Glendale City Council candidate Rick Dinger wants to serve ‘home’
Glendale resident and business owner Rick Dinger is among 10 City Council candidates campaigning to fill one of three open seats in the April 4 municipal election.
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FOR THE RECORD
3/5, 9:31 p.m.: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Rick Dinger as a Montrose resident. He is a resident of Glendale.
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Some La Crescenta residents will know Dinger from his small business, Crescenta Valley Insurance. Dinger’s father, Virgil, an immigrant from Panama, started the insurance company in 1969 and handed down the business to his son in 1999.
Dinger’s ties to the community run deep.
“Personally, I’m a Montrose guy. It’s where I grew up, and I feel like that’s home,” Dinger said. “I just like the small-town atmosphere. You can’t go down the street without knowing people.”
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Dinger became involved in the community shortly before running his insurance firm. He joined the Montrose Chamber of Commerce in 1997 and, during the next several years, become active in several organizations, including the Glendale College Foundation, Glendale Sunrise Rotary and Glendale Salvation Army.
This is Dinger’s second bid for a seat on Glendale City Council, running unsuccessfully in 2003. He said he now has a better feel for what the community is lacking and where improvements can be made.
“Fourteen years later, I’ve become more entwined in different aspects [of] the community and learned a lot more about the city and been more involved,” Dinger said. “I’ve been able to just by happenstance — with the work I’ve done in the city with all the different groups — I’ve made some great connections.”
Dinger’s long-term campaign issues include improving traffic safety and congestion, maintaining historic preservation and sustaining the city’s parks and open spaces.
“Somehow [parks and open spaces] are not getting [their] fair share, especially now with the explosion of apartments in downtown — that’s more people that need more places to go,” Dinger said. “We have amazing hillsides, and we need to keep those for people to enjoy. We need more space. We need to invest more in our parks.”
Sensitive to the fact that people will look up to him as a small business representative, Dinger said the city should take an example from the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, a national association.
He said he thinks the city should help small business owners in the same way the national insurance association has helped him with resources and information to run his company.
“I’m not a politician, I’m not a lawyer. I’m a small business owner, a father and somebody that just wants to bring integrity, transparency to the council and I think that I could do that,” Dinger said.
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Jeff Landa, jeff.landa@latimes.com
Twitter: @JeffLanda
