Bob Yousefian

Alex Coolman CITY HALL -- The starting gun fired Thursday in Glendale's City Council race as would-be candidates filed preliminary forms to qualify for the April election. Grabbing paperwork in preparation for a council run were school board member Pam Ellis, Board of Zoning Adjustments member Bob Yousefian, television station owner Dave Wallis, television host Vache Mangassarian, Civil Service Commissioner Larry Miller, businessman Stephen Ropfogel, The Gas Company manager Tony Tartaglia and Mayor Dave Weaver.

Alex Coolman SOUTHEAST GLENDALE -- The lighter side of the political game emerged at a Thursday night Chamber of Commerce forum for City Council candidates, with office-seekers displaying the informal side of their personalities. Perhaps it was due to forum moderator Will Rogers' decision to employ a squirt gun as a time-control device, but there seemed to be something in the air of the downtown library. Candidates plowed through all the standard topics -- parks, hillside growth, and so on -- but they also managed, on occasion, to sound like people who were capable of cracking a smile.

Alex Coolman GLENDALE -- Council candidate Mary Boger scored an improbable coup in the election game Wednesday as she picked up endorsements from both the business-friendly Glendale Tomorrow and the environmentally oriented Sierra Club. Glendale Tomorrow also endorsed candidates Tony Tartaglia and Hamo Rostamian. The Sierra Club gave its stamp of approval to Frank Quintero and Bob Yousefian. Both Quintero and Boger previously captured the blessing of the three city employee associations.

Alex Coolman GLENDALE -- Practice makes the politician. With just one month left before Glendale's election, candidates are honing their stump speeches and coming up with polished versions of the positions they cobbled together at the outset. As candidate forums wear on, the men and women in the race get a better idea of how they relate to the other candidates. Sometimes the search for advantage leads them to shift their position. "I am finding out that some people are starting to say thing a little bit different than what they started out with," said City Council candidate Bob Yousefian.

FRANCHISE NEGOTIATIONS CONSULTANTS WHAT HAPPENED The City Council agreed to hire five consultant firms to conduct due diligence for the city's franchise renewal with Charter Communications. WHAT IT MEANS The city's franchise agreement with Charter Communications, which allows the cable company to operate in the city, expires Jan. 1, 2005. The city is negotiating a new agreement with the company, and these consultant groups will hold focus groups and surveys and conduct audits and reviews.

Joshua Pelzer The City Council on Tuesday will consider appropriating $30,000 to pay for the outside legal counsel hired to investigate the selection of Steve Zurn as Public Works director. The city hired the Pasadena-based Gutierrez, Preciado and House law firm in March to explore whether Zurn received preferential treatment when hired. Zurn was selected by an executive, a professional and a community panel after a 30-day, nation-wide search by an outside firm that resulted in seven finalists, three from within City Hall.

To those who had gone to bed after viewing the early returns Tuesday night, it was a remarkable upset. Around 10:30 p.m., first-time City Council candidate Laura Friedman was in a dead heat for third place with longtime contender Chahe Keuroghelian, while incumbent Ara Najarian sat comfortably in first. By sunrise, Najarian had dropped to a close second, and Friedman emerged as the election’s top vote-getter. Friedman’s victory, though, shouldn’t have come as a shock to anyone who followed the race over the last few weeks.

In a letter to the editor ("Making a case on El Tovar facts," March 8), Bob Yousefian states: "On the date of the upcoming hearing, it is important to note that it is the responsibility of the applicant (Karjoo) to make the case for the four findings required so the council can grant them the variances." This "fact" is dead wrong. On March 14, the council voted to hear the matter on Tuesday, April 11. City Atty. Scott Howard explained it would be a de novo hearing: Each side would be required to make their case anew -- just as if the council had no previous knowledge of the facts.

Tim Willert CITY HALL -- From curbing residential development and improving traffic safety to championing community cohesiveness and delivering safe drinking water, the City Council will have its hands full with a variety of issues in 2002. "Within the next year, we're going to have to make some major decisions," Councilman Frank Quintero said Wednesday. The council will meet Tuesday for the first time since Dec. 18, and is expected to consider a request by the Armenian Genocide Monument Council of Glendale to erect a monument at Perkins Plaza.