Council winners set to go

Kassakhian takes city clerk, Borucki remains treasurer, and voters
approve charter changes

Glendale News-Press
March 7, 2005

By Josh Kleinbaum, News-Press and Leader

GLENDALE — Voters picked three incumbents and a challenger who has
lauded the council’s direction despite an election rife with accusations
of a dysfunctional and hostile City Council.

Ara Najarian, an attorney and Glendale Community College trustee, topped
the council race with 9,054 votes, or 10.4% of the votes. Incumbents Bob
Yousefian, Frank Quintero and Dave Weaver followed Najarian. Yousefian
received 7,810 votes, Quintero garnered 7,677 and Weaver got 7,072.

The four will join Rafi Manoukian, who was not up for reelection, on the
council. Najarian, Yousefian and Quintero will serve four-year terms.
Weaver will serve a two-year term, completing the term of Gus Gomez, who
left the council in January to become a Superior Court judge.

“The majority of the community is supportive of all the good
accomplishments of this council,” Yousefian said. “We have a better
understanding of what the community wants and also, to an extent, a
mandate from the people of Glendale to say, hey, let’s move forward and
let’s make this city a great city. That’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

Ardashes Kassakhian coasted to victory over eight others for city clerk,
receiving 6,244 votes. His closest challenger, George McCullough,
finished with 3,739 votes.

Ron Borucki easily won reelection for city treasurer, receiving 13,113
votes. His challenger, Phil Kazanjian, received 7,257.

Voters also approved 21 amendments to the city charter, most designed to
eliminate obsolete language and make it comply with current practice and
state and federal law. Nineteen of the 21 amendments received at least
70% support from the voters.

Kassakhian, Borucki and the four council members will be sworn in at a
reorganizational meeting at 8 p.m. Monday. Council members will also
select a new mayor at that meeting.

Despite the election of three incumbents for City Council, the results
show some dissention in the community. Challengers John Drayman and
Steve Hedrick, who called for an overhaul of the council, both received
strong support.

Drayman finished in fifth place with 6,618 votes, just 454 behind Weaver
for the final spot. Hedrick finished seventh with 6,095, trailing Larry
Miller’s 6,176 votes.

“Clearly, the public was saying, at least for three incumbents, that
they wanted them back,” Drayman said. “Ara was endorsing the notion of
this incumbency, and that obviously resonated. But I don’t think you can
discount the notion that a large segment of the community resonated with
my message as well, or I wouldn’t have been outside by so few votes.”

Drayman said he is already considering another run in 2007.

As early returns trickled in Tuesday night, Chahe Keuroghelian and
Anahid Oshagan were consistently among the top four, propelled by a
strong push for absentee votes. But both faded as results from precincts
came in. Keuroghelian finished in eighth place with 6,007 votes, and
Oshagan finish ninth with 5,831.

“I guess the community was a little skeptical about new blood,” Oshagan
said. “It was kind of disappointing because of all of the capable women
that were running. There was no affirmation of the new things, good
things, that we could do.”

JOSH KLEINBAUM covers City Hall. He may be reached at (818) 637-3235 or
by e-mail at josh.kleinbaum@latimes.com.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress