The Courier Newsletter: An LAist Collaboration and a New Semester

Welcome to the second semester of The Courier’s official newsletter. After a couple month hiatus for winter break and PCC’s winter intersession, we will be sending out our weekly newsletter at our scheduled time on Friday’s at 7:30 a.m. through Mid-June when our semester comes to close.

To kick off publishing this year, The Courier, led by the news team has spent the last several weeks collaborating with the LAist on three Pasadena centric voter guides covering the Pasadena City Council race, PCC’s Board of Trustee election and the Mayors race, also in Pasadena. We’ve also re-published a few of the voter FAQ’s from the LAist on The Courier site as a part of the partnership.

This will be the only newsletter this semester that will not feature a post from each section like our usual programming. Instead there will be links to each of our local guides and a few of the LAist FAQ’s.

Pasadena City College Board of Trustees

In the Pasadena Board of Trustee race, three seats in area’s 2, 4 and 6 are up for election amidst a Superintendent-President search and a post pandemic budget crunch that could be looming for public institutions and aid programs. Both Jim Osterling from area 2 and John Martin from area 6 announced their retirements in late 2023. Four candidates are running for those two seats. The incumbent from area 4, Tammy Silver is running unopposed.

Pasadena City Council and Mayor

In the Pasadena City Council race there are currently five seats up for a vote, from districts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. Those elected to the position for the next four years will face significant challenges including the continued implementation of Measure H, the housing measure that passed in November 2022, to the goal set out by the council in an ordinance in 2023 to become 100% carbon-neutral by 2030 and city charter reform.

Pasadena is run as a council-manager form of governance, typical of cities with smaller populations and political influence, meaning the mayor in Pasadena does not have the same governing powers or influence like the mayor of Los Angeles. The position in Pasadena is largely symbolic and for handling city business, legislative advocacy and acting as a spokesperson for city affairs locally, nationally and internationally. This year, Mayor Victor Gordo is running for a second term against opponent Allen Shay.

LAist Guides

Over the course of this partnership, The Courier has re-published four of the LAist Guides which will be linked below.