Candidate’s City Election Reform Plan Under Fire

A political newcomer has proposed major election reforms that have drawn criticism from other candidates and City Council members.

Bob Torres, president of the Montrose-Verdugo Hills Chamber of Commerce and one of eight people vying for two council seats, said Saturday at a candidates forum that he favors limiting council members to two four-year terms, electing council members by district rather than citywide, and electing the mayor.

City Council members now rotate the role of mayor among themselves.

Torres presented his ideas at a forum sponsored by the Royal Canyon Property Owners Assn. The forum was the first of several planned by homeowners and business groups before the April 2 election.

The seven candidates who spoke Saturday--John Beach, Eileen Givens, Dick Matthews, Mary Ann Plumley, Mary Ann Prelock, Torres and Mayor Larry Zarian--reiterated their ideas Wednesday morning at a forum sponsored by the Glendale Board of Realtors.

The eighth candidate, Shirley Griffin, a marketing consultant and president of a citywide homeowners group who ran unsuccessfully for the council in 1989, did not attend either forum. Griffin said she did not intend to attend all candidate forums.

Torres, a real estate analyst who is a political unknown, took advantage of Saturday’s forum to become the first candidate to specify a platform and stray from the field’s general approval of the present council’s agenda.

Since the campaign began in October, most of the candidates have said they support the council’s recent adoption of growth-control measures, efforts to reduce traffic congestion, and consideration of a bond measure to buy and preserve undeveloped hillside land. But until Saturday, none had offered details about his position.

“We need to look at some form of districting,” Torres said Saturday at the hourlong forum before about 140 homeowners at the Oakmont Country Club.

“I think we cannot ignore 10,000 people,” Torres said, referring to roughly the number of signatures collected in a petition drive last year to elect council members from districts rather than at-large.

His proposals were criticized by Zarian, who is seeking his third term, and several other candidates.

“I wouldn’t be standing up here if council members were limited to two terms,” Zarian told the audience. Later, he said, “Districting . . . is pork-barrel politics. It will never work in Glendale.”

Councilwoman Ginger Bremberg, who attended the forum, sarcastically referred to Torres’ comments, saying, “The depths of abysmal ignorance were astonishing.”

But the Montrose businessman said this week that he expected the criticism.

“I think people see what they get when they look at me and talk to me and ask me questions,” he said. “I’m not so sure that that’s the same story with existing council members or some of the candidates.”

Aside from their responses to several of Torres’ proposals, the candidates mainly spoke Saturday and Wednesday about growth, hillside preservation, traffic congestion, water and crime, but offered few specifics on how they would address those issues.

Matthews, a former Carnation Co. executive who ran unsuccessfully for the council in 1989, and Torres said they favored increasing the city’s police ranks. Torres also suggested imposing a two-year moratorium on high-rise office buildings.

Givens, a community activist, and Plumley, a real estate agent and Republican Party activist, said they favored placing a bond measure on the November ballot to allow voters to decide whether to buy the remaining undeveloped hillside property in the city.

Beach, a data processing supervisor, said he wants to try to increase the city’s share of property taxes normally turned over to Los Angeles County.

On Saturday, after each candidate had given a short speech, one homeowner complained that their comments had been too vague.

“I would like no candidate to address any issue they don’t have a solution for,” said Harout Yepremian, a member of the Royal Canyon association’s board of directors.

Jack Hilts, vice president of the Glendale Homeowners Coordinating Council, an umbrella group of 15 homeowners groups, said the council is sponsoring a forum March 15 and will challenge the candidates to present more details about their positions on major issues.

“It’s difficult for voters to go along with generalities,” Hilts said after attending Saturday’s forum. “We want specific answers to these questions.”

But Prelock, who stepped down Saturday as president of the Royal Canyon Property Owners Assn., said the forum was only meant to provide an introduction to the candidates’ platforms.

“We intended to be informal and general, to allow the candidates to get the ball rolling,” Prelock said. “I don’t think that a candidate is required to be able to answer every question that is brought up.”

The candidates will square off again Feb. 23 at the Oakmont Country Club in a forum sponsored by the Deer Canyon Oakmont Property Owners Assn. The College Hills Community Assn. and the Glenmore Canyon Homeowners Assn. will hold a forum March 11.