Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, January 2, 2021

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Mountain Views-News Saturday, January 2, 2021 

Applications 
Now Being 
Accepted for 
Council Seat 


South Pasadena Resident 
Named to LA County 
Redistricting Commission

 After a lengthy selection 
process, the Los Angeles 
County Citizens
Redistricting Commission 
(CRC) announced Tuesday 
that they have finalized 
the names of the 14 
Commissioners, including 
Priya Sridharan of South 
Pasadena, who will be 
responsible for adjusting 
the district boundaries 
for electing the Board of 
Supervisors, based on the 
2020 U.S. Census Bureau 
data.

 According to the the Los 
Angeles County Registrar-
Recorder/County Clerk they 
received 741 applications by 
September 8 and narrowed 
the applicants to a pool 
of the 60 most qualified 
names. The Los Angeles 
County Auditor-Controller 
conducted a random 
drawing at the Board of 
Supervisors’ meeting on 
November 24, selecting 
one Commissioner from 
each of the five existing 
Supervisorial Districts 
and three Commissioners 
randomly drawn from the 
remaining 55 applicants.

 The eight randomly 
selected Commissioners 
met between December 14 
and December 28, to select 
the final six Commissioners 
from the remaining 52 
qualified applicants.

The Commissioners reflect 
the County’s diversity:

-Eight Democrats, two 
Republicans, and four 
who are either No Party 
Preference or affiliated with
other political parties

-Six females and 8 males

-Age ranges between 31 and
73

-Six Latino/Latina, three 
Asian, three White, and two
Black representatives

-Geographic representation

The CRC is unlike past 
practices when the Board 
of Supervisors appointed 
an advisory Boundary 
Redistricting Committee 
to study proposed changes
to the boundaries and 
could make revisions 
before adopting the final 
redistricted boundaries.

 The CRC is independent 
of the Board of Supervisors 
as a result of the California 
Legislature Senate Bill 958, 
which passed in 2016. The 
CRC’s redistricting efforts 
follow the Federal Decennial 
Census and must be 
completed by December 15, 
2021. This redistricting can 
shape a community’s ability 
to elect the representative of 
their choice and to:

- Re-balance district
populations so they
are reasonably equal in
population

-Meet the constitutional
principal of “one person, one 
vote”

-Ensure districts are
geographically contiguous,
taking into account 
topography, geography, 
cohesiveness, contiguity, 
integrity, compactness of 
territory, and community of 
interest of the Supervisorial 
Districts

 During this next year, the 
CRC will be conducting a 
series of public hearings 
and meetings to solicit 
community input regarding 
future Supervisorial district 
boundaries.

 The assigned CRC staff 
are Executive Director, 
Gayla Kraetsch Hartsough, 
Ph.D., of KH Consulting 
Group in Los Angeles, and 
Independent Legal Counsel, 
Holly O. Whatley, Esq. of 
Colantuono, Highsmith & 
Whatley, PC, in Pasadena.

 For more information visit 
bos.lacounty.gov.

 
City officials announced 
last week that the City 
Council is now accepting 
applications from qualified, 
registered voters, residing in 
City Council District 5 to fill 
the vacancy created by the 
resignation of now Pasadena 
Mayor Victor Gordo.

 According to the official 
notice, the term of service 
for the appointment to the 
District 5 seat is from the date 
of appointment to December 
12, 2022. In addition to 
a completed application, 
applicants must circulate 
a nomination petition and 
gather a minimum of 25 
qualified signatures from 
registered voters living in 
and registered in District 5. 
Nomination petitions and 
application materials are 
available in the City Clerk’s 
Office, and will be issued 
subject to confirmation of 
eligibility. Applicants must 
handdeliver all completed 
materials no later than 5:30 
p.m. on Thursday, January
14 to the Office of the City 
Clerk. No postmarks, email 
submissions, or faxes will be 
accepted. There is a $25.00 
filing fee due at the time 
applications and nomination 
petitions are filed. 

