Two-Time Former City Manager Cynthia Kurtz Looks at ‘Pasadena Then and Now’

Cynthia Kurtz, former Pasadena City Manager turned former City Manager yet again, returned to familiar territory Wednesday to have  lunch with more than fifty friends at the weekly meeting of the Pasadena Rotary Club.

A longtime Pasadena resident, Kurtz was city manager for Pasadena from 1998 to 2008. In fact, her name is on a plaque in the City Hall rotunda, honoring her work with the $89-million seismic strengthening and renovation of the City’s Beaux Arts-style City Hall building in 2002. 

In 2021, she returned to that same building following the unexpected retirement of former City Manager Steve Mermell. She had remained as Interim City Manager until the recent hiring of Justice Miguel Márquez in August.

On Wednesday the longtime policy wonk was eager to talk about the changes in Pasadena over the past 15 years.

Moving straight to budget numbers, as city managers always do, Kurtz told her audience that today sales tax revenues are about $63 million, whereas 15 years ago, they were $37 million. 

“That’s a big jump in 15 years,” she said. 

She also reminded the audience that the City passed Measure I in 2018, an additional three-quarters of a cent increase, which was originally projected to produce an $18 million increase in sales tax revenue. 

“Right now it’s about 24 million,” she said. “It’s a little higher. And a third of that goes to the school district. So that tells you what some of those numbers are, but sales tax has almost doubled in 15 years. 

“The real story though,” she continued, “is when you look at the property tax (revenue). In 2008, it was $31 million. Property tax in Pasadena today is bringing in $95 million.”

“That one statistic,” she said, “Really tells you a lot about California, and what we’re struggling with — with housing, with property costs, with homeless programs and things that are a result of those kinds of increases.”

Kurtz also pointed out that with the onset of the pandemic, local sales tax initially plummeted nearly $15 million, because businesses closed. 

The City was careful as it dipped into reserves, she said, but it did have to dip into the reserves because of new costs that had to be paid for in the public health department. When federal dollars became available, the reserves were refunded so that the city is now once again in a stable financial situation.

“They didn’t lay off any employees,” Kurtz said. “They retrained employees to be tracers of COVID or to support the public health department in other ways, or transferred people there when they weren’t needed.”

“And they came back,” she said. “I’m glad we did not lay off employees because we would be in a much bigger hole than we find ourselves right now.” 

She looked at the City’s current situation with promise.

“The first thing I think you look at is your economic engine,” she explained, “because people that are moving here with businesses really are looking at the city and seeing whether it’s stable, if it’s a place they want to be. It’s a good market.”

She pointed out several major companies that have or will soon make Pasadena their home. Dine Brands Global, parent company of Applebee’s and IHOP restaurants, will be moving its global restaurant support center to 10 West Walnut, a new office campus in Old Pasadena. 

Lucid Motors, a new luxury electric car brand, will be opening a store just down the street from the current Tesla store, in Old Pasadena. The new General Motors Advanced Design Studio is expected to be completed by December 2022, and will begin operations in the first quarter of 2023. 

In addition, Xencor, which is developing potential treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases, recently signed a lease for 148,00 square feet of space at 465 North Halstead, near the new Amazon Fresh store (reportedly opening Sept. 15).

Kurtz also pointed out changes in the Pasadena Public Health and Police Departments, which will begin to work together on a new violence prevention and intervention program. 

She also noted a planned increase in Rose Bowl usage, with more concerts and family-friendly activities, partnering with other Arroyo users, and an Arroyo-based marketing emphasis.

“You can build a state-of the-art stadium,” she said, referring to the new So-Fi Stadium in Inglewood, “But you can’t build this beautiful scenery and location.”

Kurtz revealed her dream for a historic-style lodge to be built in Brookside Park, similar to lodges in national parks across the country.

“Can you imagine what we could charge for a weekend in this lodge on New Year’s Day?,” she asked, pointing to one example.  But she was clear to the audience that this was just her “dream,” and there are currently no plans by the Rose Bowl or the City to build such a lodge.

Turning to the Pasadena public library system, she urged the club members to vote for an upcoming library parcel tax measure.

Kurtz pointed out the tax measure does require a two thirds vote but said that a similar bill in 1993, passed by 80%. 

“We love our libraries here,” she said. “We have, if not the, one of the best library systems in the state of California, and I think for a relatively small investment from each of us, we get a really, really significant outcome from this tax measure.”