Knockabout Council Races Dominate Glendale Elections : Campaigns: Two incumbents compete with three challengers for pair of seats. Voters will also select school board members and community college trustees.

Ask three-term incumbent Larry Zarian what he thinks of this year’s campaigning for City Council and he’ll tell you it’s the nastiest politics he’s seen since he was first elected in 1983.

In Glendale’s municipal elections Tuesday, voters will decide two seats each on the council, the Glendale Board of Education and the Glendale Community College Board of Trustees. But the council race has been the most volatile with real estate investor Zarian--running against fellow incumbent Eileen Givens and challengers David Wallis, David Weaver and John Beach--facing questions about his honesty, his record in office and even his education.

“This campaign is supposed to be about the issues, about who is best qualified to serve,” said Zarian, who has denounced his opponents’ charges as “lies and innuendo” and called his detractors “wanna-bes.”

“I stand on my record,” he said.

Zarian, 57, has touted his seniority on the council and participation in several key, regional agencies. If he is not reelected to a fourth, four-year term, Zarian contends, Glendale will lose the powerful Metropolitan Transportation Agency chairmanship and the opportunity it brings to push for a proposed Glendale-Burbank light-rail line.

But Weaver and Wallis dismiss the importance of the MTA post. More significant, said Weaver, are Zarian’s numerous properties in the city, which would pose a conflict of interest, preventing him from voting on light rail.

Weaver has asked the Fair Political Practices Commission to investigate the matter. And last month, Wallis insinuated that Zarian had lied about having a degree from UCLA.

Zarian maintains the light-rail project is ranked at the top of a county transit plan thanks to his presence on the MTA board. But he said he has stopped responding to personal attacks, which he said have “gone far enough.”

“My personal life is my own business,” he said. “I am proud of my investments; they have made it possible for me to spend the time required to be on the council.”

Zarian also says he attended UCLA but that he never claimed to have graduated. He refuted a 1993 article in the Los Angeles Business Journal that reported he held a bachelor’s degree in political science.

“I have never claimed to have been a great student,” he said.

Wallis said the aim of his attacks is to point out what he calls the two incumbents’ “conflicts of interest, bad judgment and lack of management and technical skills.” Wallis has also called Givens “a mere socialite” who is “simply not qualified” for office.

If elected, Wallis has promised to eliminate from council meetings the “puffery and patter that wastes an inordinate amount of time.” He advocates stern punishment for even small crimes, and is critical of programs like the city’s homeownership plan for low-income families.

“There are other, less expensive places for people to live,” said Wallis, a 58-year-old retired aerospace engineer. “That may sound harsh, but I cannot justify the city trying to reverse market forces.”

Such remarks, coupled with Wallis’ stern style and frequent mentions of his Caltech degree, have led critics to deem him a cold, intellectual snob. It’s an image the candidate said he is aware of.

“I can be arrogant,” he said. “I am possessed of an extensive level of education. . . . But people do not realize that I care a great deal for people and I am capable of sensitivity.”

Unknown to many, Wallis has been singing in piano bars in the Los Angeles area for many years, and he professes a love of Latin American culture.

Weaver, meanwhile, considers himself an outsiders’ candidate, and one of his goals as a councilman would be to get more outsiders involved in city affairs, he said.

“If I’m elected, things are going to change,” said the civil engineer, who is 55. “It won’t be just the friends and associates of the council that you see at City Hall. I’ll go out and find qualified, talented people and urge them to run for City Council or apply for the commissions.”

Weaver said this year’s campaign fireworks are a breakthrough because some candidates have broken an old taboo by criticizing and challenging the incumbents and offering alternatives.

“(Zarian) has called us inexperienced wanna-bes, but I take exception to that. The issue is that he has a real credibility problem. He bends and stretches the truth, and when he does that I feel it’s incumbent for me to call him on it.”

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Givens, completing her first year as mayor, has escaped most of the heat in the campaign. Instead of trading barbs, she has focused on her accomplishments and goals. If elected to a second term, the 51-year-old activist said it will be her last.

Givens touts the broadcasting of City Council meetings, a new community policing program, a recent summit on the needs of youth, and the city’s ambitious urban plan as accomplishments for which she can take some credit.

In the next four years, she said she hopes to switch the time the council meets from afternoons to evenings to make city government “more open and accessible.”

Givens has a broad support base, but she has not received as much money from developers as she did in her first run for office four years ago--a fact she attributes to her support of a 1993 ordinance curbing hillside construction.

Beach, meanwhile, has hinged his campaign on a piece of city-owned property where a city parking structure was destroyed by the Northridge earthquake. A 49-year-old retired data processor, he contends it would make the perfect location for a planned new police headquarters. The city, however, is considering rebuilding the structure and leasing it to developers of a shopping mall.

Beach says the city is “giving away a piece of the public’s property” and has demanded the council allow voters to decide how the property is used by placing a referendum on the city ballot. He proposes converting the existing police station into a recreation center for youths and the elderly.

Crime on campus has been the focus of the school board election, in which two businesswomen--who are political novices but longtime PTA volunteers--face two men with business and political ties but no children in the public schools.

John Gantus, an attorney who has worked behind the scenes in local campaigns, said his two children attend private Catholic schools because of his family’s religious beliefs. Peter Musurlian, who is district director for U.S. Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale), is unmarried and has no children. Nonetheless, both men say they have a stake in the public schools.

Musurlian, 33, who has worn his Republican politics on his sleeve in the nonpartisan race, has vowed to work with police on a comprehensive analysis of crime in the schools. He also promises to support implementation of Proposition 187 and oppose affirmative-action policies, and he said he thinks only a minimum of classroom time should be spent on AIDS education.

Gantus, 46, supports turning some school playgrounds into neighborhood recreation centers. He also wants to cut student loitering and vandalism by teaching respect for property rights.

Both Pam Ellis, with a master’s degree in business and a 20-year corporate career, and Lina Harper, a certified public accountant, claim they have the skills to tackle the school district’s $130-million budget.

Ellis, 44, is the only candidate with two children currently enrolled in the schools, while 53-year-old Harper’s two children have graduated.

All four candidates seeking the four-year terms have promised a more activist approach but vowed to stick to the board’s current agenda.

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While incumbent Robert K. Holmes and newcomer Victor King often praise Glendale Community College’s leadership, former Associated Student Body President Michael Smith has been the dissenting voice of the college board race, accusing college leaders of ignoring students and “lining their own pockets.”

Smith, 37, has also asked the Fair Political Practices Commission to investigate certain officials for allegedly using campus printing materials to support his opponents. College officials have said they and city police are investigating Smith for allegedly trying to persuade security guards to let him enter campus offices after hours.

“We’re paying our taxes for the students, to educate the students,” said Smith, a 1994 graduate who is a construction manager. “Some people may interpret my candidacy as being just for the students, but it’s because that’s what we’re paying for.”

With state funds drying up and the college’s decade-long growth spurt ending, Holmes said he wants a fourth, four-year term to help usher the college into a new phase.

“For years this college grew like mad, and now that the money is gone, it’s going to shrink somewhat. What we have to concentrate on now is preserving the quality of our programs,” said Holmes, a 47-year-old lawyer.

King, 30, a business attorney who was raised in Glendale and attended the college, advocates hiring a full-time grants administrator to help all departments seek new funding.

He also wants to start a computer bulletin board that would assist in registering for classes.