Outgoing Councilmember Williams Reflects on Her Tenure

At Monday night’s special Pasadena City Council organizational meeting, Felicia Williams reflected on her term’s accomplishments in District 2 as the Council welcomed the District’s incoming Councilmember, Rick Cole, who won the March primary with 59.8% of the vote.

“It’s hard to believe that over the last just four years, the City has accomplished so much and that’s all of us working together as a Council,” Williams said, detailing achievements including the creation of more than 1,700 new affordable housing units since 2020.

Williams highlighted major initiatives during her tenure, including three affordable housing projects in District 2, formation of the Burbank Glendale Pasadena Housing Trust, approval of six specific plans, expansion of homeless outreach teams, implementation of a new bad weather shelter, and a $6 million investment in the former Kaiser site.

As chair of the Municipal Services Committee, she helped advance the City’s Integrated Resource Plan and efforts toward becoming green by 2030.

Mayor Victor Gordo praised Williams’ financial acumen, noting she helped guide the City through “difficult budget issues” while maintaining strong reserves.

Williams pointed to the Rose Bowl bond refinancing as a key accomplishment, saying “the Rose Bowl is going to save millions of dollars and now has more flexibility in the way they operate.”

In her closing remarks, Williams expressed concern about increasing polarization in local government.

“The more that we allow national politics to infiltrate our local city government, our government is set up to provide services, and the more that we allow that to happen, the less able our City staff will be to be able to provide services at the highest level,” she said.

The organizational meeting concluded with the swearing-in of elected officials, including Mayor Gordo and Councilmember Cole, and the unanimous election of Jessica Rivas as Vice Mayor for a one-year term under new City Charter requirements for annual organizational meetings.