Don't Breathe the Fumes!

Today the information booth in the grand entrance of Pasadena City Hall is being refurbished from stem to stern, including paint, wood varnish, etc.

We don't have any volunteers in the booth today for obvious reasons, so if you come to City Hall and don't know where a particular office is, there's a directory nearby or you can call the Public Affairs Office at (626) 744-4755 and get directions. That's the office I manage, and Linda Centell does a great job overseeing booth operations as well as training and nurturing our dedicated volunteers.


Chris Mathis (left), our cheery master carpenter who built the booth, was there this morning to check things out and stopped a moment to talk to one of our painters who touch up the enormous amount of outdoor wall and column areas at City Hall.

Tri-cities PIOs

The Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena PIOs get together every so often to discuss shared issues and catch up on each other's projects.

We rotate cities, and today it was Pasadena's turn. We met at Smitty's* on South Lake and had a bittersweet meeting.

I say that because Ritch Wells, PIO for the City of Glendale (at left in the photo above), is retiring next month. We decided he'll be the charter member of the Tri-cities PIO Alumni Association and will be required to attend all future meetings! And, of course, I'll roast Ritch but good at his retirement party.

Also in the photo are Keith Sterling (right), PIO for the City of Burbank, Vicki Gardner, assistant PIO in Glendale, and yours truly. Linda Centell, Pasadena's assistant PIO, joined us for lunch but had to leave before this photo was snapped.

I've known Ritch for 15 years -- ever since I sat on the interview panel that made the recommendation to Glendale's city manager to hire him. Our instincts definitely were right on!

Mystery History will return next week. I simply haven't had time to research a photo.

*Mike, before you ask, three of us had a special salad of the day with red and green cabbage, chicken, cranberries and other yummy ingredients, one had a hearty Cobb salad and one had meat loaf. All the meals were delish! Of course, it's the cornbread at Smitty's that knocks everybody's socks off (we ordered a pan for the table).

Your City at Work

Last Wednesday I began taping a new edition of "Your City at Work," a series on KPAS that has me following a city employee out of the office and into the field.

Past editions have featured a public health nurse, motorcycle cop, code compliance officer, arborist and other employees who don't spend all their time behind a desk.

This latest edition, which will air after some additional taping and editing are completed, features Jesse Reyes (in orange shirt below), a water troubleshooter with Pasadena Water and Power.


The camera crew is Davide Colleone, left, and Michele Maglionico. Linda Centell of the Public Affairs Office is the director.

What's a water troubleshooter? You'll have to tune in to find out! When the program's ready to roll, I'll let everyone know the schedule. All KPAS programming can be seen via streaming video on the Internet as well.

In the top photo I'm doing a little intro for the show in front of the Chapman Wellhead near PWP's water meter shop. The color coordination was coincidental!

The photos were shot by Linda Centell.

Some Odds and Ends

Happy Friday!

Here are few items that I've been meaning to post about but haven't had any time to do.

After I posted the big reveal to the Mystery History photo about the first locomotive in Pasadena, including the contributions of J.F. Crank, Mike Coppess was kind enough to provide additional information about Crank on his East of Allen blog. Take a look -- it's fascinating.


I took a couple of vacation days earlier this month to join a few fellow PIOs from throughout California at a farewell shindig for one of our own. Brad Rovanpera, PIO for the City of Walnut Creek for the past 24 years, is retiring and moving with his wife to Virginia, where he's going to pursue his lifelong dream of working at Monticello! (I'm jealous.)

The City of Walnut Creek will throw a big retirement bash for him, but the PIOs who have known Brad for many years wanted to do something special for him. Everyone gathered on the patio of P.F. Chang's in Fremont (near San Jose), coming from as far away as Pasadena (moi) and San Clemente (Judy Rambeau Franz, whose hand is on my shoulder; she's the former PIO for the City of Santa Monica and is retired). Most of the others work for cities in the greater San Jose area, although Erin Blount (in red) made the two-hour trip from Sacramento where she is PIO for First Five.

We gave Brad a scrapbook that encompasses his life as a PIO, which came as a pleasant surprise to him.


Two local bloggers paid me an evening visit at Pasadena City Hall recently. Karin Bugge and Petrea Burchard enjoyed the surroundings on this pleasant summer night. Petrea posted some photos from that evening on her blog, so check it out!


A couple of great employees in the Public Affairs Office were born in July -- Zack Stromberg, my graphic designer, and Linda Centell, my assistant PIO. We had a surprise birthday party for them last week complete with a cake made with loving hands by City Manager Michael Beck.


Speaking of the city manager, he welcomed and thanked our magnificent team of Public Affairs Office volunteers during a luncheon at Robin's Restaurant last week. Some work in the office and some work in the information booth in the grand entrance of Pasadena City Hall.



The volunteers stood and told us a little more about themselves than we may have known before. Here's Duane Allen revealing additional info:


We enjoyed the ribs and the chicken, and especially the desserts! This one is called a "messy sundae."



Enjoy your weekend.

