YOUSEFIAN STEPS OFF THE DAIS
Jason Wells
Glendale News Press
April 14 2009
CA
Former colleagues bid him goodbye with grace and silence at his final
council meeting.
CITY HALL — As Councilman Bob Yousefian walked down the aisle of
the City Council Chambers on Tuesday afternoon, a man shook his hand
and apologized for the outcome of the April 7 election in which the
two-time incumbent lost his seat.
"Why? Don’t be sorry. It’s not like I’m going to die," Yousefian
responded.
Now in the waning days of his eight-year run as a councilman after
failing to convince voters to grant him a third term, Yousefian came
to terms Tuesday with his inevitable end, touting his achievements
and thanking the very colleagues who just two years ago handed him
a unanimous vote of no confidence.
His overtures, first at the afternoon Housing Authority meeting and
then later at the City Council session, were met with affable diplomacy
from Mayor John Drayman, who praised Yousefian for his tenacious work
ethic and dedication.
"I think you’ve done a terrific job, and we will miss you," Drayman
said.
The other three councilmen were silent at both meetings.
They were not so quiet in November 2007, when they joined Drayman in
publicly rebuking what had been a growing history of outbursts and
contrarian behavior both on and off the dais.
"Overall, I’ve personally had enough," Councilman Frank Quintero said
at the time.
A week later, Yousefian resigned his council-appointed post as the
president of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, along
with a handful of other board and commission seats, saying he wanted
to be "a free man."
He then repositioned himself as a man of the people, taking a more
populist tone at council meetings while breaking ranks with his
colleagues on a number of issues, most notably with the current
city budget.
For his reelection campaign, he touted pragmatism and steady leadership
while offering plain-spoken and upfront answers on the election
forum circuit.
But it was not enough.
On April 7, he received just 12% of the vote, putting him firmly
in fourth place behind Quintero by 1,466 votes, according to the
unofficial tally.
Though Yousefian said repeatedly that he was prepared to face the
music on election night, he acknowledged in a freshly cleared-out
office Tuesday at City Hall that the numbers were disappointing.
"I didn’t have the eye of the tiger," he said of his campaign. Still,
"I do not want to take things in a harsh way."
Even on his way out, Yousefian has been prepping his office for
his replacement.
He pulled open the desk drawer that will serve his successor, Laura
Friedman, and pointed to a stack of city staff reports on a number
of projects, some ongoing and some unfulfilled.
Ending eight years of intense public service would require an
adjustment, he conceded, but he had a construction contracting career
waiting for him. And he would continue to be active in civic life,
he said.
"If I can be helpful, I’ll help, but I do not intend to be the sixth
councilman," Yousefian said.
Despite his sometimes turbulent presence on the dais — and famous
episodes of stormy closed door meetings at City Hall — Yousefian
did earn a reputation for his meticulous preparation and review of
city reports, and for being fiercely dedicated to his office.
At his desk Tuesday, he said he hoped it would be the hundreds of acres
worth of open space procured during his time on the council, and the
laws he helped push to preserve them, that would stand as his legacy.
He rattled off a dozen other capital projects and policy initiatives
— the mobility study, parks, infrastructure upgrades, Unity Fest —
as proof of progress through the four iterations of the dais he served
on during his eight years.
On Monday, the City Council dais will undergo yet another
transformation when it certifies the election results and swears in
the victors.
With Friedman joining the dais, Councilman Ara Najarian will remain
as the sole member of Armenian descent.
Just four years ago, the Armenian community was celebrating the
political significance of achieving a majority on the council dais
with Yousefian, then-Councilman Rafi Manoukian and Najarian.
"It was an accomplishment," said Larry Zarian, Glendale’s first
Armenian council member and mayor.
Drayman, strongly supported by the homeowners associations and a
citywide grass-roots campaign, overtook Manoukian two years later. Two
years after that, Friedman did the same thing with Yousefian in much
the same way.
Now, with only Najarian left, a familiar post-election appraisal has
emerged: There were too many Armenian candidates who competed for
a specific voting demographic, splitting the vote and diluting the
chances of reelection for the incumbents.
"The Armenian American community’s vote was split by too many
candidates who never had a chance of winning," said Zanku Armenian,
chairman of the Armenian National Committee’s political action
committee, which endorsed only Yousefian and Najarian for council.
He added in a statement that his committee had made it clear to the
five other Armenian candidates early on in the election season that
their campaigns "had no chance" due to lack of qualifications.
Again, the split vote was indicative of the political pitfalls of
catering only to the Armenian community, Najarian said.
Despite repeated pledges from candidates like Chahe Keuroghelian,
Vartan Gharpetian and Aram Kazazian to represent and unite all of
Glendale, their campaigns were almost exclusively supported by the
Armenian community in either financial contributions or volunteer
support.
They also performed abysmally outside of those precincts containing
more recent Armenian immigrants, preliminary counts show.
While calling the results "a wake-up call" to the Armenian community,
Zarian said he hoped future candidates would move beyond the tired
nexus between ethnicity and politics.
"It is important that the community look at qualified candidates,
not necessarily what their ethnic background is," he said.