4 council candidates move on to general election; Frintner and Tabet secure Burbank school board seats
After the Burbank City Clerk’s office tallied 999 additional postmarked ballots on Friday, Mayor Jess Talamantes officially kept his seat on the City Council for another four years. However, four candidates will square off in the general election on April 11 for two open seats.
Talamantes, a retired firefighter, received 5,485 votes, or roughly 50.9%, which was good enough to earn him 50% plus one of the votes.
If a candidate receives 50% plus one of the votes, they automatically win a seat on the council, according to the Burbank election code.
Join the conversation on Facebook >>
There were 10,785 valid ballots cast out of the 66,711 eligible voters in the city, according to the City Clerk’s office.
Talamantes said he is honored and humbled to win for a third time and was surprised to win during the primary election.
“I just want to thank the voters for having confidence in me to represent them one more time,” he said.
Councilman Bob Frutos appeared to have clinched his council seat after the preliminary results came out on Tuesday, but after the additional ballots were counted, the retired police officer received 5,320 votes, or about 49.3%, failing to earn the 50% plus one votes needed to win in his reelection campaign in the primary.
That means that Frutos will face fellow incumbent David Gordon and challengers Sharon Springer and Juan Guillen in the general election next month.
“I will keep working hard to get my message out, and I respect the electoral process,” Frutos said. “That’s the way it works and I’m OK with it.”
Gordon, an optometrist, received 4,799 votes, or 44.5%, which was 406 more than preliminary results revealed on Tuesday.
Seeking his fourth term on the council, Gordon said he is pleased to have the opportunity to run in the general election, adding that he has never won a council seat in a primary election.
“It would have been nice to win in the primary, but I’m used to running in runoffs,” he said. “I think it’s an opportunity to get out there and do some more campaigning and bring my positions to the community to hopefully win their continued support.”
Springer, a nonprofit administrator, garnered 3,914 votes, or roughly 36.3%, which was enough for her to move on to the general election. It is the first time that Springer will be in a runoff, after failing to do so during her run for council in 2015.
“I’m just very grateful that I get to move on to the general election,” she said.
Guillen, a small business owner, said he thought he would be out of the running for the general election, but Friday’s final tally proved otherwise. He received 3,176 votes, or about 29.5%
“I guess there’s still a little fight left in me, right?” Guillen said. “Just when I thought I was out, they brought me back in.”
It will be the second time in three tries that Guillen will go on to the general election.
“Everyone’s starting at 0-0,” Guillen said. “I’m going to try and get out there and engage the residents and let them know what’s going on. There’s obviously an uphill battle, but our city’s worth fighting for, so that’s exactly what I’ll do.”
In the Burbank Unified school board race, the final tally did not lead to change from the preliminary results.
Longtime PTA volunteer Steve Frintner won the most votes with 5,745, or roughly 59.4%, followed by Charlene Tabet with 5,510 votes, or roughly 57%.
Tabet was first elected to the board four years ago.
For incumbent Larry Applebaum, the results confirmed that his 12 years on the board will come to an end this spring, as he received 5,398 votes, or about 55.8%.
Applebaum was first elected to the school board in 2005, after losing his initial bid in 2003.
Reached by phone on Friday, Applebaum said he’ll continue with his “official duties” until May, when the new members will be sworn in.
After that time, he added: “I’ll be around.”
anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com
Twitter: @acocarpio
Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
