Lyon Touts Real World Experience in Quest for District 7 Seat

Pasadena Now sent local City Council candidates vying for seats in the June election several questions. The responses will be run as they come in.

In District 7, Jason Lyon is running against Ciran Hadjian and Allen Shay to take the seat currently held by Vice Mayor Andy Wilson.

Lyon has been a resident of Southern California for 24 years, For the past decade, he has served on the boards of various local nonprofits, like Young & Healthy and the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership. In 2017, Lyon joined Pasadena’s Historic Preservation Commission. In 2019, Wilson appointed Lyon to the Planning Commission. Lyon was elected the Vice Chair of the commission in 2021.

Lyon is a partner with Pasadena’s 123-year-old Hahn & Hahn law firm. He lives in the Madison Heights neighborhood with his husband, Tim, a real estate agent, and their two sons.

What are the top issues facing your district?

I’ve been out walking the district and meeting voters for the past eight months, and there are three issues that come up in almost every conversation. At the top of the list is how we strike a balance between our very real need for housing that people at all income levels can afford and the desire to preserve the character of our community and keep Pasadena a livable, walkable city. Second is how to get our unhoused neighbors off the street and into housing. Third is how to make Pasadena a more environmentally sustainable city for the long term.

On the housing issue, I do not believe we can build our way out of this problem solely by depending on developers of market-rate housing to set aside a small percentage of affordable units in each project. We need a mix of nonprofit and public investment in housing. To the extent we need new construction, we should direct it to our transit corridors and major thoroughfares. But I am most enthusiastic about the prospect of adaptive reuse of existing, underutilized buildings. We have a fair amount of vacant commercial and office space that could be converted to housing. It is a promising approach that will allow us to preserve the profile and character of our city while creating housing options.

Regarding homelessness, we need to commit to direct engagement with unhoused individuals so we can offer customized solutions. We can do that through a full-time Pasadena Outreach Response Team, an expanded caseworker staff, and deepening our partnerships with the nonprofit community. More than half of our unhoused population in Pasadena is not chronically homeless. We should work to connect them with services and get them back into housing as quickly as possible.

As for our becoming an environmentally sustainable city, there are several fairly simple changes I would like to make. We should step up the timeline to achieving a majority renewable energy portfolio; plant native, drought-tolerant trees to combat heat islands; restore and improve our conservation incentive programs; encourage wider participation in our new food waste recycling program; and verify the accuracy of the metrics we use in our environmental studies of new developments.

What do you bring to the City Council?

I have current, real-world experience dealing with the issues facing our district. As Vice Chair of the City Planning Commission, I have grappled with the complexity of balancing competing interests so that we can develop a city where everyone can thrive. I have been fortunate to be active in city planning at this fascinating moment in history. The world has changed in the post-Amazon, post-service app, post-COVID economy. Our declining need for retail and office space has presented the city with challenges and opportunities that really did not exist before the past decade or so. I have first-hand experience in meeting those opportunities and challenges.

I also bring three decades of experience managing budgets and thinking strategically in business. I began my career as a documentary film producer and later transitioned to owning my own business in the television commercial industry. In both those jobs, I had to manage tight budgets on demanding timelines and look ahead to the changing needs of the industry. I later attended UCLA School of Law, and I am now a partner in Pasadena’s oldest law firm, Hahn & Hahn. In that capacity, I work closely with my fellow owner-partners to manage our finances and establish policies to ensure the firm’s continued success in its second century and beyond. I have also held leadership roles on various non-profit boards where I was responsible for fiduciary oversight of budgets ranging from $1 million to $20 million as well as strategic planning and envisioning the organizations’ futures.

What is the most valuable quality the next City Manager must possess?

Vision/humanity/insight. Of course, our City Manager must have excellent fiscal management skills and demonstrated experience supervising large, diverse operations. Those are a given. But I believe the quality that makes a great city manager is a deep understanding of people and the ability to account for the real, human impact of the city’s decisions. Our next City Manager needs to be able to address not just our needs today but to look ahead to our needs in the coming years.

The City Council will not choose the police chief, but how can the next chief reassure critics in light of the McClain shooting?

Reconciliation starts with dialogue. We need a chief who is willing to engage with the community for even the hardest conversations. As a city, we need to be as transparent as we can with each step of the process. If there are limits on the city’s ability to be transparent, we need to spell those out with clarity and do our best to set a realistic timeline for decision-making and the release of information.

Rents are at an all-time high, how do we keep people in their homes?

As I mentioned, I don’t believe we can build our way out of the affordability problem with “market rate” housing and a 20% set aside for more modestly priced units. We need to partner with nonprofits to establish a wider stock of housing that will be affordable at various income levels. Ideally, we will do that primarily through adaptive reuse of existing, underused buildings.

If you could change anything in the City Charter what would it be?

I don’t think we need a change so much as a clarification of the lines of authority in city government. The Charter says that “all powers of the City shall be vested in the City Council.” Although I think that provision is fairly clear, there has sometimes been confusion about the Council’s authority to direct or override certain decisions made by the City Manager. If we were to amend the Charter, I would make clear that all decisions in the city are ultimately the responsibility of our elected officials.

Why should local residents in your district give you their vote?

I love this city. I believe I have the right experience and outlook for this moment in our history. Leadership should be about service, not self. I have served District 7 as a city commissioner for the past five years, and I have served the city in various non-profit capacities for more than a decade. In that time, I have demonstrated that I take a thoughtful and holistic approach to decision-making, and I have a strong capacity for crafting no-nonsense solutions that draw together perspectives that can sometimes be very disparate. If I am elected, I will welcome every voice to our civic dialogue, and I will work to find common ground rather than focusing on our differences. I would be honored to represent District 7.