3 Town Council Members to Surrender Seats

Three members of the Crescenta Valley Town Council will give up their seats in March after only one year in office, opening the way for new candidates who will file for election this week.

Councilman Anthony P. Hurtado and two alternates, William C. Bening and Joseph Grosch, said they will not seek reelection to the year-old council, a quasi-governmental committee that advises the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Elections will be held March 15 for six of the council’s 12 positions. Candidates must file between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Friday or from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Crescenta Valley Chamber of Commerce, 3131 Foothill Blvd.

The council is comprised of 12 members: three members and an alternate from each of three census tracts in the Montrose and La Crescenta area. One council position from each tract plus all three alternate seats are up for reelection this year. After the election, all council members will serve two-year terms.

Hurtado said he will step down to focus his attention on a long-term community plan that the council is developing. He said he will continue to serve as a volunteer on the community planning committee, of which he is chairman.

Larry Lousen, an alternate on the council from Hurtado’s district, said he will seek election to the vacant post. As an alternate, Lousen now does not have the power to vote except when substituting in the absence of a regular member.

Bening and Grosch, the other two alternates, said they will leave the council.

Bening said he is frustrated by his lack of voting power. “I feel like I’m not necessary,” Bening said. “I’ve got better things I want to do than sit around and wait around.”

Grosch said he is quitting because of personal reasons.

Two other voting council members up for reelection, Judy Tejeda and Bill Beavers, said they will seek their first full terms in office. Tejeda and Beavers were elected to one-year terms in the first council election.

Beavers ran for election last year on a campaign to halt the proliferation of billboards along the town’s commercial strip. The council persuaded the county supervisors to temporarily halt construction of new billboards, but Beavers said he wants to continue working for a permanent ordinance that may eventually phase out existing billboards.

Tejeda said she wants “to see some of the issues that we have started working on come to fruition.”

The council serves as the official voice of the isolated mountainside community of 21,000. Candidates will be introduced at the Feb. 15 Town Council meeting.