Tzeitel Paras-Caracci Elected Duarte Mayor;

Lois Gaston, Mayor Pro Tem in Annual Reorganization

DUARTE, CA, November 23, 2010  — Duarte City Council members voted unanimously to elect Tzeitel Paras-Caracci, Mayor for 2010-2011 and Lois Gaston, Mayor Pro Tem during the annual reorganization of the Duarte City Council on Nov. 23.

Paras-Caracci is currently serving her third term on the Duarte City Council. She previously served as mayor in 2005-2006, and chairperson of the Redevelopment Agency in 2004.

Paras-Caracci is a past president of APAMO (Asian Pacific American Municipal Officials), a National League of Cities Constituency Group, and formerly served a two-year term on the board of directors of the National League of Cities and the League of California Cities. She is employed as an administrative director at the Santa Anita Family YMCA in Monrovia. In addition to her duties on the City Council, she also serves on the board of directors of the Duarte Community Service Council and as a member of the Duarte Education Foundation.

Gaston, a retired AT&T executive, was first elected to office in 2003.  She served as Redevelopment Agency chairperson in 2004-2005, and was Mayor in 2006-2007, the first African American woman to hold that position in the City’s history. She is immediate past president of the California Contract Cities Association and was appointed to the Los Angeles Countywide Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee in 2009. Among her many community involvements she has served as vice president of the Duarte Education Foundation since the early 1990’s and on the board of directors of the nonprofit Foothill Unity Center since 1998.