Our Big Fat Election

It's election day in Glendale! Here is my long overdue City Council election post.

The candidates for City Council are:

• Dave Weaver (incumbent)
• Garen Mailyan
• Rafi Manoukian
• Mike Mohill
• Chahe Keuroghelian
• John Drayman (incumbent)

The very serious charges of battery brought against fired former Glendale PD spokesman Chahe Keuroghelian in 2000 deny him any consideration in my book, and if those didn't disqualify him, the immigration fraud charges in 2001 should.

Garen Mailyan has no experience and his only platform is running for Jesus and Anglo-Armenian relations, so he's out.

The fact that Mike Mohill is a "happily married to a woman" gay man makes him a much more sympathetic and complex character than I would have thought previously, and I now like him six times more than before.

Unfortunately, six times zero is still zero. Anyone who has ever endured a grueling, non-consensual conversation with Mike Mohill -- and I have endured several -- knows that it would be impossible for him to work effectively on Glendale's behalf, or on behalf of anything other than the sound of his own voice.

On to John Drayman. In the absence of concrete evidence of wrongdoing in the ADI issue, Drayman's record on the council of bringing development downtown, bicycle/pedestrian issues, historic preservation, arts-related projects, the Museum of Neon Art and his sincere dedication to his hometown of Glendale speak for themselves. In my personal experience (dating to before I had this blog or any larger public voice) John Drayman has been very engaged and responsive to constituent issues. He has my vote.

Dave Weaver...I'm not so sure. I believe Weaver always votes for what he believes is right, but we have very, very different ideas about what an ideal Glendale would look like. His vote against the Laemmle Theater complex at Maryland/Wilson over unrealistic parking concerns is one example.

I was not living in Glendale during Rafi Manoukian's previous two terms as a councilman, but in my research, I couldn't find any substantial dirt on him. That's something! Unless someone can convince me otherwise (and feel free to e-mail me personally and off the record if you'd like), I'm voting for Manoukian over Weaver.

For Board of Education, I'm voting Ingrid Gunnell and Mary Boger. Nayiri Nahabedian is disqualified for me due to the relentless negative mailers I received from her during her campaign against Mike Gatto for Assembly. Ugh. Out of my mailbox, mean lady.

Get out there and vote!

Glendale City Clerk on Twitter: @cogCityClerk
Find your polling place
Official City of Glendale Voting Information

Glendale News-Press School Board/Community College Board Endorsements
GNP City Council Candidate Interviews

Other takes on the election:
Burbank Blog
Daily News