Dear Jane:

We miss you already and it has only been three days since your retirement party!

Former (!) City Clerk Jane Rodriguez has left the building after 35 years of public service. Service is the operative word. Jane always went out of her way to keep impeccable records, provide accurate information, help anybody out, serve the council and much more.

Former California Attorney General John Van De Kamp and his wife offered their lovely estate for the party, which was an early evening affair with a number of senior city staff, elected officials and community leaders, all of whom came to bid farewell to the best city clerk Pasadena has probably ever had. Van De Kamp was chairman of the council-appointed Task Force on Good Government several years ago, and Jane was staff liaison to that task force.

Here are some photos.

Everybody gathered in the back yard.



Claire Bogaard and Al Moses:



Richard Bruckner and Ralph McKnight (and Linda Centell in the lower left):



John Van De Kamp, Victor Gordo and Victor's son Michael:



District 5 Field Representative Vannia De La Cuba, former District 5 councilman Bill Crowfoot and PUSD Board of Education member Steve Lizardo (who is also Vannia's husband):



Mayor Bogaard and his former field representative, Betty Ho:



Former District 2 councilman Paul Little and his former field representative, Margo Fuller, who is now field rep to Margaret McAustin.



Mayor Bogaard presented Jane with an official commendation:



Margaret McAustin presented a framed photo of the famous Pasadena City Hall stairway shot by Tavo Olmos.



Jacque Robinson presented a gift from Rose Bowl Operating Company, which is partially in her district.



There's a new bundle of joy in San Diego named Jack Henry! Barney Melekian rushed down there on Friday afternoon to meet his very first grandchild and had to miss the party. Julie Gutierrez and Stephanie DeWolfe, the assistant city managers, presented Jane with her official retirement gifts from the city: a clock and a plaque, both recognizing her 35 years of service.



Jane surrounded by the sterling City Clerk's Office staff.



The Wednesday Lunch Group presented Jane with kind words and a photo. This is a group of past and present city employees who, as the name implies, have lunch together every Wednesday. Left to right: Ted Reynolds, former assistant city attorney; Steve Mermell, director of finance; Judy Kent, field representative to the mayor; Stephanie DeWolfe, assistant city manager; Jane; Larry Newberry, former assistant city attorney; yours truly; Maria Stewart, former city clerk; and Robert Person, former assistant to the city manager. Nick Rodriguez, assistant city attorney, was on his way to a wedding and couldn't be there.



Jane thanked everyone, including her children, parents, brothers and sisters, some of whom were at the table in the foreground:



Then was a small after-party at Stephanie DeWolfe's house, made up mostly of Wednesday Lunch Group past and present plus just a handful of other special guests.

Steve Mermell, Ted Reynolds and Maria Stewart:



Library Director Jan Sanders and Mark Jomsky, our new city clerk:



Project Planner Leon White and Steph's dad:



Steph's parents, who are visiting from Michigan.



Jane is now retired, footloose and fancy free!



We miss you, Jane, but we'll see you soon.

God Bless the Volunteers!

Among our many other duties, my office (City of Pasadena Public Affairs Office) oversees the Information Booth at City Hall where 20 or so volunteers work a half-day shift once a week, usually with a partner.

They assist thousands of visitors every month, helping them find their way to city offices, giving them directions to local museums, restaurants and shopping districts, telling them that no, this isn't the courthouse, etc.

Our youngest volunteer is in college and our oldest is. . .well, it wouldn't be ladylike for me to reveal that!

Today we had an appreciation luncheon for our booth volunteers. We do this twice a year, always at a different local attraction so the volunteers can get a full understanding of the places to which they are referring visitors. We've had catered luncheons for our volunteers at Huntington Gardens, Castle Green, Fenyes Mansion, Norton Simon Museum and many other locations.

Today it was at Pacific Asia Museum.



We were going to do it in their beautiful interior courtyard but decided to move it indoors because of the heat. The staff there was very accommodating and set us up upstairs where the current exhibition is "Gangjin Goryeo Celedon: The Millenium Face." How wonderful to have our luncheon there, surrounded by lovely works of art. More about the art at the end of this post.



There was an initial meet-and-greet.



Linda Centell, Bernard Melekian and I took turns expressing thanks for our volunteers' dedication and gracious service.



David Spiro, on staff at Pacific Asia Museum, gave a general description of the museum to our volunteers plus some history and interesting biographical information about the museum's founder, Grace Nicholson.



Then a beautiful buffet luncheon of Cajun meat loaf with all the trimmings.



Linda and Barney distributed special gifts to each of the volunteers.



Here are some additional photos from the luncheon:







On my way out I snapped a few photos outside:







About the exhibition upstairs:

The Millenium Face provides western audiences with a rare opportunity to view beautiful Goryeo celadon and see the techniques involved in making it. Celadon came to Korea from China during the Shilla Dynasty (668-935 AD) and flourished during the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392 AD). By the 12th century, potters achieved a blue-green hue and inlaid technique called sanggam.

The exhibition is only there until July 12, so try not to miss it!