As the current President of Pasadena City College’s Board of Trustees and a PCC graduate, Class of 2010, I thought I already understood the power of our community colleges. The Eaton Fire taught me just how impactful we are.
On the night of January 7, 2025, my wife Charlotte and I left the Altadena house we had lived in for 24 years with what we could carry. By morning it was gone, along with the homes of thousands of our neighbors.
Within days, a parking lot at PCC’s Colorado campus became a distribution hub where donated water, essential supplies, and food moved out to impacted families. PCC’s Foothill campus opened its doors to every level of government to establish the first Disaster Recovery Center. The College served free meals to schoolchildren and their families and gave displaced neighbors a place to gather. Our Small Business Development Center and Women’s Business Center sat down with hundreds of fire-hit business owners and put well over $1.75 million in recovery grants into their hands. All told, PCC has delivered more than $4 million in fire relief: $1.29 million to students, $771,000 to faculty and staff, and the rest to local businesses.
All of this was possible because of our dedicated staff, faculty, students, and administrators, along with a Board that said yes quickly to doing everything we can to supporting our community. I then pushed to ensure that fire recovery became one of our College’s eight formal goals.
Then came another hard question, who rebuilds Altadena? Charlotte and I have spent the time since fighting to get back home, like so many of our neighbors. We are finally back in our own rebuilt home, but anyone who drives past can see the work is unfinished for too many of our neighbors. Too many are still waiting on a permit or a crew, and it is clear that our region needs a larger construction workforce to rebuild our community.
On the first anniversary of the Fire, on the same parking lot that held the essential supplies and water, PCC broke ground on a Construction Trades Lab. This past summer, 110 local high school students were paid to learn welding, electrical work, and building inspection. PCC students have framed walls for Habitat for Humanity homes that are going up in Altadena right now. Our new Wildland Fire Academy has graduated 86 cadets, and the Forest Service and CalFire are hiring them to fight future disasters.
That is what our Pasadena City College is for. It is also why I am asking for four more years.
PCC is in a much stronger position from when I first joined the Board in 2022. Today, enrollment has exceeded pre-pandemic levels. PCC sent more students to UCs and CSUs this last fall than any other community college in California. Part-time faculty have health benefits for the first time. Our College implemented a plan I introduced to decarbonize our campus and commit to sustainability. Many Muir students have now earned associate degrees on their own campus. And an independent auditor has, time and time again, given PCC a clean opinion with our reserves at 23 percent against our 18 percent policy minimum.
And yet there is more to do. Many PCC classrooms are 60 to 90 years old, and the College needs modern space for the nursing, EMS, and trades programs that our community’s recovery depends on. I will keep pushing for those improvements under the same rules we have kept for four years: independent oversight of every facilities dollar, clean audits, and reserves that protect students in challenging state budgetary landscapes.
This is a real record of action and results on issues that my opponent, who has a nearly two-decades long career at Southern California Edison, can only claim he wants to accomplish. Our community needs the results that I have fought for to bring PCC into our next century.
When this community needed its college, the College showed up. We continue to deliver. Keep PCC working for Altadena and Northwest Pasadena. I would be honored to have your vote by November 3.
Steve Gibson is president of the Pasadena Area Community College District Board of Trustees and represents Area 3. He lives in Altadena.
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