20 TO VIE FOR 4 SEATS ON COUNCIL CANDIDATE FIELD SETS CITY RECORD.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

GLENDALE - Voters are gearing up for what officials said is the largest City Council field in Glendale's history with 20 candidates and four seats on the ballot.

Election officials are verifying the 100 signatures each council hopeful is required to submit with their filing forms, in the wake of Thursday's deadline. The city clerk will announce Wednesday whether the signatures of registered voters for each applicant were adequate.

``It will be an interesting race. We have a wide variety of candidates,'' said City Clerk Doris Twedt, who said the most candidates running in previous City Council elections was 13 in 1999.

The large field of candidates for the April 5 election is most likely due to Gus Gomez's departure, who left his seat earlier this month after he was elected Superior Court judge.

``I think having an open seat is certainly is a catalyst for more individuals to be interested in running,'' Councilman Rafi Manoukian said. ``And that's historically true not just for City Council but for other elected positions as well. Whenever you have open seats, invariably there are more candidates running.''

In addition to incumbents Frank Quintero, Dave Weaver and Bob Yousefian, 17 residents filed their forms by Thursday's deadline:

Vrej Agajanian; Aram Barsoumian; John Drayman, 46, a member of the Montrose Shopping Park Association board; Pauline Field, 56, involved with the creation of the city's Commission on the Status of Women;

Hovik Gabikian, 35, eligibility worker; Glynda Gomez, 40, prosecutor with the California Department of Justice; Shirley Yap Griffin; Steve Hedrick, 52, a former Disney executive who now owns his own show production company;

Chahe Keuroghelian, former Glendale police spokesman; Joe Mandoky; Larry Miller; Ara Najarian, 44, member of the Glendale Community College board;

Richard Seeley; businessman Garry K. Sinanian; John E. Stevenson; Odalis Suarez; and attorney Anahid Oshagan.

The controversial Americana at Brand development may also have sparked interest in getting involved in local politics, said Larry Levine, a political consultant with offices in Sherman Oaks.

``It's definitely unusual. It usually takes one hot-button issue to generate that much interest,'' Levine said. ``But it's hard to know what's motivating 17 non-incumbents to run for office.''

Of the 17 non-incumbents, seven are of Armenian descent.

``The Armenian political community has been growing in influence over the past 10 years and this could be a byproduct of that,'' Levine said. ``This involvement could indicate the group is maturing in its political interest in civic affairs.''

With so many people running, the biggest challenge may be a candidate being seen as an individual.

``The biggest challenge is differentiating themselves from others in the crowd and getting their message out to the public,'' Manoukian said. ``It's going to be difficult for the community to sort out who's who, and that's the task of the candidate to get through to the community.''

Anita Q. Gabrielian, Armine Hacopian, Victor King and Linda Sheffield filed papers to run for three open positions on the Glendale Community College Board of Trustees.

Ronald Borucki and Phillip Kazanjian filed forms for the city treasurer position.

Naush Boghossian, [phone]

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com