Spotlight on Sierra Madre Volunteers 

Spotlight on Sierra Madre Volunteers is a weekly column that spotlights the people who donate their time to help keep their city ticking.  Check each week to see which of the folks you work side by side with is being recognized in the latest edition.  Click the photo to enlarge it.

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Anna Laws -- Activist in Retirement

It didn't take Anna Laws (click photo to enlarge) long to become a Sierra Madre activist. She arrived in 2004, and her concern about over-development led her to join the petition efforts for Measure V, the controversial measure that passed two years later.

Anna explained, "To impose the number of units proposed for the Nursing Home Facility and Howies Market would have adversely impacted the City. Water supply, traffic, City police and fire services and the financial position would have been severely stressed. Measure V maintained the hillside views and the low level nature of the City by securing the two-story height restriction."

Anna said, "Everyone's entitled to a place to live but not on top of each other...I was delighted when Measure V passed."

She also helped the Police Department obtain signatures on a petition for their increased salaries. She said she had many ideas that the tax implications would be greater or wouldn't yield enough to give the police a salary increase.

Anna audited the Ad Hoc committee that submitted recommendations for the Utility Tax that would support the police salary increases. She believes that the Utility Tax was the only measure considered that would have yielded sufficient funds to cover the increased funding required for police and emergency services.

As a retired accountant she felt the City agenda reports with warrant details, zoning proposals and other matters to come before the council were an excellent insight into the operation of the City.

Anna is surprised at the small number of people who attend City Council meetings. "We need to support people on the council because they give us their energy and time."

Anna is a native Californian, having been born in the San Joachin Valley. She was raised in Oceanside and Carlsbad, living in the "back canyon," and was bused to school. She said the ambiance of that area in the '30s was much like Sierra Madre. After graduation, Anna went to work in the defense plants to do "her share," and was married at the end of World War II.

As a trained accountant she worked at local and national advertising agencies, living in Hollywood and raising her son, Peter, who, with his wife, Teri, live in Sierra Madre. And that's why she moved here -- to be near them. She retired in 1996.

In conclusion, Anna said she was surprised at the "acrimony" at City Council meetings.

What cause will she take on next? "Let's see what the local miscreants are going to do next."