Election Itself an Issue in Glendora

In a city that canceled its 1984 election when nobody challenged two incumbent City Council members, there is special interest in Tuesday’s election.

Five candidates, including two incumbents, are vying for three council seats. Incumbents Lois Shade and Len Martyns are being challenged by Wally Battler, Bob Kuhn and Eugene (Gene) Osko.

The challengers said they are running, among other reasons, because they wanted to ensure that there would be an election this year and because Councilman Guy Williams’ decision not to seek reelection made the race seem worthwhile.

Shade, 42, identifies herself as “a full-time council member.” A homemaker who is completing her first four-year term, she said she puts in a 40-hour week on city business and “I just don’t work at anything outside the councilship.”

Low-Key Campaign

She said she is basing her low-key campaign on keeping Glendora fiscally sound and continuing to study waste disposal problems, needs for city services and updating of zoning ordinances.

Martyns, 51, said that keeping Glendora family-oriented and being of service to the community “are the only reasons for being a councilman.” A professor of management at Chaffey College in Alta Loma, he is completing his first four-year council term.

Both are campaigning with the traditional flyers, signs and advertising. Shade said her campaign budget is about $2,500, and Martyns said contributions to his campaign total about $3,000.

Battler, 52, said he is not accepting campaign contributions and is walking precincts to meet voters.

He said he works in security and law enforcement and is twice retired, once as a master sergeant in the Air Force and later as an insurance underwriter. He has not held public office in his 16 years as a Glendora resident and said, “The city has been good to us so, now that I have time available, I’d like to give something back.”

His chief issue, Battler said, is “preserving the integrity of Proposition 13 and opposing any user or utility tax that might circumvent it.” He also said he opposes any waste-to-energy plants that would increase smog in the San Gabriel Valley.

Kuhn, 42, said he is seeking a council seat “because I knew it was something I’d do at some point, and this is a good time.”

Long a community activist, Kuhn is a 22-year resident of Glendora and owner of an insurance agency. He is a four-year member of the Planning Commission and has been on the boards of the Chamber of Commerce, the YMCA, the Rotary Club and several other service clubs and agencies.

“I’m committed to living in Glendora the rest of my life, and I’m involved with where we’re going to be in the future,” Kuhn said.

He said he considers waste-to-energy plants and services to senior citizens to be the issues that most concern residents.

Will Spend $2,500

Kuhn said $4,000 has been contributed to his campaign but he will spend only $2,500 and will return the remainder to donors. Most of his campaigning, he said, “will be just being very visible and available.”

Osko, 44, is focusing almost all his campaigning on opposition to proposals to build waste-to-energy plants in cities surrounding Glendora.

A lawyer whose four years as a municipal judge were marked by controversy, Osko has often said he would like to be a state senator.

“I think some people might perceive this (council candidacy) as a step to higher office,” Osko said. “I would like a state senator to be from our area, but I don’t have any plans to run. But who knows what the future has for any of us?”

His main reason for running for office, Osko said, “is that almost no (local) officials have done anything to prevent building waste-burning plants. We need to get the message out. It’s a serious issue.”

Elected Judge

Osko, whose law office is in West Covina, was elected judge of Citrus Municipal Court in 1980. Within two years he was restricted to trying civil cases because the offices of the district attorney and public defender offices filed affidavits against him, asking that he not try criminal cases. Before he lost a 1982 bid to unseat a Superior Court judge, he was rated by the Eastern Bar Assn. of Los Angeles County as the least qualified of 32 judges seeking office. He was indicted on bribery charges by the county Grand Jury in 1983, but the charges were later dropped.

“I was totally vindicated,” Osko said. “I think the publicity will help. People in the Glendora supported me all the time. That’s why I want to do something--they supported me so strongly.”

Osko said he has loaned his campaign $2,000 which, with contributions, will give him between $3,000 and $4,000 to spend on advertising, flyers and signs.