GOMEZ, MANOUKIAN ELECTED; GLENDALE COUNCIL WINNERS REPRESENT SPLIT INTERESTS.

Byline: Lee Condon Daily News Staff Writer

The Glendale City Council race ended with a split decision Tuesday night, with voters choosing Gus Gomez, a homeowner activist, and Rafi Manoukian, an accountant supported by the business community.

Gomez and Manoukian were the top two vote-getters in a field of 13 candidates, according to unofficial final results.

Gomez, a state prosecutor and the president of the Adams Hill Homeowners Association, ran on a slow-growth platform, opposing hillside residential development and favoring more open government.

``I pushed for the issues related to controlled development and open space,'' Gomez said. ``Part of this is having a council majority that listens more to residents.''

Manoukian, a member of the Glendale Chamber of Commerce board of directors, was strongly supported by the city's business community and a large contingent of Armenian-American volunteers. Manoukian said his campaign encouraged the registration of about 1,000 new Armenian-American voters.

Manoukian said he was partial to neither the homeowners nor the business community.

``I see myself as an independent,'' