ELECTION07:
Americana in Glendale

Glendale voters will have plenty of decisions to make in Tuesday's elections, but one City Council candidate will have a particularly interesting time that night.

If he's elected, Greg Krikorian would be forced to leave his seat on the Glendale Unified School District's governing board to assume one of the five key decision-making spots in City Hall.

Two seats apiece on the Glendale Community College Board of Trustees, the Glendale Unified School District governing board and the council are all up for grabs Tuesday.

Since Glendale's elections are conducted on an at-large rather than per-district basis, balloting could result in dramatic shifts in city policies at a time when Glendale is undergoing unprecedented growth, perhaps illustrated best by the giant Americana on Brand mixed-use development in downtown Glendale, which is expected to be completed around this time next year.

Other city council candidates are:

•  Lenore Solis, t he only woman running for the council. Solis was on the Water and Power Commission, the Human Relations Coalition and a member of the Water and Power Department's Street Light Committee.

•  * John Drayman,   a 48 year-old Montrose businessman whose issues include addressing   the “rezoning” of the city that allows “encroachment” by developers throughout city lands.

•  Chahe Kuroghelian, a 49-year-old small business owner and former public information officer for the Glendale police who touts his membership in 11 community groups. Kuroghelian has been trying to shake the shadow of an arrest in July 1999 that led to his conviction on charges of waving a gun in front of his wife in a threatening manner and his dismissal from the Police Department. Kuroghelian did not return calls for comment.

•  Herbert Molano, a business executive and activist who vows to increase youth program funding and deal with issues stemming from overcrowding.

•  Vrej Agajanian, a community TV host and professional engineer who pledges to serve no more than eight years while addressing a broad range of issues his program and his guests have raised over the years.

•  Dave Weaver , a two-term incumbent and Glendale's current mayor who also chairs the city's Housing Authority and Redevelopment Agency.  

•  Rafi Manoukian, a CPA, MBA and a two-term incumbent and former mayor who offers financial expertise in city funding and vows to fight overcrowding.

School board candidates are:

•  Elizabeth Manasserian, a parent and businesswoman who touts a longtime involvement with PTAs and programs, including Glendale Healthy Kids.

•  Nayiri Nahabedian, a university professor who says he will bring his “expertise in policy development, experience in the classroom and my fair-minded leadership,” as well as an endorsement from retiring board member Pam Ellis.

•  Todd Hunt, a businessman who has lived in Glendale more than 40 years and focuses on education as the key to the city's future.

•  Mary Boger, an incumbent and past president of the Glendale Council PTA who raised six kids within the city's schools and seeks to maintain class-size reductions.

Glendale Community College Board of Trustee candidates are:

•  Christine Rodriguez, a lawyer who has taught at Glendale Community College for more than seven years and wants to ensure that vocational as well as academic programs are available to students.

•  Tony Tartaglia, an incumbent who as president of the College Foundation Board led fundraising efforts that helped provide a new scoreboard and a newly renovated athletic field. He also chaired a group that pushed for passage of a $98 million bond funding package.

•  Dr. Vahe Peroomian, an incumbent who wants to expand the Garfield Campus as well as develop distance education programs.

Solis said she was booted off the utility commission for publicly opposing the practice of using utility funds to balance the city's budget, which she said hurts the elderly and poor in the end. Now she has made it an issue in her campaign. In addition, “We need campaign reform because the money pouring in from developers is really catching up,” Solis said.

Agajanian said he wants to increase public safety to create a city that cares more about its residents — a city “with allegiance to its residents” — and enact laws to protect the city's hillsides.

Drayman said he would reconnect people with the city's political process while maintaining a practice of intelligent residential and commercial growth.

“My goal is to ensure predictable zoning in single-family residential neighborhoods and to make sure that compatible housing is the byword of our city government with regard to future development,” Drayman said. “It's a matter of harnessing the power of public opinion and moving it in a direction that compels local government to provide the benefits our citizens are entitled to as taxpayers.”

Weaver said he wants to establish a hotline that could trigger a faster police response on weekends, when a majority of illicit housing-related activity occurs.

“We have a fair amount of illegal activity on weekends and we need to set up a hotline to have someone within 30 minutes to stop cutting trees, pouring foundations or illegal project work, which is often done on weekends because the city's closed and they believe there are fewer officers patrolling,” said Weaver.

“We also have potential downzoning plans in the works, of multi-family housing coming down to single-family homes. The only way to prevent residential areas from getting more crowded is by preventing single-family homes from being converted to apartments and condos.”

Krikorian is entering his seventh year on the board of education. If he is not elected to the council, he will serve as the board's president for the next two years. If he earns a spot on the council, he will have to relinquish his school board seat within a month and the school district would then have 60 to 90 days to appoint a replacement from a pool of applicants or host an election for the seat.

“The way I look at it is I'm providing continued service to the schools because my knowledge and expertise in dealing with schools would be brought to the City Council,” said the 44-year-old Krikorian, who works in his family's publishing business. “We have seen situations in the past like in Pasadena where the city discussed taking over schools, and now with [LA Mayor Antonio] Villaraigosa talking takeover in Los Angeles. Now we have the opportunity to elect somebody who can serve in the context of knowledge of what our children go through.”