Meet the candidates running for Glendale City Council
A crowded field of City Council candidates will be vying for three seats on the dais in an election set for March 3.
Following a filing deadline of Dec. 6 — which was changed from Dec. 3 — eight candidates qualified for the ballot, including two incumbents. Three did not qualify.
To qualify, candidates must live in Glendale, be registered to vote and obtain 100 signatures, which must be verified, from registered Glendale voters.
Incumbents Paula Devine, who joined the council in 2014, and Vartan Gharpetian, who was elected the following year, have both tossed in bids for reelection. Both served as mayor during their respective tenures.
Glendale’s City Clerk Ardy Kasskhian, first elected to the position in 2005, is running for a council seat.
Current Planning Commissioner and business owner Greg Astorian is vying for a council seat, as is former Planning Commissioner and attorney Leonard Manoukian.
Other candidates include Dan Brotman, an economics professor and environmental advocate; William Keshishyan, a local car dealership owner who has worked on political campaigns; and Susan Wolfson, a retired accountant.
Wolfson suggested the city is becoming overbuilt in a candidate statement.
“We must end the era of aggressive development,” she wrote, adding that she would not place large developments near single-family homes and would ensure new projects have sufficient parking.
With a degree in public policy, Glendale native Keshishyan said he understands city infrastructure and planning.
“It’s time to bring professional practices to our policy-making,” he wrote in his candidate statement.
Astorian, who is active in several nonprofits, said quality of life one of his primary focuses in his candidate statement.
“I am a homeowner advocate and believe in fiscal responsibility so that every resident benefits,” Astorian wrote.
As a longtime resident, Kassakhian said in his candidate statement that the city’s growth has taken a toll on the local quality of life, and he would like to see positive change with respect to traffic, affordable housing and public safety.
Citing his longtime experience working with the city, Kassakhian wrote, “I know our city’s strengths, and I know where it needs improvement.”
On his campaign website, Manoukian said he would like to see a greater representation of renters and women in Glendale’s government. Renters, who reportedly make up about 66% of the city, are underrepresented on the city’s boards and commissions, he said.
“We are one community, and we must work together,” Manoukian wrote on his website. “I have a vision of neighbors who realize that their commonalities far outweigh their differences.”
A co-founder of the Glendale Environmental Coalition, Brotman said he and fellow activists helped win a greener deal for the repowering of the city’s local power plant this past summer.
Now, he said he’d like to make an impact on what he deemed other city issues, including large commercial and residential developments, traffic and infrastructure and affordable housing.
“Just as I did with the fight for clean energy, I plan to leverage my background in economics to find creative and cost-effective solutions to these problems,” he wrote.
Rostom Haroutioun Dadian, Roobina Sarkisian and Jae Eun Kwak submitted nomination papers but did not qualify to run.
This will be Glendale’s first municipal election to align with the state primary, following a voter-approved measure last year to consolidate the two.
Previously, Glendale’s local elections had been held in April of odd-numbered years.