Rick Cole is being presented with a Political Leadership Award for his lifelong involvement in government and public service. This year he returned to the Pasadena City Council, a position he first held 40 years ago.
During his first years of service as a Councilperson in Pasadena he was involved in the revitalization and preservation of Old Town Pasadena. He then moved on to the city manager position in Azusa where he carried on neighborhood improvement initiatives guided by citizen input that brought new stores, houses and industrial parks and revitalized the center of the city reflecting new urbanist concepts. Rick continued in this direction while serving as the city manager in Ventura and Santa Monica.
One of the hallmarks of Rick Cole’s success in reshaping urban environments has been his insistence on educating and involving the public and publicizing events with clear and engaging meeting notices. This practice has allowed him to build consensus among and mobilize hundreds or in some cases thousands of stakeholders, which in turn has helped make the final projects highly successful. He has applied this same level of grass roots involvement during the last months in his position on the Pasadena City Council.
A former Deputy Mayor for Budget and Innovation in the City of Los Angeles, he recently retired from a position of that city’s Chief Deputy Controller, overseeing the accounting, payroll, and audit functions for a $13.2 billion dollar budget.
He has been involved in Pasadena 100, a coalition of 23 organizations (including the Sierra Club) promoting Pasadena’s electric utility to a carbon-free future by 2030.
Rick has been recognized nationally as one of America’s “Public Officials of the Year” by Governing Magazine and won awards for his expertise in municipal management from the American Association of Public Administrators and the Municipal Management Association of Southern California. His hallmark has always been how to improve results for people, striving for “government that works better and costs less.”
Join us at the 2025 Political Leadership Awards and celebrate Rick Cole and other environmental champions who are standing up for democracy and a sustainable future for our planet. Get your tickets here.
