BURBANK : 11 Compete for 2 Seats on Council

While the two senior members of the Burbank City Council have decided to give up their seats in next year’s municipal elections, 11 contenders, including a former three-term councilwoman, will vie to replace them.

The departure of Robert Bowne, who was first appointed to the council in 1984 and won reelection in 1987 and 1991, and George Battey Jr., a council member since 1991, could leave behind a council composed entirely of freshman members. The three other sitting council members were all elected in 1993, replacing incumbents who also chose not to seek reelection.

“The process of accomplishing city business could become slower at first, as the new members go through the learning process,” said Battey, 72. “But I’m confident the voters will select people who are truly representative of the city.”

Battey, a retired engineer, said he chose not to seek a second term so he could spend more time with his family. He said he will continue to serve as an ex-officio member of the construction committee of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a post to which he was recently named.

Of the council candidates, only two have held elective office previously. Robert Dunivant, 59, a real estate agent and former Burroughs High School football coach, is now finishing out his first term as a Burbank School Board member.

Mary Lou Howard, 57, served on the City Council for 12 years before she was ousted in the 1991 election.

Two other council candidates have run unsuccessfully for the office before. Jules Kimmett, a retired janitor and a mainstay at the council’s weekly meetings, has tried twice, while painting contractor Bob Kramer fell only about 100 votes shy of a council seat in the 1993 election, when Bill Wiggins, David Golonski and Susan Spanos were elected.

The other candidates are Jerry Augustine, a financial secretary; William Thomas Barron III, an engineer at the city’s power plant; David Gerred, a member of the city Planning Board and owner of a glass company; Ted McConkey, a retired aerospace engineer and president of a local homeowners association; Todd Tomlinson, owner of the Grounds Zero coffee house, a popular youth gathering spot on San Fernando Road, and Peter Ray Torres, a salesman.

Each candidate qualified for the ballot by turning a petition signed by at least 50 registered voters from Burbank to the city clerk’s office by last Friday, city officials said. The four top vote-getters in a Feb. 28 primary election will compete in an April 11 runoff election, city officials said.

Six candidates also filed nomination papers for two open seats on the Burbank School Board. Incumbent board members William Abbey and Elena Hubbell are being challenged in their reelection bids by Malcolm Kelman, a marketing consultant, Mike McDonald, a realtor and retired NFL football player, David Nos, past president of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce, and Steve Tannen, another former professional football player.