BURBANK ELECTION : Candidates’ Battles Hold the Spotlight : Politics: Issues in Tuesday’s vote may be overshadowed by the fights of a City Council incumbent and a school board hopeful.

The Burbank City Council election Tuesday is highlighted by a colorful but controversial incumbent who is battling for her political life.

The election for two seats on the Burbank Unified School District Board of Education is highlighted by a candidate who is battling the very school board he wants to sit on.

The focus on Mary Lou Howard, the lone female and the most senior of the five-member City Council, and school board challenger S. Michael Stavropoulos, who has been embroiled in legal and verbal conflict with the board for more than two years, has captured most of the attention in the two races--much to the chagrin of those who say issues are being ignored.

In seeking reelection, Howard, 53, is attempting to become only the second Burbank council member in history to serve more than three four-year terms. Her opponents have said Howard has been around long enough.

Although her people-oriented politics has made her one of the more popular public officials in Burbank in recent years, Howard only placed third in a field of 16 candidates in the February primary, behind fellow incumbent Robert R. Bowne and planning board Chairman George Battey and ahead of engineering consultant Thomas McCauley.

The top two vote-getters among the four candidates will win the two council seats.

Howard, who is also a member of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, has said the present City Council has lost touch with residents who are concerned about increasing development and its effects. She said she is one of only two council members who care about controlling growth.

“I don’t listen to special developer interests like the other councilmen do,” Howard said at a candidates forum last week. “I’m not one of the good ol’ boys who kowtow to the whims of developers.”

However, Bowne attacked Howard as a politician who provokes divisiveness.

“She says she’s slow-growth, but I’m not sure what she represents,” said Bowne, 46, an attorney. “Her style of governance capitalizes on division and controversy in a way that enables her to increase her power base.”

Bowne has also received his share of criticism. Opponents have attacked him for what they call his favoring of developers over residents. He has also fostered resentment by voting to place himself on the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority.

But Bowne said he has a “thoughtful, moderate approach” toward development, “with sensitivity to viewpoints by other people.”

Battey, 64, a civil engineer and businessman, has said he believes that there are already enough restrictions on development and that the city would suffer financially if further restrictions were adopted by the council. He has said he wants to balance neighborhood concerns with “the economic realities we are faced with.”

McCauley, who was the city’s public service director before he was asked to resign, said there are benefits and disadvantages to development. He said the council was spending too much time on development issues and not enough time on improving city services, air quality and transportation.

Even more heated than the council race is the contest for two seats on the school board. Generating the furor is a dispute surrounding Stavropoulos and his motivations for running for the board.

The other three candidates in the runoff and officials of the Burbank Teachers Assn. say Stavropoulos appears to have a personal vendetta against the board. About two years ago, the board ruled that Stavropoulos’ son did not legally live within district boundaries at the time and could not attend school there. Stavropoulos took the battle to court and lost.

Since then, Stavropoulos has been one of the most vocal critics of the board members, often berating them at televised City Council hearings. His son now attends school outside the district.

“I don’t know why he is running, but it does not seem to be because he cares about the children of Burbank,” said Bonnie Shatun, political action chairwoman of the teachers group.

Several neighbors of Stavropoulos, 55, a neurosurgeon, have also come out against him, saying his clashes with them make him an unworthy candidate. They said he has parked numerous cars on his front lawn and kept scores of dogs in his yard.

“We question his ability to be a role model for students and teachers when he’s behaved this way in the community and neighborhood,” said Gene Walsh, a retired NBC executive who lives near the candidate.

Stavropoulos insisted that he has no vendetta against the board. He said his critics were just trying to divert attention from what he called the failings of the school board to deal adequately with district problems.

“I’m not the issue,” he said. “There is a concerted effort by the school board to sidetrack from the real issues. They’re on the defensive since they have to defend their failures.”

Also in the race is incumbent William Abbey, who has been on the board since 1984; Elena Hubbell, a former PTA council president, and Joe Hooven, a member of the Burbank Park and Recreation Board.

The teachers group has endorsed Abbey and Hubbell, saying they have the most experience and involvement with schools. The Burbank Board of Realtors has endorsed Hubbell and Hooven.

Stavropoulos and Hooven say the board has not been aggressive enough in addressing the poor physical condition of the schools. Although none of the district’s 11 elementary schools, three middle schools and three high schools have major structural damage, officials said the schools overall are not in good shape.

But Abbey and Hubbell have said the problem with the schools is a lack of state funding not neglect by the board.