“The biggest question for me is the big picture,” Gordo said in 2001. “With all the development going on… what’s missing for me is where we are headed. What’s Pasadena going to look like 20 years from now? Are we going to let some residents get pushed out because we are catering to a specific crowd?”
Twenty-two years later Gordo is reflective as he considers that Pasadena Weekly article. He’s nearing the end of his first term, and now housing is a statewide crisis.
“The crowd catered to at the time were the developers looking to ‘recreate’ our City and they did,” Gordo said.
During his time as the District 5 Councilmember, the District facilitated construction of the greatest number of affordable housing developments, including permanent supportive housing. Gordo and the City brought together people from across the district and city to find common ground for the common good.
Now Gordo is taking the same approach, finding common ground for the common good, albeit sometimes amid difficult conversations.
Gordo and the City Council are tackling monumental issues like access to mental health services and the 710 reclamation.
“It’s not finished,” Gordo said after he was asked him to sum up his first term. “I remind people we’re still doing the work of ensuring that the City’s budget and finances are in place, that City services are being provided at the level that residents of Pasadena expect and deserve, and making sure that the Council’s agenda continues to move important issues along. You’ll see updates on the 710 coming up. You’ll see updates on everything from coyotes to the local economy. And as things settle in after the pandemic, there’s a lot of work that has been created in part by the pandemic and in part because the pandemic revealed so much about us as individuals, so much in our families, in our community, that needs to be addressed. And I’m focused on putting in place the pieces of the puzzle that will address those issues.”
Of course, other mayors have conquered issues big and small during their time at City Hall. But Gordo may have faced more upheaval under the dome than any other mayor in modern times.
During his first two years as Mayor he worked with three city managers, four police chiefs, two planning directors, three general managers at water and power, two fire chiefs and a total of 16 interim directors and executives since December, 2020.
After former City Manager Steve Mermell took the Council by surprise when he announced his retirement in closed session last year, Gordo did not panic.
As questions flew across the room, Gordo took out his cell phone and reached out to former City Manager Cynthia Kurtz and informed her he needed to have a conversation with her in the morning.
By morning, Kurtz knew Mermell was on his way out. Eventually, the Council voted to name her the interim City Manager.
Gordo called that moment in closed session one of the toughest of his first term, but a far second to the loss of Councilmember John Kennedy.
Kennedy, who was ill, had informed a family member to reach out to Gordo if things became dire. After receiving the call, Gordo was at the hospital with Kennedy’s family when Kennedy died.
“John was a very strong contributor on the Council,” Gordo said. “I tell people it takes all of us a term or two to really find our way. John hit the ground running, and he was really in stride when he became ill. I would text John and talk to him and say, John, are you okay? We’d leave Council meetings, and I’d call him. John was a very private person. It was a very emotional moment for all of us. And it wasn’t just losing a colleague, but a Pasadenan, who I’ve known since we were both young, lifelong, lifelong. We knew one another in the community. And I remember he was at the NAACP when I was at Day One. It was a lifelong connection.”
“We didn’t always agree, and we sometimes disagreed on the approach, but we always wanted the same thing for the city. And that was the best thing. We had differences sometimes. And that’s the way it works.”
“There are eight of us. Sometimes we have different opinions about the approach.”
Gordo came to California when he was just five years old.
His arrival was traumatic to say the least. Born in a small village in Mexico, his father left for the United States when Gordo was just two years old. After working in the fields in Fresno and then San Fernando, his father settled in Pasadena. When his mother joined his father in Pasadena, the future Mayor stayed in Mexico and was sent to live with his grandparents.
Two years later, Gordo’s grandparents took him to the bus station and handed him off to people he had never seen before. The trip to Pasadena had begun.
“It was a very traumatizing experience because not only had my parents come
over, but I had gotten know my grandparents, and now I was with these strangers. And then suddenly I woke up in Pasadena to meet, reconnect with my family here, my parents. And we lived in a garage.”
Gordo said he would not change that experience.
“I didn’t know we were poor. My mother used to put us and my father in the station wagon, we’d deliver frozen donuts from our church to people. I thought, man, we’re giving away food. We must be doing okay. We’re part of the community.”
As he got older Gordo did his part to help his family. He did everything from mowing lawns, sold flowers, delivered the Star-News and waited on tables at the restaurant where his family worked.
“I think that’s given me a different insight and perspective into people’s struggles and successes. And so I’m able to connect with people and maybe see where I can be of assistance to them because I’ve seen the success too. I’ve been there in the tough times personally and with others, but also made my way out with the help of a lot of people. I think I’m able to help people individually and sometimes collectively because of my life’s experience.”
But that doesn’t mean people understand the struggles of being Mayor.
Gordo and this Council may have faced more criticism than any other do to the virtual participation by residents living in and outside Pasadena during the pandemic and the increase in social media.
“The criticism comes from every sector of our community,” Gordo said. “So do the well wishers. And that’s what keeps me moving. Some of the criticism can be over the top. I do not own any newspapers in town. And some of it is unfair, but hey, my wife says, ‘You volunteered for this.’”
“And so I have to take it. And some of it is mean-spirited towards staff or members of the Council or me. And I try and protect the Council when that happens, or the staff when it’s mean-spirited or I try to do that. But as mayor, I have to just grin and bear it.”
Gordo said he does his best to reach out to people and even sit down and talk through differences.
“I’m willing to do it,” Gordo said. “And I think some people have realized that I really am trying to do my best. I don’t always get it right. I’ve gotten it wrong often, but I’m trying to do the best. And I think the City Council as a whole is trying to do its best.”
That means tackling hard issues and those issues don’t exist in a vacuum.
Homelessness can impact mental health and mental health can impact violence and crime.
“It’s not one issue,” Gordo said. “It’s the number of issues that have broken the surface that stack on top of each other with tremendous emotion all in a very short period of time. That in itself has become the issue.”
According to Gordo, in one moment he can be sitting in his office one day with the City Manager and the City Attorney and staff talking about how the state is looking to change the landscape in Pasadena.
Within minutes, the Police Chief, Fire Chief, and the City Manager are in his office for a conversation about violence at the same time.
“Overlay the pandemic on that, and half an hour later you’ve got people in here talking about housing and homelessness and health access. It’s all those issues. And they all broke the surface at around the same time. Most of them were predictable. We knew social equity is an issue that’s been at the surface. But during the George Floyd events, it broke the surface in a very powerful way that changed a lot of people’s thinking and prioritized the need to address equity and police oversight.”
“Then you talk about housing and housing affordability and rent and rent control. Again, we could have predicted those discussions, but again, during the pandemic, those issues just broke the surface with such emotion and that we’ve never seen before. Suddenly we were all worried about our health, not only because of COVID, but because suddenly it was at the forefront.”
Gordo decided to run for mayor to change the tone at City Hall which he considers his greatest accomplishment so far.
“I think changing the tone so that there’s a team feel to governing our city and running our city and agreeing that when we’re working together, we’re stronger. I have staff people at all levels who sometimes will pull me aside and say, I see the change in what you were talking about.”
“I think the tone led to setting in motion some things that are achievable. I mean addressing the mental health issues, working with the county to acquire a site, working with the school district on jobs and with PCC, attracting new dedicated staff while at the same time making the staff who stayed, because for everyone who left there were hundreds who stayed and made the decision, this is a great place to be.”
“And so we shouldn’t forget about them. And I think giving assurance to our community, to residents, to small institutions and large institutions that City Hall is looking out after them.”
Tomorrow, Gordo talks mental health, the City Council and policing.
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