 To be considered for the 
position, those applicants 
invited to participate must 
also attend a

special meeting of the City 
Council in February 2021 
for the purposes of a public 
interview by

the full City Council. The 
date and time of the meeting 
has yet to be determined and 
further

information will be provided 
after all applications are 
received.

 City of Pasadena Office 
of the City Clerk is located 
100 North Garfield Avenue, 
Room S228. Appointments 
are required to obtain 
materials. Due to COVID-19, 
all individuals coming to 
City Hall must wear facial 
coverings and observe social 
distancing.

 For more info call (626) 744-
4124 or eamil: mjomsky@
cityofpasadena.net.


Sridharan

New Year’s 
Starts with 
Tournament 
of Roses Two-
hour Special

Pictured top The PCC Tournament of Roses Herald 
Trumpets, bottom Michael Calderon and Calderon Jr. 

 Without the annual Rose 
Parade going down Colorado 
Boulevard on a perfect sunny 
Friday, the nation instead woke 
up to the TV entertainment 
special “The Rose Parade’s New 
Year Celebration presented by 
Honda.” 

 The celebration, featured 
musical and marching band 
performances, heartwarming 
segments related to the 
Rose Parade, celebrity guest 
appearances, special Rose 
Bowl Game football highlights, 
equestrians, spectacular floats 
from years past, a behind-the-
scenes look into the making of 
a float and New Year’s messages, 
including from long time 
Tournament volunteer Michael 
Calderon Jr and his father. 
Calderon Jr. is known to many 
locally as “Mr. Pasadena.” The 
segment was about both his 
father Michael Calderon and 
himself.

 “I was incredibly humbled, my 
father who has been part of the 
tournament for over 36 years 
and I have been there 25 years 
myself…” Calderon said Friday 
to this newspaper about the 
special. “This [being a part of the 
Pasadena Tournament of Roses] 
was an opportunity for me to 
spend time in my adulthood 
with my father. Some follow 
their father’s footsteps; I was 
always trying to blaze my own 
trail. Yet the tournament was so 
appealing to me. To be part of 
this international organization 
that puts on this worldwide 
event, what an opportunity.”

 During the two-hour Special 
several past Grand Marshals 
made an appearance, including 
Gary Sinise who opened the 
show, Emeril Lagasse talked 
about cocktails on New Year’s 
Day. 

 Kermit the Frog was a highlight 
of the special as he conducted 
seniors in high school and 
colleges from bands across the 
country in a performance of 
“Everything’s Coming up Roses.”

 The special featured nine 
segments spotlighting award-
winning float participants and 
sponsors, their Rose Parade 
legacy and their commitment 
to the community. Some have 
been Rose Parade mainstays for 
decades, while others are just 
getting started on the annual 
procession down Colorado 
Boulevard.

 Many of the segments featured 
long time parade participants 
and their efforts to help during 
the Covid-19 pandemic, 
including providing food to 
communities and supplies to 
frontline workers. 

 For more information about 
“The Rose Parade’s New Year 
Celebration presented by Honda,” 
visit: tournamentofroses.com.

Pasadena 
Library, JPL 
Special Event

 The NASA Mars 
2020 Mission and 
the Search for 
Extraterrestrial Life

 Mars 2020, scheduled to land 
on February 18, is the first 
planetary mission since Viking 
with an explicit objective 
to seek signs of life. Unlike 
Viking, which was concerned 
with seeking evidence of living 
or recently dead organisms, 
Mars 2020 will explore rocks 
deposited more than three 
billion years ago when Mars 
was broadly habitable and the 
earliest records of life on Earth 
were forming.

 The Perseverance rover will 
collect about 30 core samples 
of rock and soil, seal them 
in titanium tubes, and cache 
them on the surface for return 
to Earth-based laboratories by 
future missions currently under 
study in cooperation between 
NASA and the European Space 
Agency (ESA).

 This concept, called Mars 
Sample Return, would be one 
of, if not the most, ambitious 
and potentially consequential 
scientific endeavors in human 
history.

