ELECTIONS / BURBANK : McConkey Beats Veteran Howard in Council Race

Ted McConkey, a retired aerospace worker in his first political campaign, won the fifth and last seat on the Burbank City Council Tuesday, beating a political veteran with more money and more influence.

His victory over two-time former Mayor Mary Lou Howard gives the council a new, solid majority against building a larger Burbank Airport terminal and opposing an increase in the number of flights or aircraft gates.

Out of a total of 8,872 votes cast, McConkey won with 5,413. Howard polled 3,226, with some votes cast unmarked.

“People don’t want old solutions to old problems, and they’re willing to give me a chance,” McConkey said. “Mary Lou has been inactive since she left office and that makes a difference.”

In a runoff for the last open seat on the five-member Burbank school board, small-business owner David Nos easily defeated incumbent William Abbey, by 5,398 votes to 2,991.

Nos, a past president of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce, will join the board along with incumbent Elena Hubbell and real estate agent Mike McDonald, both of whom won outright in February.

The results of Burbank’s general election came just hours after the Los Angeles City Council voted to appeal a judge’s ruling allowing airport officials to build a new, larger terminal.

Boosters want a new 465,000-square-foot terminal, nearly triple the size of the existing building. The planned terminal would contain enough room to accommodate 10 more commercial flights a day over the present average of 93 and 5.4 million air travelers by 1998.

Supporters say the larger terminal is needed to cope with an anticipated surge in passengers drawn by low-fare carriers and the convenience of Burbank Airport.

But Burbank and Los Angeles elected officials are so concerned about the potential for increased aircraft noise, traffic and air pollution that they have sought to halt expansion or limit the number of flights taking off over the East Valley.

Despite the political opposition, a spokesman for the nine-member board overseeing the airport remained confident that the project will move forward.

“The anti-airport sentiment is very modest,” said Richard Simon, a lawyer for the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority. “This terminal must be moved, and it will be moved.

“There’s no way you are going to replace a 165,000-square-foot terminal with a 165,000-square-foot terminal. Who would finance it? The project on the table is very reasonable.”

Both McConkey and Howard campaigned against increasing the number of flights and aircraft gates, but they advocated different ways to resolve the issue.

McConkey said he does not want a new terminal built at all, while Howard supports a slightly larger one to ease overcrowding.

The council promises to be dominated by an increasingly vocal faction of anti-expansionists, including Vice Mayor Dave Golonski, Councilwoman Susan Spanos and Councilman-elect Robert Kramer.

Two council members who retire this year, Robert Bowne and George Battey, Jr., came under strong criticism for their support of expansion as they served as commissioners on the Airport Authority.

Though they have been friends for years, McConkey and Howard differed in style throughout their campaigns.

Howard, 57, served three terms on the council from 1979 to 1991 and is so well known in Burbank that a colleague of hers once remarked, “She could stay home and pick up 5,000 votes.”

McConkey, 65, has been a regular at council meetings for the past eight years and has never been shy about criticizing City Hall.

Though he raised only $12,723 in financial contributions, a third as much as Howard, McConkey received substantial help in his campaign from Kramer, a popular newspaper columnist and painting contractor who won February’s primary and endorsed McConkey in newspaper ads before Tuesday’s election.