Looking Back, Looking Forward: Mayor Tornek Assesses 2019, Anticipates New Year

For Pasadena Mayor Terry Tornek, the issues confronting Pasadena have no calendar.

As 2019 wanes and 2020 waxes, Pasadena Now asked the Mayor to look back at the challenges and opportunities of the recent past, and to look ahead at those he foresees in the soon-to-be future.

“The year is sort of an arbitrary measure,” he said in a wide-ranging interview Wednesday. “Some of it technically happened in 2018, not even 2019, but really had their impact in ‘19.”

The Mayor cited as an example the passages and impact of Measures I and J, which passed in late November of 2018, but didn’t provide new revenue funds to the City and PUSD until 2019. The sales tax measure is expected to provide an additional $21 million in new revenue for the City, with a third—approximately $7 million—going to the PUSD yearly.

“The availability of those funds,” explained Tornek, “made all the difference, I think, in terms of city government, and for the school district. The funding that started to flow to both governmental entities had a major impact in terms of our ability to function, and to deliver service to the people.”

Tornek also noted that the City’s pernicious issue of homelessness “is another one of those issues that carries over from year to year, and is likely to carry over for the foreseeable future.”

Currently the City counts between 500 and 600 homeless residents between its borders, with a new count to be taken in January.

But the issue has taken on a different color these days, said the Mayor, who posited that the issue’s public awareness has “moved to another level, for a variety of reasons.”

The Mayor also added that he thinks “people are more exasperated about it. They’re more concerned about it. They’re more mobilized around it.”

“I think that the homelessness issue has continued to dominate in some ways in 2019, and the related issue of affordable housing has certainly accelerated.”

The issue of homelessness led naturally to the Mayor’s mention of a host of various state bills to increase housing while superseding local zoning laws, in California cities like Pasadena. At least six new laws are expected to take effect in January.

As Tornek said, “I referenced it as a continuing issue on affordable housing and the intrusion of the state government, and on local land use. The City Council is going to be discussing [the issue], and considering whether to initiate litigation against the state, because we feel that the state has clearly overreached and gone too far in terms of interfering with our local land use decision making. So that’s a 2020 story.”

But the Mayor looked positively at the end of the decades-long battle over the 710 Freeway extension project, noting that the Metro has begun to reallocate 710 money to projects that will improve traffic flow in Pasadena and throughout the region.

Said Tornek, “The fact that it started to free up some of that money, that was a big deal, [as well as ] the fact that we’ve begun the process of talking about how we recapture that real estate [the 710 Freeway “ditch”] and begin to plan for its future.”

Tornek acknowledged that the aftermath of the 710 Freeway cease-fire will continue on for the rest of the new decade.

“But,” said Tornek, “at least we’re on a firm start now because we’re not threatened with that giant cloud of the potential 710 project. That’s behind us.”

Mayor Tornek also praised the work of Police Chief John Perez, who replaced Chief Phillip Sanchez in 2018.

Said Tornek, “I think another big story has been the progress that’s been made in the police department by the new Chief, in terms of reorganizing his department and continuing to focus on reducing the use of force, and making sure that the public is more engaged at a variety of levels with the police officers as individuals. I think that’s a really big story.”

Taking a more aerial view of the City’s place in the world neighborhood, Tornek also pointed out what he called, “the growing awareness of climate change,” and the idea that its impacts are already being felt.

“The fact that youth is getting mobilized around it in such a significant way,” said Tornek, “will play, I think, a big part in the presidential election, and is a big deal at every level—at the federal level, at the state level, and here in Pasadena.”

But it’s not only climate issues for the City, says the Mayor, it’s energy issues as well.

“Because we have our own municipal utility,” said Tornek, “we’re very focused on these issues, because they’re not just abstract issues that we deal with second hand. We deal with them firsthand.”

Tornek continued, “I’ve got tremendous interest and have spent a very significant amount of time, through the Municipal Services Committee, on Pasadena’s energy future.”

The City has begun to hold realistic discussions on how to remove the use of fossil fuels, said Tornek, “and how we begin to make the transition to a different kind of utility, where more and more people have got panels on their roofs, and they’ve got batteries for storage and our utility itself can be using batteries for storage. That’s the next big breakthrough in technology.”

Finally, acknowledging the elephant in the room, Tornek discussed the upcoming 2020 elections on the local, state and national elections of 2020.

Tornek faces three opponents in the upcoming Mayor’s race, but sees a far different issue coming up in the year—that of the national census.

“We’ve got elections at the federal level and we’ve got, of course, our local elections, that could have a significant impact on how the city moves forward,” he said. “Not just the city, but the federal government and also, the school board has elections, and PCC has elections. So the elections are a big deal, and the census is a big deal. That’s a big 2020 issue that we’re very worried about because if we get undercounted, we’re going to get screwed, in terms of funding and in terms of representation.”

The Mayor has already formed The Mayor’s Committee for a Complete Count, which has already been active for several months, he said.

As he noted, the current administration’s emphasis on immigration has frightened some residents, and there are new technical issues on this year’s census, which the population will only be seeing for the very first time. There will be no mailed census forms, for example, he said. Much of the census will be available online.

“April 1st is the census day and we’re all working hard way in advance of that to try to make sure that people do get counted,” the Mayor added.

Still, faced with the usual stack of issues any important city Mayor is heir to, Tornek remains steady, with a constant eye on the public mood, what he refers to as watching the “trend lines.”

“I try to step back a little bit and look at the trend lines,” said Tornek, “and if the trend lines are generally positive, I feel good about it. And if they’re not positive, then I try to figure out how I can intervene and turn that around.”

“I think with regard to what’s happening in Pasadena,” he continued, “most of the trend lines are positive. That doesn’t mean there are no problems. That doesn’t mean that we don’t have things to work on. I’ve just identified a number of those things.”

“But I think in general terms,” he said, “I think, in Pasadena and based on my campaigning door to door, and what I’m hearing from the people, I think most people would agree that the trend lines are generally positive.”