Paula Devine wins open council seat
As Paula Devine took congratulatory calls Wednesday after clinching a seat on the Glendale City Council, one person phoned to remind her it wasn’t too early to be thinking about reelection.
She’s poised to fill Councilman Frank Quintero’s seat for 10 months and, after that, she’ll have to run again for one of three seats that will open up.
“Someone said just take a breath and start the campaign all over again,” said Devine, a retired teacher and board member on the city’s Commission on the Status of Women.
In her first council bid, she won 5,111 votes or 34% of votes in Tuesday’s special election for the sole seat.
Vartan Gharpetian had 3,338 votes or 22%; Rick Barnes had 3,141 or 21%; Chahe Keuroghelian had 2,074 votes or 14%; and Mike Mohill had 1,508 or 10%.
Though the tallies do not include provisional, last-minute vote-by-mail or damaged ballots, City Clerk Ardashes Kassakhian said that given Devine’s lead of more than 1,000 votes, a change in the outcome is very unlikely. She is poised to take her seat on the dais after the vote is certified by the county on June 30.
Devine said in a phone interview that she deeply wanted to thank all of the supporters who aided her campaign, as well as her four contenders.
“I want to thank my opponents for running a clean campaign and a respectful campaign as far as I’m concerned,” she said.
And despite a term that will last less than a year, Devine said she has several firmly formed goals she plans on pursuing, including working with the Glendale Police Department to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists and trying to find ways of mitigating traffic congestion in the downtown area.
Devine said she also would like to look into forming a panel on looking into reforming city employee pensions.
“I’m going to use my integrity and my values to make the best decisions for this community and hopefully those residents and people who voted for me will see that and vote for me again,” she said.
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Follow Arin Mikailian on Twitter: @ArinMikailian.
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