Former councilman hospitalized

Karen S. Kim

BURBANK -- Paramedics rushed former Burbank City Councilman Ted

McConkey to the hospital Wednesday night, after the 71-year-old Burbank

resident felt a weakness in his left side and a numbness in his arms and

legs.

McConkey suffered from a transient ischemic attack, or “mini-stroke,”

but was released from Providence St. Joseph Medical Center on Thursday

afternoon.

“I’m tired, but being in a hospital will do that to you,” McConkey

said from his home Thursday.

McConkey stopped by his doctor’s office Wednesday after feeling some

symptoms of the attack and was given a CAT scan. Though the symptoms went

away later in the day, the weakness and tingling sensation returned

Wednesday night and caused McConkey to call the paramedics, he said.

McConkey served on Burbank’s City Council from 1995 to 1999. Since

then, McConkey has been an avid campaigner for the Restore Our Airport

Rights initiative -- a measure to limit airport expansion that will

appear on a special Burbank election mail-in ballot in October.

After a few days of bed rest, McConkey is scheduled to receive some

minor surgery in his neck to remove sediment plugging his carotid

arteries, he said.

But the former councilman said he’ll be back to campaigning for ROAR

as soon as possible.

“Tell all my fans and all my enemies that I’ll be back and dressing up

for the debate of the ROAR initiative,” he said. “I have to be because I

don’t have much choice. My father lived to be 93, so I’ve got another 22

years left in me.”