 The program will be presented 
by Ken Williford, deputy project 
scientist for the NASA Mars 
2020 Mission and director of 
the JPL Astrobiogeochemistry 
(abc) Laboratory, which has 
focused on developing analytical 
techniques to search for signs of 
life and environment in some 
of the oldest rocks on Earth. 
In the abcLab at JPL, Williford 
studies the biogeochemistry of 
ancient Earth rocks in part to 
understand how we can apply 
similar techniques to the search 
for evidence of life on other 
planets - in rocks returned 
to Earth from the surface of 
Mars, for example. Questions 
and answers will follow. For 
more information and to Sign 
up visit: cityofpasadena.net/
library.

City Signs off in the 11th 
Hour on Rose Bowl Name

Dream Catcher 
Story Winners


The Pasadena public library 
announced the winners of the 
Dream Catcher Story Contest. 
Writers were challenged to tell 
us a story in 300 words or less 
that is inspired by dreams or 
capturing dreams. 

Organizers of the event gave 
a special thanks to judges: 
Natassia Mendez, Jesse Roth, 
Nick Smith, and Jasmine Sov.

And the winners are …

 Category 1: Grades 3-5

1st place: “Catching Dreams to 
Be the Dream” by Madeleine 
Cham, Age 11, Grade 5

2nd place: “Dreams” by 
Penelope Vuong, Age 11, 
Grade 5

3rd place: “What Happens In 
The Night” by Zoe Beheshti, 
Age 9, Grade 3

Read the winning stories 
on our Kids Blog: http://
pasadena-library.net/kids/

 Category 2: Grades 6-8

1st place: “The Day and Night” 
by Hera Hovsepian, Age 13, 
Grade 8

2nd place: “Never Let Go” 
by Pateel Krikorian, Age 13, 
Grade 8

3rd place: “As You Sleep I 
Feast!” by April M. Gonzalez, 
Age 12, Grade 7

All the winning stories can 
be found on their Teens Blog: 
pasadena-library.net/teens.

Transit Safety Event with Metro



 Metro Community 
Education invites families 
to a virtual Transit Safety 
Program workshop, January 
12 featuring how to ride the 
bus and train safely during 
the pandemic. Participate in 
a 45-minute chat featuring 
the new train system map 
with designated letters for the 
train lines, Discover Metro 
procedures for keeping your 
trip virus-free, and explore 
destinations you can reach via 
the L (Gold) Line. Also, enjoy 
a Safetyville videoclip for 
the entire family. Questions 
and answers will follow. The 
program will run from 5 p.m. 
to 6 p.m. on Zoom. 

 Sign up at: pasadena. 

 evanced.info/signup/
EventDetails?Eventid=3709.

 The Alabama Crimson Tide 
beat out Notre Dame Fighting 
Irish Friday in the first Rose Bowl 
game to be played outside the 
Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena 
since 1942. The semifinal 
game was instead played at 
AT&T Stadium in Arlington, 
Texas due to Governor Gavin 
Newsom’s orders in response to 
COVID-19.

 The Pasadena city council 
signed off on allowing the 
Tournament of Roses to relocate 
the official Rose Bowl Game and 
Rose Bowl name. 

 “We know that the decision 
was not an easy one to make,” 
said David Eads, Tournament 
of Roses CEO and Executive 
Director. “While we remain 
confident that a game could 
have been played at the Rose 
Bowl Stadium, as evident 
in the other collegiate and 
professional games taking place 
in the region, the projection of 
COVID-19 cases in the region 
has continued on an upward 
trend.”

 “We are very grateful to Rose 
Bowl officials and the City of 
Pasadena. They have worked 
hard to listen to the concerns of 
the CFP, the teams that might 
have played there, and their 
state and government officials,” 
said Bill Hancock, Executive 
Director of the College Football 
Playoff.

 According to officials, the 
Tournament of Roses received 
word late last week that the 
State of California would not 
make a special exception for 
player guests at the game. 
Additionally, with significant 
strain on medical resources 
throughout Los Angeles County, 
the Tournament of Roses 
recognizes that the well-being 
of the student-athlete needs to 
come first and that continues to 
be our top priority they said.


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