Kennedy Qualifies for June Election

District 3 City Councilmember John Kennedy became the second incumbent to qualify for the June 7 election last week according to the city’s website.

Kennedy submitted the required signatures and paid all fees on March 4 according to the City Clerk’s office.

“I am honored and privileged to have served District 3, and the whole city, on Pasadena’s City Council these last nine years,” Kennedy told Pasadena Now. “Together, we accomplished much. But much remains to be done in D3 and beyond.”

“We have repaired and replaced thousands of feet of unsafe or dilapidated sidewalks, established [the] Pasadena Community Oversight Commission of the Pasadena Police Department, caused greater transparency in the police department by introducing body-worn cameras, delivered to the Community a renovated first-in-class Robinson Park and Recreational facility, secured funding for a new pool and pool house for Robinson Park — construction to begin in Summer of 2022 — advocated for the building of 1,000 units of affordable housing in 1,000 days, on track, called for the building of 3,000 new units of affordable housing, with 15% designated for our extremely low-income neighbors … a model for the State of California and Nation, completed the building of 69 units of Senior Housing at Heritage Senior Apartments and are on track to build and additional 69 units of affordable housing units on the adjacent property for formerly homeless seniors (northeast corner of Orange Grove Blvd. and Fair Oaks Ave.)”

Kennedy said there is work remaining to be done including, but not limited to, hiring a new city manager, renovating and conducting a seismic retrofit of the iconic Central Library, making streets safer for pedestrians and bicyclists, creating a million dollar community innovation funds that would provide micro-grants or loans to nonprofits and small businesses and repatriating the 710 Freeway stub at California Boulevard and rectifying wrongs done to residents, particularly minority businesses and homeowners.

Commissioner Brandon Lamar has pulled papers to qualify for the election, but so far has not submitted the necessary information for qualification.

Candidates must collect 25 signatures from registered voters living in the district where they are running and pay $25 to qualify for the election.

District 3, according to the city website, is an area in Northwest Pasadena bounded by the 210 Freeway, Colorado Boulevard, Lake Avenue, El Molino Avenue, Orange Grove Boulevard, Los Robles Avenue, Fair Oaks Avenue, Marengo Avenue, Mountain Street, Jackson Street, El Molino Avenue, Ladera Avenue, and Washington Boulevard.

According to candidate disclosure forms posted on the city’s website, Kennedy has raised $182,328.00 since July.

This year races in council districts 3, 5 and 7 will be held. According to the city’s website, District 5 Incumbent Jess Rivas is the only other candidate to qualify for the election.

Rivas is running unopposed in District 5.

Three candidates, Jason Lyon, Ciran Hadjian and Allen Shay have pulled papers in District 7.

The primary election will be held on June 7. If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, the top two vote-getters will square off in a runoff election five months later in November.

This is the second local election since the city moved its elections to correspond with state elections in compliance with the California Voters Participation Act (CVPA). Cities complied with the call to move local elections, which was designed to increase voter turnout. As a result of the change, the city no longer conducts its own elections.