and ending with the question: Will there really be a reduced demand for cars in the future?

WPRA’s 2020 Annual Open Board Meeting

1 Dec 2020

Online though Zoom – November 17, 2020

WPRA’s 2020 Annual Open Board Meeting panel discussion

PASADENA AND DISASTERS – Just before and just after

On November 17, 2020, the West Pasadena Residents’ Association hosted its annual open meeting, a webinar featuring a presentation of special guests, our president’s message, the election of incoming officers and directors, then culminating with our informational panel discussion about disaster preparedness.

Avram Gold, WPRA VP and MC of program — *Avram Gold, WPRA Communications VP*

Avram Gold, WPRA vice president, opened the program with a welcome to all and the introduction of: (from left to right) Mayor Terry Tornek, Mayor-elect Victor Gordo, Councilmember Steve Madison, and our 28^th District Congressman, Adam Schiff.

Mayor Tornek, Mayor-elect Gordo, Councilmember Madison and Congressman Schiff each conveyed statements and information to our attendees.

Mr. Gold conducted the on-line voting process of our next WPRA officers and board members. WPRA’s attending residents elected unanimously: Dan Beal, president – Evan Davis, Administrative Vice President – Avram Gold, Communications Vice President – Blaine Cavena, Treasurer, and Kenyon Harbison, secretary. Our continuing Board of Directors became: Geoffrey Baum, David Bise, Bill Christian, Peter Ewing, Mic Hansen, Joan Hearst, Susan Kinney, Nancy Walker and Linda Zinn.

WPRA President, Dan Beal, then delivered his annual message.

Kenyon Harbison, past WPRA president and newly elected secretary, introduced the evening’s expert panelists for the disaster preparedness program. The speakers were, from left to right: Pasadena Fire Chief, Bryan Frieders – Pasadena Public Information Officer, Lisa Derderian – Huntington Hospital Disaster Program Manager, Jennifer Waldron and Pasadena Police Lieutenant, Johnny Mercado (image unavailable).

Blaine Cavena, WPRA’s treasure, served as an excellent technical director featuring speakers in the full screen while controlling audio feeds.

After presentations followed by questions and answers, our program ended promptly at 8:00 PM.

Candidates’ Forum

28 Jan 2020

Seven candidates for office addressed a packed room at Maranatha High School

West Pasadena Residents’ Association, in cooperation with the Linda Vista-Annandale Association and the Madison Heights Neighborhood Association, hosted a nonpartisan candidates’ forum January 23, 2020 at the Maranatha High School Student Center. All candidates for mayor and District 6 City Council attended, including Mayor Terry Tornek and his three challengers: District 5 Councilmember Victor Gordo, former City Commissioner Jason Hardin, and businessman Major Williams. In west Pasadena, District 6 Councilmember Steve Madison presented his views along with attorney, Tamerlin Godley and nonprofit executive Ryan Bell.

Justin Chapmin asks a question of candidates

Victor Gordo — Justin Chapmin asks a question of candidates

View Youtube Video of Event

57th Annual Meeting 2019

28 May 2019

L-R WPRA President Dan Beale with Claire Bogaard and Former Pasadena Mayor (and past WPRA President) Bill Bogaard

The West Pasadena Residents’ Association on May 8 convened its 57th annual membership meeting, held this year at Mayfield Senior School. Pasadena Mayor Terry Tornek opened with comments about the citizen-led Arroyo Seco planning effort, citing its evolution into a new non-profit organization, the One Arroyo Foundation.

Blair High School JROTC color guard leads presentation of flags and Pledge of Allegiance. *Chuck Hudson*

October 2018 Soiree

29 Oct 2018

The West Pasadena Residents’ Association Board of Directors welcomed more than 200 of its members, supporters and relatives to a fall party and neighborhood social. The event was convened on October 28 at Susan and George Kinney’s home on Bellefontaine Street.

56th Annual Meeting 2018

1 Jun 2018

WPRA members and guests view the exhibit tables at the WPRA 56th Annual Meeting.

The West Pasadena Residents’ Association held its 56th annual membership meeting on May 2 at Westridge School. About 200 people attended the event, entitled “Housing the Character of Our Neighborhoods.”

The meeting was called to order by outgoing WPRA President Kenyon Harbison, who introduced special guests in attendance, including Teresa Lamb-Simpson, field representative for U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff; Terry Tornek, mayor of Pasadena; Steve Mermell, city manager of Pasadena; Catherine Del Rosario, district director for State Assemblymember Chris Holden; and Dominick Correy, district representative for State Sen. Anthony Portantino.

55th Annual Meeting 2017

6 May 2017

The West Pasadena Residents’ Association convened its 55th annual meeting on Wednesday, May 3, at Mayfield Senior School. About 200 members and others attended the event, which focused on “The Future of Our Arroyo Seco.” WPRA Treasurer Blaine Cavena called the formal portion of the meeting to order and, after singling out dignitaries and guests, invited Mayor Terry Tornek to the dais.

54th Annual Meeting 2016

18 May 2016

The West Pasadena Residents’ Association held its 54th annual meeting on Wednesday, May 18, at the Maranatha High School Student Center. About 200 people attended event, with the theme “Imagining the Future of West Pasadena.”

Mayor Terry Tornek covered a number of important topics during his remarks, including: His continuing interest in repealing Measure A; the City’s efforts to ensure that next year’s Arroyo Seco Music & Arts Festival does not become another Coachella; how the City will benefit from Kaiser Permanente’s planned medical school at Los Robles Avenue and Green Street; Striking the right balance between growth and development and maintaining the city’s unique character; the ongoing search for a new City manager, which he hopes will be completed by early summer; PUSD’s flourishing public schools; the restructuring and other internal changes that the City made in response to the embezzlement scandal; and the City’s current budget process.