Spotlight Shines on the Workforce That Kept the City Running After the Eaton Fire

When the Eaton Fire tore through the region in January 2025, the people who restored Pasadena’s traffic signals, cleared its roads for emergency vehicles, and staffed the Emergency Operations Center around the clock were the same ones who, on any ordinary week, patch potholes, flush sewer lines, and haul away the city’s trash. 

This week, the City of Pasadena is recognizing them. 

Councilmember Tyron Hampton visited the city yards on Mountain Avenue during National Public Works Week May 17 to May 23, to meet with Director of Public Works Greg de Vinck and see the department’s operations up close — five divisions and a workforce of nearly 300 that maintains the infrastructure beneath Pasadena’s daily life, according to a City of Pasadena social media post. 

The visit underscored a year in which the department’s role became anything but invisible. During the Eaton Fire, which destroyed more than 9,000 structures across the Altadena and Pasadena area, Public Works crews restored lighting and traffic signals citywide and cleared roads so police, fire, and Pasadena Water and Power personnel could reach affected neighborhoods, according to city budget documents. 

De Vinck, who had been on the job for barely five weeks when the fire struck in January 2025, leads a department with five divisions: Administration, Engineering, Street Maintenance, Resource Recovery and Recycling, and Building Systems and Fleet Management. The department’s adopted budget for fiscal year 2026 is approximately $99.6 million, according to city budget documents, with 282 full-time equivalent positions. 

“I love public works and the essential services that support and enhance a community’s quality of life,” de Vinck said when he was announced as the new director in November 2024, according to a city press release. “Making lives better through public infrastructure and municipal services is what public works is all about.” 

On a routine basis, the department maintains more than 17,000 streetlights, collects over 18,000 tons of yard and food waste annually, flushes more than 1.7 million linear feet of sewer main line, and removes thousands of incidents of graffiti, according to city operational reports. 

The City Service Center, which operates under Public Works, has fielded over 74,000 calls in a recent year. 

National Public Works Week, observed annually during the third week of May, has been sponsored by the American Public Works Association since 1960. President John F. Kennedy formally proclaimed it in 1962. This year’s theme is “Rooted in Service, Powered by Community.” 

“Public works professionals are the silent workers steadily doing their jobs for the benefit of their communities,” said APWA President Vic Bianes in a statement released by the association, according to an APWA press release.