Arcadia’s Citizen of the Year, Sho Tay, will make his fourth run at City Council early next year. His two likeliest strongest opponents for the two available seats will be incumbent Mayor Gary Kovacic and former Mayor John Wuo.
Scott Hettrick
It’s still months before a candidate must pull filing papers from City Hall but Sho recently told a reporter at the Chinese Sing Tao Daily newspaper that he intended to run, which he confirmed this week with ArcadiasBest.com. Tay, who made a remarkably quick and nearly full recovery from a stroke last December, sits on numerous boards of local organizations from the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce, Arcadia Chinese Association, The Arboretum Foundation, and the Boy Scouts of America, to the Methodist Hospital Stroke Council, Arcadia Masonic Lodge, Arcadia’s Best Foundation, Arcadia Historical Society, and Arcadia Historical Museum Foundation, among others, many of which he has headed. The Chamber named him Citizen of the Year in March and he was recently among the organizers of the Arcadia’s Best Patriotic Festival recognized by Mayor Kovacic and the City of Arcadia for their volunteer efforts on the first-time community event.
Only two of five seats will be up for election in April 2012, that of Kovacic and that of current Councilman Roger Chandler, the latter of whom has reached his term limit of two consecutive four-year terms. Kovacic, Chandler and Wuo and three others — Mayor Pro Tem Bob Harbicht and Councilmen Mickey Segal and Peter Amundson — have been taking turns filling the five Council seats for the last five years, with one of them sitting out every couple years. In fact, with the exception of a couple terms by Gail Marshall and Sheng Chang from 2000-2006, Arcadia has had the same six men in the five City Council seats since the turn of this century in 2000. Kovacic’s series of terms began in 1996, while Chandler and Harbicht began serving about 25 years ago. Peter Amundson’s first term was in 2006. Amundson and Harbicht were re-elected last year and Segal was also elected in 2010 after taking his turn sitting out for two years when he was termed out in 2008.
Sho Tay
Tay, who came in fourth place in the last election to Harbicht, Segal, and Amundson, said he feels he suffered last time from the way the election wound up being decided along racial lines, according to many observers, when there ended up being three candidates of Chinese descent, including himself, and three Caucasian candidates. The election was also by far the costliest ever in terms of campaign spending, and the rhetoric became very intense, particularly among the Chinese media.
An owner of multiple independent businesses, Tay says he most enjoys serving the people and community of Arcadia, which is why he wants to run for Council. He also said he has no intention of letting the result of his last three campaigns deter him from following through on his pledge to himself and others to become a City Councilman.
— By Scott Hettrick