Need for a Diversity of Viewpoints on City Council

By Alan Reynolds

We have 2 Lawyers, a Firechief, an MD, and a UPS Logistics manger on City Council. No Private Business Owners, no Engineers, and no one under 50. The majority of the council also resides in generally the same region of the City. I feel under represented, do you?

First off some back ground. I was born here and grew up in South Pasadena, my parents moved here both as a town with great schools and a central location for both of their jobs. I attended South Pasadena Schools (Monterey Hills, SPMS & SPHS) and participated in youth sports, Little League for a few years, and 12 years of AYSO as a player, 2.5 additional years (5 teams) an assistant coach. I participated in Track and Cross Country, being named Captain twice for Track and once for Cross Country.

I received an academic scholarship for leadership and attended USC and earning a Bachelors of Science in Aerospace Engineering. Soon after graduating I married my wife, Kathleen Morales, and we soon purchased the house I grew up in and have continued to enjoy the wonders of South Pasadena, recently welcoming our daughter, now 2 months old. After a little while living in town, now with a new perspective as an adult and home owner, I wanted to be able to give back and be involved in our city, and was appointed by, then Mayor, Schneider to the Parks and Recreation Commission. While on commission we prevented the development of a hillside park that would have removed open space and been invasive to the local residents.

At the end of my term I was not re-appointed and decided to join the Kiwanis Club, in order to continue being involved in helping our community and served as Team Captain for the Kiwanis Relay 4 Life team. At the same time I started to investigate running for City Council and was one of the first 3 people to pull papers and file.

In the last year and a half, I founded my own business, serving as a technical sales and engineering consultant; providing products and expertise to solve the problems and needs of the southern California region for RF electronics components and subsystems, recently expanding and bringing on employees.

I feel that I bring the perspective of a Business Owner, the problem solving mentality of an Engineer, and the view point of someone who is generationally different than other Councilmembers and Candidates, while having a basis of being a native South Pasadenian with 27 years of living in our city.

I hope that my unique blend of perspectives can add to our Council and provide a way to address the concerns of the people in our community.