Quintero says ’14 months and out’

Although he’s agreed to stay on the City Council for 14 months, Councilman Frank Quintero this week affirmed that he plans to call it quits after his latest assignment is over.

“That’s it. No more farewells. Fourteen months from now I leave, and that’s the end of it,” Quintero said on his first day back Tuesday after leaving office two weeks ago.

The City Council appointed Quintero to the abbreviated term after former Councilman Rafi Manoukian stepped down, with two years left on his term, to become the city treasurer.

According to city rules, an appointee can only serve for 14 months and then the city must hold an election in June for a 10-month term. The winner of that election must run again in April 2015 if he or she wants to serve a full four-year term.

Quintero said he was still in shock from the appointment, but his experience will make for a smooth transition.

“I have been here for 12 years, so obviously I’ll be right back in the groove,” he said.

Quintero has been in South Korea for the past two weeks meeting with transportation and business officials, as well as with women who had been taken as sex slaves by the Japanese military during World War II — known as “comfort women” — so he was not in the city when the council decided to appoint him last week.

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