Pasadena Assistant City Manager Was Top Colton Official

Colton City Manager Edmund F. Sotelo has been selected as Pasadena’s assistant city manager, overseeing the city’s urban environment.

Sotelo, 46, begins work in Pasadena July 1. He will be paid $92,769 annually in the new position, and will help guide city construction, environmental and capital improvement projects.

In Colton, under a yearly operating budget of $59 million, Sotelo was paid $85,000 to direct 650 city employees. He has been city manager for the past year. Pasadena has 2,000 employees, and an annual budget of $282 million.

A graduate of Cal State Dominguez Hills, Sotelo has worked in city government for 23 years. He began as a heavy-equipment operator in March, 1968, in Compton, and worked his way up to assistant city manager.

Sotelo is the second assistant city manager hired by City Manager Philip Hawkey to fill jobs restructured by Hawkey. Assistant City Manager Callie Struggs was hired in July to oversee the city’s human services programs.

Sotelo, who is Mexican-American, lives in Norwalk but said he plans to move to Pasadena. He will be eligible for city assistance in finding housing. He is married and has three children, ages 23, 19 and 15.

The City Council approved the hiring of Ernest Mitchell on Tuesday to be Monrovia’s new fire chief, replacing retiring chief Mark Foote.

Mitchell, 43, who will be the city’s first black chief, has worked for the Compton Fire Department for the past 20 years. He is currently one of three battalion chiefs in Compton.

Foote, whose last day on the job is June 30, has worked for the 40-employee Monrovia department for 21 years and spent the last six as chief. The fire chief’s salary is $76,500 a year.

Phyllis Rabins of Monterey Park has been named 1991 Woman of the Year for the 59th Assembly District.

Rabins was selected for her work as an environmental and community activist, said Assemblyman Xavier Becerra (D-Montebello), who represents the district.

The Woman of the Year event is sponsored by the Women Legislators’ Caucus.

Donnie Brooks, the “Oldies But Goodies” impresario, has been honored by the County Board of Supervisors for his work on behalf of the Los Angeles Centers for Alcohol and Drug Abuse.

Brooks has raised $100,000 since 1986 from his twice-yearly Oldies shows at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium to benefit the centers.

Dolores Preciado, president of the Centers for Alcohol and Drug Abuse, and principal of Dewey Elementary School in San Gabriel, also was honored for her leadership to the group, which operates a facility in West Covina.