Andy Wilson is sworn in by City Clerk Mark Jomsky, with City Manager Michael Beck seen in the far right (Photo – Gina JMac, Pasadena Politics, Facebook).
Forty two days after Pasadena officially swore in a new mayor, Pasadena City Council voted for its newest member to fill the vacant District 7 seat during a special meeting on Monday night.
By Jason Hardin
From May 14th to June 1st, 2015, City Hall began accepting applications from District 7 residents to fill the vacancy left by Terry Tornek’s recent victory over former ViceMayor, Jacque Robinson, in Pasadena’s first open mayoral election in 16 years.
Four out of six candidates qualified, Ciran Hadjian, Margaret York, Andy Wilson, and Don Morgan.
Ciran Hadjian
Ciran Hadjian was the first to present her qualifications for the D7 seat and was strongly supported by District 6 councilmember, Margaret McAustin. Though she represented a strong awareness of Pasadena’s financial statistics and was well prepared, she came up just one vote short of joining the Council.
Margaret York
Former police officer, Margaret York, came out as a strong advocate for public safety. During her presentation, York claimed that she could make the “tough decisions” that would benefit a collaborative leadership. Councilmember Madison motioned for her appointment to the vacant D7 seat but did not get the required number of votes from the other councilmembers.
Both candidates, Hadjian and York, would have added diversity to the City Council.
Don Morgan
USC professor, consultant, and recent mayoral candidate, Don Morgan, was the only of the four candidates to mention the issues of homelessness and community engagement in Pasadena. Perhaps the most widely known applicant of the group, Morgan has proved himself as an effective fundraiser during his last campaign and received well over 2,000 votes in Pasadena’s 2015 primary, however he received no consideration from Council during deliberation. He remains a viable candidate for the seat in 2017.
Andy Wilson
Andy Wilson, founder of Innovate Pasadena (IP), was the big winner of the evening! Accompanied by the most supporters to make public comments endorsing his appointment, Wilson clearly stood out immediately. Being the only candidate to incorporate PowerPoint into his presentation, Wilson used simple yet helpful graphics and statistics to convey his qualifications for the office, which ultimately lead to the necessary votes, making him Pasadena’s newest city councilmember.
Wilson will serve for the remainder of Tornek’s term, which expires in 2017.
Andy Wilson (Photo – Facebook).
Andy Wilson is the founder and co-chairman of Innovate Pasadena, a grass-roots/community-based effort to enhance collaboration/activate the eco-system across high tech sectors in order to accelerate the growth of existing tech companies and increase the number of new tech companies in the area.
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