Election Series: Candidate Kennedy Touts ‘10 Years of Solid Leadership’

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 3, incumbent John Kennedy is squaring off against political newcomer and local Commissioner Brandon Lamar. Kennedy has raised more than $300,000 and has been a leader for the fight for more police oversight during his 10 years on the City Council.

Born and raised in Pasadena, Kennedy served as Student Body President while attending Blair High School and Student Senator at the USC, where he received degrees in International Relations and Economics.

He earned a Juris Doctor Degree from Howard University School of Law, and was the youngest person to have served as President of the Pasadena Branch of the NAACP.

In the private sector, Kennedy runs his own management consulting business. He has worked for a family company with responsibility in philanthropy, real estate and business development. He has also served as the Senior Vice President of the Los Angeles Urban League; was Director of Special Projects for Southern California Edison; served as Vice President of Countrywide Home Loans; and was Deputy Chief of Police in Richmond, Virginia.

Pasadena Now: What are the top issues facing your district?

Kennedy:  I’d say the issues most important to residents in District 3 are continuing efforts to make police oversight a real and effective tool to bring our community and our Police Department together; building more affordable housing, especially housing that “Extremely Low Income” families can afford; creating more jobs for local residents; and continuing to provide exemplary constituent service to the District, which covers responding to immediate local needs like unsafe sidewalks, stop signs at dangerous intersections, tree trimming and code enforcement and trash pickup, and helping to feed needy families.

What do you bring to the City Council?

What I bring is a solid record of 10 years of accomplishments, leadership and accountability.  I have Chaired, and now serve on, the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, through which I was able to get our Community Police Oversight Commission established and push for the adoption of body-worn cameras on all officers.  During my tenure, we built 1,000 units of new housing.  We have two projects being built right now – 69 units for formerly homeless seniors, with full wrap-around social services, and 180 units of workforce housing.  I get things done, and I’m there for our residents.  One of my personal credos is: “When you call, I will answer!”  I’ve done that for 10 years, and I’ll continue that commitment into my next term.

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

We face a myriad of challenges – managing the Police Department, financing the Rose Bowl and the Central Library retrofit and all our other infrastructure, moving our city and our utility toward a smaller carbon footprint, creating more affordable housing, continuing to involve our residents in the governance of the city.  No one person has the skill sets and expertise and experience to tackle all of these.   

So, we need someone with broad and demonstrated experience in leading a diverse community, in choosing and inspiring senior managers, someone who has and can make tough decisions and defend them with clarity and compassion to the City Council and the community, and someone who can read the community and empathize with all the diverse elements within our community, and who, in the end, can bring us together.  As I have said, Building One Pasadena ought not be just a slogan or tag line, but a real credo guiding our decision-making and our conduct.

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

At the core of many of these incidents are questions of policy and training.  What are officers taught and expected to do?  When to draw one’s weapon?  Our new police chief can forthrightly address these issues, not just with the Department, but with the Community Police Oversight Commission and with the community as a whole.  Make it clear what we expect of our officers, and then enforce those expectations.  In the past, we have been unable to discipline or fire officers because our policies were oftentimes so vague that we could not prove officers acted outside our policy.  We can’t determine if officers acted illegally – only the District Attorney can do that.  But we can determine if they acted within or outside of policy, if they bring disrespect to the force, and those can be grounds for discipline or firing.  We just have to set clear rules, and be tough about enforcing those rules.

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

There are two parts to this question.  One is why rents are rising, and that’s because of a housing shortage.  To the degree we can build more housing, specifically affordable housing, we can help lower rental costs.  That’s why one of my key initiatives will be to fight for at least 3,000 new units of affordable housing, with 15% of those units reserved for “Extremely Low Income” families.  And this new housing must be equitably distributed throughout the city, not just in the Northwest.

The second element is helping people already housed stay housed.  It is far cheaper to provide temporary or short-term rental assistance than to try to help a newly homeless family find new housing.  The Housing Department has had a program providing that sort of rental assistance.  We need to ramp up that program and keep people in their homes.

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

Now, the City Council appoints the City Manager, the City Clerk, and the City Attorney.  All other Departmental heads, and indeed all other employees, are selected, appointed, managed and disciplined by one of those key leaders.  I would invite a Charter Study Committee to analyze if there are other positions that need to be added to that list to increase administrative efficiency, good government and community health.

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

I believe I have given our residents 10 years of effective leadership, solid achievements, exemplary constituent service, and personal accessibility.  Further, I have clearly outlined my goals for the next four years.  I believe my record and my goals have earned the support of District 3 voters in the coming election.