New faces enter the race for town council

A lot of fresh faces are running for Altadena Town Council and several veterans are out, in a race that also sees two census tracts not fielding any candidates, and four of eight with only one candidate running.

The only census tracts with races are 4610, with three candidates vying for the seat being vacated by Bernardean Broadous, and 4602, with newcomer Alex Shay running against incumbent Okorie Ezieme.

Besides Ezieme, other incumbents running are current chair Diane Marcussen in 4613 and Judy Matthews in 4603.01, who are running unopposed.

Besides Broadous, other current councilmembers who have decided not to run are Ed Meyers in 4601; Sandra Thomas in 4603.02; Richard Moon in 4611, and Reggie Wilkins in 4612.

Subject to the approval of the town council on Tuesday, May 20, this year’s slate will be:

CT 4601

No candidate

CT 4602

Okorie Ezieme (incumbent)

Alex Shey

CT 4603.01

Judy Matthews (incumbent)

CT 4603.02

Gloria Sanyika

CT 4610

Michelle Martinez

Felicia Lee

Jessica Mack

CT 4611

No candidate

CT 4612

Jennifer Lee

CT 4613

Diane Marcussen

Some descriptions of the new faces from the candidate packets:

• Alex Shey is a community college instructor and television production manager.
• Michelle Martinez is a financial manager in the legal industry and 15 year resident.
• Felicia Lee is a 30 year Altadena resident, who has been active with the West Altadena Project Area Committee and as an African American Parent Council site coordinator at John Muir High School.
• Jessica Mack is a manager at Southern California Edison and is vice-chair of the board of directors for the Collaborative for High Performance Schools.
• Gloria Sanyika is a home economist/nutritionist, member of the Altadena Community Garden, and certified aerobics instructor working with Head Start.
• Jennifer Lee is a documentary filmmaker (“Feminist: Stories from Women’s Liberation”).  Lee’s husband owns a small manufacturing business in town. She is active with the NBBA walkability project.  (For search engines: this is not the same Jennifer Lee who is the director of “Frozen.”)

The candidates will be approved at the Town Council meeting on May 20, which will also feature candidate presentations.  Neighbors Building a Better Altadena is also sponsoring a candidate forum the following Tuesday, May 27, at the Altadena Community Center. Early voting will be June 3, with the election scheduled for June 7.