Altadena Elects Nine to Town Council

Nine people have been elected to the Town Council, an essentially powerless body that advises county and state government agencies.

Although voter turnout last Saturday was an “abysmally low” 522, Town Council Chairman Frank Bridal said the 11-year-old body provides an important forum for Altadena’s approximately 42,000 residents to express their concerns.

“We deal with the total range of what affects the local community,” said Bridal, now in the middle of his third two-year term. “And it’s a reflection of citizen concerns to the county supervisors.”

In annual elections held in conjunction with the Altadena “Old-Fashioned Days” celebration, Town Council members are elected to two-year terms and each represents voters from one of the seven U.S. Census tracts in Altadena. Each tract has two council members and one alternate. Alternates, who are elected to one-year terms, represent their tract at the monthly meetings when the regular council member cannot attend. Meetings are held the third Tuesday of each month at the Altadena Public Library.

Carl Hilbers, a 28-year Altadena resident who was reelected to the council for a third term, said that the council basically “reacts” to the concerns of residents.

“It’s a place for people to sound off and a place for people to act,” Hilbers said. “I’m personally very pleased. We get very good cooperation and get through the Civil Service maze to get to the right people.”

Bridal said that new members of the council will take office at the July meeting, during the annual council reorganization.

Elected council members were Hilbers, Paula Cook, James Crowley, Frederick Holland, Sally Johnston, Bill Kellogg, Marcus Lewis, Cue MacKenzie and Oscar Werner. Elected alternates were Barney Davis, Camille Dudley, W. W. Hollister, Beverly Hurt and Grace Payne-Hall.