Guest Essay | Councilmember Cole Calls for Renewed Civic Engagement

At his Community Swearing In ceremony last Sunday, new Councilmember Rick Cole previewed his priorities for the upcoming term, with an emphasis on citizen participation in the public life of Pasadena. This is an excerpt from his remarks:

We’re here today to celebrate a democratic transition of power.

Yet democracy involves more than simply replacing one office holder with another. In a democracy, the people not only choose their leaders, the people determine the direction of their government. Those of us who are chosen to lead have a responsibility to produce results.

So for me, Job One on Day One will be tackling homelessness in our community.

Three hundred of our neighbors sleep outdoors on our streets every night! That’s not just a human tragedy, it’s a man-made community disaster.

We should join the County of LA and the City of LA in declaring homelessness an emergency. Unlike them, we should treat it as an emergency. We should mobilize all of Pasadena’s extraordinary resources. Our public agencies, our non-profits, our businesses, our faith communities, our schools and our neighborhoods.

Our goal should be Functional Zero: where street homelessness is rare, brief and non-recurring. That means prevention, that means getting people into housing quickly, that means providing the mental health services, the recovery support and the jobs people need to stay housed.

Ending street homelessness in Pasadena won’t be quick or easy – or cheap. But there’s only one thing more expensive than solving this problem – it’s the devastating human, economic and community cost of not solving it!

We know that housing affordability is at the root of this challenge. When young families who grew up here can’t even dream of buying a home in Pasadena . . . when essential workers can’t afford to live in Pasadena . . . and when thousands of our rent burdened neighbors in Pasadena struggle to even keep a roof over their heads — we cannot be complacent!

Nor can we focus solely on the quantity of housing we need to build. We must also ensure the quality of that needed housing. For the past two years, I’ve worked with my Planning Commission colleagues and staff to rewrite our codes to make it both easy – and mandatory – for developers to do the right thing. We need to make sure that new housing will not only enrich the lives of those who will live there but it will also enhance the surrounding community. We need both housing security and neighborhood livability. Each is vital to preserving what makes Pasadena a great place to call our home.

At the global level, the UN Secretary General says we’re on the road to climate hell and we haven’t taken our foot off the accelerator. We can’t solve a global crisis in our 25 square miles. But Pasadena can — and must — set an example!

Pasadena 100 showed us what a group of dedicated citizens can accomplish. Because of their tireless advocacy, the City Council unanimously declared a climate emergency.

So let’s treat it as an emergency – and an opportunity for Pasadena to lead! As a new member of the Council’s Municipal Services Committee, I’m committed to achieving 100% renewable energy by 2030. Together we can transform Pasadena Water and Power into the leading public utility in Southern California. We will not only lead on energy sustainability, we will lead on water reliability and customer affordability as well!

These are big challenges, but as I talked to voters across District Two, there are many more challenges we can – and must — tackle.

I knocked on more than 5000 doors during the campaign and I’ve knocked on more than 800 since the election. When I knocked on your doors, you were generous with your time. You came out onto your porches or invited me into your living rooms and kitchens.

We talked about your concerns, your hopes and your frustrations. We talked about finally revitalizing North Lake. Fixing our streets. Preserving our beloved trees. Partnering with our public schools. Supporting small businesses. Making Pasadena safer, greener and more affordable.

The list is long, but your passion is real!

Tomorrow I will only be one vote out of eight on our City Council. It is all of you who represent the enormous potential for Pasadena to lead on each of these issues — and so many more.

On my refrigerator at home is a quote from President Obama. It reads, “I’m asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change, but in yours.”

That’s the spirit I will carry to City Hall. Let’s revitalize our citizen commissions to be effective partners in both shaping policy and ensuring transparency and accountability! Let’s revitalize neighborhood associations across District 2 — and across the rest of the city! Let’s recommit to the principle in our General Plan that “community participation will be a permanent part of achieving a greater city.”

We can’t wait for the people to come to City Hall. We have to bring City Hall to the people!

A healthy democracy isn’t just about people voting in elections. No! A healthy democracy depends on informed and engaged citizens who actively participate in the public life of their community! We can’t preserve Pasadena’s special sense of place without revitalizing the citizen participation that created it in the first place!

On my bathroom mirror is another quote that I put there so I will see it every day. It comes from the Book of Matthew: “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant — and whoever wants to be first must be a servant of all.”

I will strive to uphold that spirit every day of the next four years.

Thank you for coming today. Thank for your support. Thank you for your trust. Above all, thank you for pledging to work together so that we will leave our city greater and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us. Thank you for the privilege of serving!