Los Angeles Daily News, CA
Jan 30 2004
20 to vie for 4 seats on council
Candidate field sets city record
By Naush Boghossian, Staff Writer
GLENDALE – Voters are gearing up for what officials said is the
largest City Council field in Glendale’s history with 20 candidates
and four seats on the ballot.
Election officials are verifying the 100 signatures each council
hopeful is required to submit with their filing forms, in the wake of
Thursday’s deadline. The city clerk will announce Wednesday whether
the signatures of registered voters for each applicant were adequate.
“It will be an interesting race. We have a wide variety of
candidates,” said City Clerk Doris Twedt, who said the most
candidates running in previous City Council elections was 13 in 1999.
The large field of candidates for the April 5 election is most likely
due to Gus Gomez’s departure, who left his seat earlier this month
after he was elected Superior Court judge.
“I think having an open seat is certainly is a catalyst for more
individuals to be interested in running,” Councilman Rafi Manoukian
said. “And that’s historically true not just for City Council but for
other elected positions as well. Whenever you have open seats,
invariably there are more candidates running.”
In addition to incumbents Frank Quintero, Dave Weaver and Bob
Yousefian, 17 residents filed their forms by Thursday’s deadline:
Vrej Agajanian; Aram Barsoumian; John Drayman, 46, a member of the
Montrose Shopping Park Association board; Pauline Field, 56, involved
with the creation of the city’s Commission on the Status of Women;
Hovik Gabikian, 35, eligibility worker; Glynda Gomez, 40, prosecutor
with the California Department of Justice; Shirley Yap Griffin; Steve
Hedrick, 52, a former Disney executive who now owns his own show
production company; Chahe Keuroghelian, former Glendale police
spokesman; Joe Mandoky; Larry Miller; Ara Najarian, 44, member of the
Glendale Community College board; Richard Seeley; businessman Garry
K. Sinanian; John E. Stevenson; Odalis Suarez; and attorney Anahid
Oshagan.
The controversial Americana at Brand development may also have
sparked interest in getting involved in local politics, said Larry
Levine, a political consultant with offices in Sherman Oaks.
“It’s definitely unusual. It usually takes one hot-button issue to
generate that much interest,” Levine said. “But it’s hard to know
what’s motivating 17 non-incumbents to run for office.”
Of the 17 non-incumbents, seven are of Armenian descent.
“The Armenian political community has been growing in influence over
the past 10 years and this could be a byproduct of that,” Levine
said. “This involvement could indicate the group is maturing in its
political interest in civic affairs.”
With so many people running, the biggest challenge may be a candidate
being seen as an individual.
“The biggest challenge is differentiating themselves from others in
the crowd and getting their message out to the public,” Manoukian
said. “It’s going to be difficult for the community to sort out who’s
who, and that’s the task of the candidate to get through to the
community.”
Anita Q. Gabrielian, Armine Hacopian, Victor King and Linda Sheffield
filed papers to run for three open positions on the Glendale
Community College Board of Trustees.
Ronald Borucki and Phillip Kazanjian filed forms for the city
treasurer position.
The city clerk and school board position deadlines are Feb. 1 because
incumbents are not running in those races.