Glendale News Press
April 11 2005
Newly elected to take office
City and school officials to repeat their oaths tonight; City Council
to select new Glendale mayor.
By Robert Chacon, News-Press and Leader
GLENDALE — Victors of Tuesday’s election will take office tonight,
ending the most hotly contested race for City Council in Glendale’s
history. And a new mayor of Glendale will be chosen.
Newly-elected city and school officials will be ushered into their
seats after they take the oath of office. And the City Council will
choose a new mayor to serve for the next year.
Three Glendale Community College trustees, a city clerk, city
treasurer and four councilmen will deliver their oath of office at 8
p.m. in City Council chambers. And newly-elected members of the
Glendale Unified School District, who will have been sworn in at a
ceremony earlier in the day, will be introduced.
There were many historic components to the race of 43 candidates for
12 offices. It was the first time 19 names have ever appeared on a
City Council ballot and the first in more than half a century that
voters selected four out of five council members. It’s also the first
time that more than two candidates have raised more than $100,000 for
their campaigns. This year, four of them broke the $100,000 barrier.
It’s also the first open race for city clerk since 1929, which led
nine candidates to compete for that spot — the largest clerk field
in the city’s history. Another first encompassed the amounts those
candidates raised.
But tonight the city’s new leaders will look forward as they elect
the city’s next mayor.
Rafi Manoukian, who has been a councilman since 1999, is expected to
be that next mayor. Typically, the chairman of the Redevelopment
Agency is voted into the mayor’s seat, but with the departure of Gus
Gomez, who resigned to take a judgeship earlier this year, that
designation is Manoukian’s, the vice chair of the agency.
Though the mayoral rotation has remained consistent over the years,
Manoukian is not counting his chickens before they hatch.
“Nothing is certain until the votes are cast,” said Manoukian, who
has already served one stint as mayor in 2001-02.
It takes three votes from the council to approve a choice for mayor,
and the council has rarely faltered in approving the next in line.
“It has happened, but I cannot think of the last time that it did
happen,” outgoing Mayor Bob Yousefian said. “It’s a matter of if you
can muster up three votes.”
The process will begin with a nomination from one of the councilmen.
A vote will then be taken and repeated until a new mayor is chosen.
The new mayor will preside over the remainder of the meeting.
Ardashes Kassakhian, who is replacing Doris Twedt as city clerk, will
perform the procedure. Though this will be his first function as city
clerk, it will go smoothly he said, adding that he will prepare by
watching videos of past mayoral selections.
“I have been going to City Hall since the election,” he said. “I have
met with folks in the management office and staff in the clerk’s
office. Doris has been very helpful. I’m crossing my fingers and
hoping there are no kinks.”
The mayor’s role requires considerably more time than being a
councilman, Yousefian said.
“People don’t realize how difficult it is to be mayor,” he said. “It
is extremely time consuming, and by the end of the year, they are
usually ready to hand over the gavel to someone else. I am in exactly
the same position.”
Yousefian will cast his vote in favor of Manoukian becoming the next
mayor, he said, citing his past experience in the position.
“At this point, I would want to be mayor,” Manoukian said. “Who
wouldn’t want to serve their city in this capacity?”
* ROBERT CHACON covers La Cañada Flintridge and La Crescenta. He may
be reached at (818) 637-3239 or by e-mail at
[email protected].