At a recent Los Angeles City Council meeting where longtime trail-blazing politician and environmentalist Cindy Montañez was honored for her years of public and community service, the woman of the hour was swarmed by friends and colleagues following a council presentation.

But rather than keep the focus on herself, the moment she saw her friend Mark Gold, former president of Heal the Bay, Montañez asked him about a school greening effort.

“She’s selfless,” said Gold, director of water scarcity solutions at the Natural Resources Defense Council, who has known Montañez for more than 25 years. “It’s never about Cindy. It’s always about the greater objective.”

In interviews and public testimonies this week, friends and colleagues described a woman who doesn’t seek out attention for herself but has devoted her life to championing causes such as environmental justice, education, healthcare and consumer protections.

She pursued change in every role she took on — during her time on the San Fernando City Council, as a member of the state Assembly, as an employee for the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power where she rose to assistant general manager, and in her role today as CEO of the nonprofit TreePeople, which is dedicated to planting and protecting trees.

For her work through the years, the city councils in San Fernando and Los Angeles both recently voted to rename portions of Pacoima Wash Natural Park after 49-year-old Montañez, who is battling an aggressive form of cancer. Montañez advocated for the remake of the San Fernando park, which now features walking trails, a picnic area and a stormwater capture system.

Montañez’s advocacy and leadership dates to her days at UCLA, where, as a freshman, she joined a 14-day hunger strike to demand the university start a Chicano studies department, paving the way for the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies.

Her efforts in championing for her community continued with her historic election to the San Fernando City Council and then to the California state Assembly. In 1999, at age 25, Montañez became the youngest person ever elected to the San Fernando City Council. At 27, she became the mayor of that city.

She continued breaking records when, in 2002, at age 28, she became the youngest woman ever elected to the state Legislature.

Two years later, at 30, Montañez was tapped to chair the powerful Assembly Rules Committee, becoming once again the youngest person, first Latina and first Democratic woman to hold that position.

Last week, that achievement was detailed in a resolution introduced to the Legislature by state Assemblymember Luz Rivas which declared Jan. 19 – Montañez’s birthday – as Cindy Montañez Day.

“The Honorable Cindy Montañez has broken numerous glass ceilings. Her impressive record in public service makes her one of the most influential civic leaders in California history,” Rivas said in a statement, adding that Montañez’s “fiery spirit and determination” is especially an inspiration to young girls and Latinas.

During the Tuesday, Aug. 29, L.A. City Council meeting, Councilmembers Monica Rodriguez and Imelda Padilla credited Montañez with opening the doors years ago for other Latinas.  Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, the youngest member of the L.A. City Council, thanked Montañez for starting her political career at such a young age.

“As Latinas, we take a lot harder hits than any of our male counterparts. … We hear it all the time. ‘You’re not nice enough. You don’t smile enough. Maybe you should say it a little differently,’” said Rodriguez, who called Montañez “unstoppable” and “relentless.”

Addressing Montañez, she said, “And I remember that you reacted in such a way sometimes that was perhaps unorthodox, but you made a change in how people heard us, how they saw us and how they recognized our immense power. And when they tried to silence you, they were ineffective at doing so.”

San Fernando Mayor Celeste Rodriguez said it was Montañez, who is now serving her second term on the San Fernando City Council, who encouraged her to put her name forward to become mayor of the small city in northeastern San Fernando Valley.

“She’s blazed so many trails. At the same time, she’s passed the torch and helped others,” said the 33-year-old mayor. “The way she expressed confidence in me helped me have confidence in myself. Being a Latina in this space isn’t the easiest to navigate. … I felt she had my back, especially as a young woman.”

During an interview last week, Montañez cited famed labor and civil rights leader Dolores Huerta and Gloria Molina, the first Latina to serve on the state Assembly, L.A. City Council and L.A. County Board of Supervisors, as among her role models.

As she reflected on losing 74-year-old Molina, who died in May following a three-year bout with cancer, Montañez broke into tears, saying, “We need to do everything we can while we can, and make a difference.”

