Guest Opinion | Bill Paparian: Vote for Priscilla Hernandez in PUSD District 6 Race

Service above self.

This lofty ideal lies at the heart of the American experience, which measures a person’s worth by what they give back to society – not what they take.

And although today’s poisonous politics rewards those with the biggest egos and greatest number of Twitter followers, service above self should always be the standard by which we judge candidates running for public office.

That’s why I’m supporting Priscilla Hernandez for Pasadena Unified School Board District 6.

Strength, humility, doing for others – these traits are part of Priscilla’s family, and her public career reflects them at both state and local levels of government.

Her father, Daniel Hernandez, received the Silver Star for risking his life to save fallen comrades during the Vietnam War.

Although he was hit in the back by enemy fire, Daniel dragged one fallen Marine comrade to safety and then took out a nest of NVA snipers who would have killed 16 more wounded Americans waiting to be evacuated.

But we know him best for his civic heroics in the streets of Boyle Heights.

After the 1970 Chicano Moratorium, Daniel founded the Hollenbeck Police Business Council, also known as the Hollenbeck Youth Center, which for 30 years has joined forces with local law enforcement to steer inner-city youth away from gang life through after-school activities, education and mentorship.

This collaboration, known today as community policing, is considered the gold standard of public safety by many policing experts and community leaders.

Priscilla has carried on the tradition of community service.

In 2002, she helped pass Proposition 49, which provided extra funding for after-school programs, and served under former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as Deputy Director, responsible for coalition building and constituent outreach.

After moving to Pasadena with her husband Zachary to raise their two sons, Priscilla continued putting service above self – this time by accepting an appointment to the city’s Senior Commission.

City commissioners are volunteers who do much of the grunt work of municipal governance. They dedicate many thankless hours to debating and recommending to the Council those small but significant changes that keep us moving forward as a community.

As such, Priscilla provided leadership as Chair of the Senior Commission, where she ran public meetings exploring methods of transforming Pasadena into an “age friendly” city for seniors.

Meanwhile, motivated by one of her son Zacky’s severe food allergy, Priscilla wrote and sponsored an Assembly bill that requires uniform labelling of potential trigger-foods such as peanuts, milk, egg and shellfish used in school lunches and snacks.

I am convinced that, if elected, Priscilla will show the same kind of care and diligence looking after all of our children in PUSD.

Service over self is part of her family pedigree. And it has been a life lesson Priscilla has embraced being raised by a combat-wounded Marine.

I know what it means. I was raised by a battle-tested Marine, too, although one who served in World War II in the South Pacific. In fact, I owe my life to my father’s wounds, which sent him to the hospital where he met and fell in love with my mother, a Red Cross volunteer.

Together, they raised us to value hard work, loyalty and self-sacrifice. They taught us that when you dedicate yourself to service of others, you are serving the greater whole.

I never forgot that. And, as her track record shows so wonderfully, neither has Priscilla, who deserves your vote for PUSD District 6.

Bill Paparian is a former Pasadena Mayor.