By Mary O’KEEFE

Los Angeles County Fifth District covers 2,800 square miles and is larger than the other four districts combined. It comprises 22 cities and 87 unincorporated communities including Crescenta Valley.

Kathryn Barger is the fifth district’s supervisor. It is next to impossible for individual supervisors to cover their entire area without the support of staff. It is imperative to have a person who attends local meetings, like that of Crescenta Valley Town Council, follow multiple chambers of commerce and listen to residents’ concerns from fire threats to road conditions. The supervisors’ staff members are the eyes and ears of the community.

Crescenta Valley has been lucky to have had Sussy Nemer be that liaison bridging Supervisor Barger with the community. She has been the person who has taken the thousands of calls from the community to help those who are concerned about all types of things, from bears in their backyards to the Foothill Freeway (210) construction and resulting noise. She has listened and connected people with those who can help, or has navigated red tape herself to get answers for residents. Nemer recently decided that she needs to spend more time with her family and left the job that she is not only good at but still loves. 

She has been the “behind the scenes” person for 22 years.

“I started as an intern at USC in my last semester,” she said of her career with LA County.

She learned a lot as an intern as she assisted the senior and assistant field deputies and performed a lot of case work. This internship taught her how to navigate the world of government, something that became invaluable as she made this work her life’s career.

“Working on code violations was a great way to learn the functions of each [LA] County department,” Nemer said.

Nemer was the senior deputy director in the San Gabriel Valley field office that encompasses seven cities, including Glendale, La Cañada Flintridge, Pasadena and Sierra Madre and unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County.

“Sussy is such a joy to work with and she will be deeply missed. She always took the time to meet and speak with residents and volunteers when our community wanted a dog park. She is extremely responsive and walked community members and the CV Town Council through the process of getting the first LA County owned and maintained dog park,” said Cheryl Davis, past president of CVTC. “I’ve only had the pleasure of working with Sussy for 13 years but, as an unincorporated community, Sussy’s role as senior field deputy for our Los Angeles County supervisor was so important during the Station Fire and ensuing debris flows. It has resulted in residents’ visions for a spot park, Welcome to La Crescenta signs, a larger and new library, bike lanes on Foothill Boulevard, the dog park, and medians along Foothill.  Her interest and support have been invaluable to our local non-profits and community organizations. I wish her all the best and some well-deserved time with her family. The La Crescenta-Montrose community is losing a good friend and Los Angeles County is losing a wonderful asset.”

“For those of us who had the privilege of working with Sussy Nemer . . . hard working, intelligent, inspiring, sincere, forthright and funny best describe her,” said Steve Pierce, executive director of CV Chamber of Commerce and a past president of CVTC.  “I do not recall Sussy ever saying ‘no’ to one of our requests. She would give us her honest assessment and the probability of our request becoming reality but would never say no. So much of what we enjoy about living in the Crescenta Valley is due to Sussy Nemer. Thank you, Sussy, for your many years of service and our many years of friendship.”

Harry Leon, current president of CVTC, said Nemer always took his call about every issue CV area was facing.

“What a loss for our community,” he said. “She was a friend to our community and always saw that we were taken care of. She was passionate about our community and our way of life. She was supportive of every event and she listened to our community.”

Nemer could not pick one issue that stood out as the most important she was involved with because there were countless issues she had to deal with that were important. She was pregnant during the Station Fire in 2009 and she was the fire deputy at that time. She was involved in the building of the new La Crescenta Library, the CV Skate Park, road improvements and medians along Foothill.

“This is a very rewarding job,” she said.

She felt lucky to work with both Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich and Supervisor Barger; she described both as dedicated public servants. She credited Antonovich with creating town councils across the unincorporated areas of LA County as a way to stay close to the communities and learn of their needs.

Over the past 22 years she has seen a lot of dramatic changes in the communities she covers and changing faces around the town council tables.

“The communities are constantly growing and evolving,” she added.

COVID-19 has changed the way her office reached out but that didn’t stop her from virtually attending meetings. The pandemic has been a challenge for many in the community and her office has dealt with many new issues.

COVID-19 has also changed her life personally as her young daughter is remote learning and needs her mom’s support.

“My job is very demanding and I [have] missed a lot of school activities of my daughter’s,” she said.

She is choosing to take the time now to be with her child and not miss more events, whether virtual or in-person.

“This [job] has been an incredible opportunity,” she said. “My job was never boring and there was not one single day that I went home [without] helping someone. The 22 years went by in the blink of an eye.”

  Mary Okeefe