Those familiar with Montañez’s work credit her for expanding TreePeople, both in its mission and reach.

Since 2016 when she took the helm of the nonprofit, TreePeople has seen its revenues increase nearly threefold, from $4.5 million to about $13 million, and has expanded its community tree-planting program to more than 15 regions, including the Inland Empire and South L.A., according to Alex Miller, a spokesperson for the organization.

TreePeople has expanded its mountain forestry restoration efforts by thousands of acres, expanded efforts to “green schools” by replacing asphalt with more gardens and green spaces, and recently launched an outdoor equity initiative to provide opportunities for youth and families to connect with nature during field trips.

In addition, under Montañez’s leadership, the organization took over leadership of Mountains Restoration Trust, since renamed TreePeople Land Trust, to protect more than 3,000 acres of land in the Santa Monica Mountains from development.

TreePeople has planted 950 trees in the city of San Fernando alone since 2019, according to City Manager Nick Kimball.

“She really wants to make a difference in the community. She knows that improving the environment is improving the quality of life for the community she cares about,” said Gold of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

After growing up in San Fernando, and seeing the disparities between lower-income communities of color like hers and more affluent neighborhoods — dramatic differences in air quality and even in the number of cooling shade trees — fighting for environmental justice became her passion.

Gold recalls Montañez approaching him at a fundraiser last year to talk about ways to get more state funding to plant more trees or create more gardens in schools while the California state budget was being finalized. One idea was for Montañez to reach out to state Sen. Bob Hertzberg, who represented parts of the San Fernando Valley.

“Not a month later, she pulled the whole thing off,” said Gold, recounting how Hertzberg’s office announced that an initial $50 million in the proposed state budget for school greening efforts had been increased to $150 million.

It appeared that Montañez had studied the art of negotiating during her years on the Assembly.

Martin Adams, before becoming general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power, worked closely with Montañez on a couple of programs when she was employed by the DWP and he worked elsewhere in the department.

He credits her for traveling to Sacramento to make sure a good portion of a state water bond measure would help pay for groundwater cleanup in the San Fernando Valley.

“I spoke to her the next day. She said, ‘I left the chamber at 4 in the morning. We’re in there,’” said Adams, referring to the money L.A. would get.

While describing Montañez as strategic, “dogged” and focused in her advocacy, Adams said she’s naturally engaging, a good listener who’s open to hearing from people who don’t share her viewpoints, and is widely respected in Sacramento.

“Because of the level of empathy and (relationship building), it didn’t always feel like negotiations or that she was trying to battle somebody. I think that’s why she was effective when she was at the legislature,” Adams said. “She would be making progress and getting things done, and I don’t know that people would even realize she’d move the needle in her direction.”

Jack Humphreville, a member of Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates, which makes budget recommendations to the mayor and L.A. City Council, said he often doesn’t share her political positions, yet he respects her practicality and is impressed by her thoughtful approach to fiscal matters.

During Montañez’s bid for a spot on the L.A. City Council, Humphreville said he often discussed the city’s budget with her.

“She did ask really good questions. This is not a rookie, if you will,” he said.

Although Montañez lost her bid to join the L.A. City Council twice – in 2013 and again in 2015, losing both times to Nury Martinez in Council District 6 – she was elected to the San Fernando City Council for a second term in 2020 – more than two decades after her first election to that body.

She said she has no regrets about the trajectory her life has taken.

Looking ahead, Montañez said she hopes all levels of government will put more focus on addressing climate change. Although the widespread focus on homelessness and affordable housing is important, the intense focus can come at the expense of addressing pressing environmental concerns, she said.

“We focus too much on one thing” at a time, she said. “We need to include climate change.”

“I hope that somebody emerges as the champion for environmental justice,” she said.

The fight for justice should never end, she said later in the interview.

“Did I do enough?” she asked. “No. But I did everything I could while I was able to.”