Our Upcoming City Council Election

The latest Arcadia City Council Candidate forum was held at the Arcadia Women's Club last Tuesday evening, March 23, 2010. Troy Henandez and I attended the forum and wish to thank the forum sponsors: the Arcadia Women's Club, the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce, the Arcadia Association of Realtors, and the Arcadia Weekly. The forum was hosted by the owner of Arcadia's Best, a local influential blogger, Scott Hettrick. While the Arcadia Weekly delivered a forum recap in yesterday's edition, the Pasadena Star News opted to offer only an opinion, naming their candidate choices. Scott Hettrick took issue with the PSN editorial and authored his own response on Arcadia's Best, citing blatant lapses in the PSN opinion piece. I believed that the forum was civil, informative, and left me with no doubt that the APOA has chosen to endorse the right candidates.

The Arcadia Police Officers' Association is built on unity, strength, honor, and integrity. Our membership, the men and women of your Police Department, are committed to each other, to our Department, our Association, and the Community that we serve. We work toward enhancing public safety and providing the highest level of service to all.

Our ability to deliver excellence to the Community is based on many factors, which indeed include support from City officials, members of the Community, and our City Council. Bearing this in mind, it is our responsibility to support political candidates that not only mirror our values as a group, but candidates that will deliver the same excellence in service that you demand of your Police Officers. Any successful organization is based on cohesive teams of people working together toward common goals. We have been lucky to have had leadership from top to bottom in this City in recent years and much of that credit goes to our current City Manager, Don Penman, and our Police Chief, Bob Sanderson.

Not that long ago, our Department was at a low point in morale and our staffing levels had reached all time lows with Officer positions being vacated right and left. At one point, our Department was down 18 of 75 Officers, putting a huge burden on staffing, overtime, and specialized programs. These factors contributed greatly to the APOA's diligent efforts to bring public safety to the forefront in the Community eye. We not only gained Community support, but a majority of then sitting City Councilmen, City Management, and APOA leadership worked TOGETHER to resolve contractual and personnel issues haunting us at the time.

Since then, the Arcadia Police Officers' Association has been called on by City management and City Council to step forward, TOGETHER, backing Measure A, State propositions, and to make employee concessions during these tough economic times. The APOA enjoys this excellent working relationship with our City family that includes our City Council and the Community.

The Arcadia Police Officers' Association stands firm in endorsing Sho Tay, Mickey Segal, and Bob Harbicht for Arcadia City Council. These three men will work TOGETHER looking toward the future and bringing excellence in service to the City of Arcadia.

Tom Le Veque, APOA

No Shortage of Firefighter Applicants

If you passed City Hall early this morning, you undoubtedly noticed a long line of folks and sleeping bags. No, it was not a City sponsored camp out, it was a few hundred people waiting in line for Arcadia Firefighter applications. The City handed out about 200+ applications early today. It is unknown how many spots are expected to be filled.

Good luck to all the applicants. Law Enforcement statistics show that on average 2 out of 100 applicants become Police Officers. I wonder what the percentages are for fire applicants?

APOA and St. Baldrick's Day

The annual St. Baldrick's Day celebration was held last night at Matt Denny's Ale House & Restaurant in Arcadia. Over $40,000.00 in donations were received by the St. Baldrick's Foundation that was founded to help fight childhood cancer. Dozens of Arcadia Police Officers and Firefighters, both on and off-duty gathered in support of the fundraiser. Take a look at photos of the event on the APD Facebook page. It was a joy to see the smiles on the children's faces as they rode in on the Fire Engine and helped in shaving the heads of Arcadia's Finest! The video above is from myFOXla.com and reporter Susan Hirasuna. Special thanks to Matt Denny's and Salon Del Sol.