New mayor; no surprise

With few surprises expected and none given, the La Cañada Flintridge City Council Monday night elected native Southern Californian and eight-year City Councilmember Stephen A. Del Guercio to his second term as mayor. His first term was from 2003 to 2004.

Councilmember Laura Olhasso was elected mayor pro tem.

Del Guercio, who was the previous mayor pro tem, replaces former Mayor David Spence, whose fourth term in office ended Monday.

The public elects City Council members, and a mayor is elected by the council members to a one-year term of office.

Del Guercio said Monday the city owes a debt of gratitude to Spence, who has served 16 years as a councilman. Del Guercio likened Spence’s legacy to that of longtime, much beloved Mayor and councilman O. Warren Hillgren, who also served this city for 16 years as a councilman and four years as mayor.

Del Guercio said he’s honored to begin a second-term as mayor of the city where he grew up and, together with his wife, Elysa is raising a family.

The couple has three children, sons Chris, 19, a freshman at the University of Southern California, and Jordan, 16, a junior at La Canada High School, and daughter, Cami, 11, a sixth-grade student at La Canada Elementary School.

Stephen Del Guercio, 46, is one of three children born to Ron and Lee Del Guercio, of La Cañada. He has an older sister, Leslie, who lives in Santa Barbara, and a younger sister, Lisa, of La Cañada. His family moved to La Cañada from Ladera Heights, near Westchester, when he was 10 years old.

He attended the former Oakgrove Elementary School and Foothill Intermediate School, and graduated from La Cañada High School in 1979.

After high school, he earned a bachelor of arts degree in English from USC, and a juris doctorate from the USC Law Center. He then joined his family’s law firm. He is currently a managing partner with Demetriou, Del Guercio, Springer & Francis in Los Angeles.

In addition to his law practice and city government, much of Del Guercio’s time is taken up with his children’s school activities, he said, adding that he’s looking forward to accompanying his son Jordan’s upcoming high school band trip to Spain.

He also enjoys playing piano and guitar and occasional hiking and mountain biking treks on the trails of La Cañada. “The trails have always been a part of my life, I’ve always enjoyed being able to walk out my door and see the beauty we have here in the foothills,” he said.

Del Guercio said he’s looking forward to his year as mayor. “We have a slate of exciting projects we’ve been working on as a community and as a city,” he said. A few things he’s looking forward to, he said, are the beautification of the Angeles Crest Highway, repairs to the Flint Wash Trail, connection of the Loop Trail, and working with the school district on joint projects.

Perhaps the most challenging project Del Guercio will be expected to lead the city through in the coming year is the highly anticipated sewer projects for the remaining portion of the city. The council is currently grappling with dividing that portion of La Cañada Flintridge, formerly known as sewer district No. 5 – specifically everything south of Foothill Boulevard – into up to three separate sewer districts. Several public hearings and response from a survey of residents last fall led the council and city staff to begin looking at anticipated design costs and estimates for using a low pressure sewer system in one potential sewer district, gravity flow systems in another and hooking up another section to a separate sewer line.

Del Guercio, who lives in the flat portion of Flintridge that’s expected to be part of sewer district No. 4, isn’t afraid to take on the sewer issue, which the city has “been tackling for about eight years,” he said. “Sewers are always a difficult a difficult project. You can’t engineer something like that in a community with physical differences without problems.”

And, though sewers are an important investment that is needed, he said, “It’s an expensive investment that does impact people.”

One issue Del Guercio said he’s glad was at least temporarily resolved prior to his taking the gavel from Spence, was revision of the city’s animal keeping ordinance, which went through about six months of controversy prior to receiving the nod from the council, after very little public comment Monday night.

Del Guercio said he could understand both sides involved in that issue, since he had four chickens when he was a youth, one of which was a “very obnoxious” rooster.

“It was important to follow up with the animal ordinance because it did need some clarification,” he said.

“There are some rare occasions when someone with animals is not as sensitive to neighbors as they should be, but on the flip side, we’re living in a semi-rural community and we certainly need to respect that tradition.”