By Charles COOPER

New political year launched

The 2010 political season is now in full swing with Paul Krekorian completing the move to the Los Angeles City Council.

Krekorian vacated the 43rd Assembly District seat he has held for two years, and a special election will be called to fill out his uncompleted term to December. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will call the special election soon, and the date could be as early as April or as late as the June primary.

In addition to the special, a full term will be on the ballot this year, likely starring many of the same players and thoroughly confusing voters. Candidates will begin filing as soon as the date has been set and there are likely to be a number of names in the race. The district is Democratic by registration.

A new name that emerged last week is Glendale school board member Nayiri Nahabedian, a teacher at Cal State L.A. Other local names which have been mentioned include Glendale city clerk Ardashes Kassakian and Mayor Frank Quintero.

Burbank Republican Sandor Ramani has declared his intent to run. Others include L.A. Democrats Mike Gatto and Andrew Westall.

Windows issue debate continues

After a three-hour special meeting, the City Council doesn’t appear to be much closer to a solution of the issue of new and replacement windows in single family homes.

Homeowner and historic preservation groups have complained that vinyl and fiberglass windows have been used as a cheaper substitute for wooden windows, producing design and appearance conflicts.

The city is only considering windows that are visible from the street. New installations are deal with in design review, but the city is looking for a way to deal with existing out of code windows.

A citywide inspection effort was dismissed as draconian and expensive, even with an amnesty for owners who installed before the date of the inspection, and a point of sale inspection was also offered as a possible solution.

Council member recalling past code enforcement battles such as the front-yard fence issue aren’t eager to plunge into another controversial enforcement issue. The whole matter was referred back to staff for further tweaking.

Tunnel topic for meeting

The California Department of Transportation will hold the first of a series of community meetings on the technical study just completed for the proposed 710 tunnel Wednesday at Wilson Middle School, 3221 Monterey Road in Glendale.

The study has been looking at five possible routes for the tunnel to connect the 710 to the 210 Freeway in La Cañada.

Drawing strong support from staff is a proposed line through Eagle Rock to the 2 Freeway, and up the 2. Glendale is opposed to the proposed tunnel.