Glendale’s City Clerk announced that five candidates qualified for the ballot in the upcoming June 3 Special Municipal Election. Seven individuals had expressed interest in running but only five submitted papers to qualify.

The city clerk’s office confirmed that all five candidates who returned their papers had the requisite 100 signatures from registered Glendale voters to qualify each candidate for the ballot. The order of candidates to appear on the ballot will be determined by a randomized alphabets drawing that is conducted by the California Secretary of State.

The following are the names of the qualified candidates, listed alphabetically by last name: Rick Barnes – business owner/realtor, Paula Devine – retired teacher, Vartan Gharpetian – business owner, Chahe Keuroghelian – small business manager and Mike Mohill – retired businessman.

The June 3 Special Municipal Election was triggered by the election of then-Councilmember Rafi Manoukian to the office of City Treasurer in April 2013. The resulting vacancy was filled by retiring Councilmember Frank Quintero who was appointed by the Glendale City Council until such time that a special consolidated election could be held to fill the vacancy. The city council voted to hold a Special Municipal Election consolidated with the State Primary that will be conducted by the County of Los Angeles.

“Although we will not be conducting this election, we will be working closely with the County of Los Angeles’s Elections Division to provide as much information as possible to our city’s residents,” said Ardy Kassakhian, city clerk. “It will be a unique election in that most people are not accustomed to voting for city council in June, so we need everyone’s help in getting the word out to participate.”

The City of Glendale plans on updating its popular GlendaleVotes.org website with information about the election and the candidates vying for the open seat. The winner of the June election will have to participate in the April 2015 regularly scheduled biennial municipal election.