That task proved more difficult for three of the first-time candidates — Susie Fighera, E. Bonnie Marshall-Creel and Liz Arnold — who said they had never been to a council meeting before Thursday. Candidate Todd Thornbury, who also hasn’t been to a meeting, was out of town and had a statement read aloud for him.
“I was a little dismayed by the people who were there that had never been to a town council meeting before and didn’t seem to know how it operated,” said Mike Lawler, president of the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley and regular at most council meetings. “It’s like me saying I’m going to be a fireman, but I have no background in it.”
The forum opened the eyes of Fighera, a retired labor representative, to the long hours that current council members put in, leading her to withdraw from the race on Friday.
A medical condition would prevent her from putting in what appears to be a stiff time requirement, she said.
Council newcomer Cheryl Davis established herself as a staunch advocate of bringing an off-leash dog park to the Crescenta Valley, a mission she championed repeatedly during the question-and-answer session.
Davis, Arnold, newcomer Susan Kilpatrick and incumbent Dennis van Bremen said they would support a moratorium on multifamily development in the Crescenta Valley but did not offer a proposal for enacting such a restriction.
Incumbents Grace Andrus and Frank Beyt were the only candidates to oppose the idea.
“Absolutely no,” Beyt said. “It’s against the law.”
Though the moratorium idea was posed as a “yes or no question,” incumbent Charles Beatty, who touted his more than 10 years of experience on the council, said decisions about development should be left to “Mother Nature.”
