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City Council candidate Mark MacCarley wants to ‘Make Glendale Livable Again’

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One look at Glendale City Council candidate Mark MacCarley’s history and it would be difficult to question his commitment to civil service.

A retired U.S. Army general and business owner, MacCarley, a Glendale native, joined the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department shortly after law school in a reserve capacity, including 10 years on the sheriff’s Montrose Search-and-Rescue Team.

He also spent 12 years as an active-duty Army officer, serving during the height of the United States’ conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, earning the rank of a two-star general before retiring the Army uniform.

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Still, MacCarley will tell constituents that he’s not running as some sort of military candidate, but as a Glendale resident who wants to continue a commitment to his community.

This time around, he would like to be a member of City Council, where MacCarley said he can bring the broad scope of his military service to a position that can help resolve the city’s challenges.

“The council people that are elected are going to have to develop some form of consensus or work with at least two other council members in order to drive forward a vision that’s consistent with what the people of Glendale want, and that’s what I learned overseas,” MacCarley said. “It’s all about bringing people together.”

MacCarley currently runs a law firm and was previously involved in multiple philanthropic and community organizations including the Verdugo Mental Health Assn., the Bridge-Away Across Drug Rehabilitation Center and the Family Service Center.

Running with a campaign that wants to “Make Glendale Livable Again,” MacCarley’s platform is influenced, in part, by what he says are the detrimental changes he’s seen in the city since returning from military service.

At the forefront of the MacCarley campaign is slowing down luxury development — which he said may require a one-year moratorium — and supporting local law enforcement officers as they handle a 20% increase in violent crime, according to midyear crime statistics released last summer.

With those two issues in mind, MacCarley said building a better relationship between the city and small businesses will help in funding services that go toward public safety and reducing traffic congestion brought on by recent development.

“Small business is the engine that generates the revenues that infuse the city with the necessary funds to address my No. 1 and 2 [priorities],” MacCarley said.

Last year, MacCarley ran as a Republican in the state Assembly’s District 43 primary, but failed to make the runoff, trailing in third place behind Ardy Kassakhian and the eventual winner, Laura Friedman.

“If you ask me why [I’m running for City Council] — and I know this is absolutely alien to most people — but it’s a motivation that those of us who have served know, it’s this concept of selfless service,” MacCarley said. “It means you dedicate yourself to do the right thing at the right time regardless of personal cost.”

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Jeff Landa, jeff.landa@latimes.com

Twitter: @JeffLanda

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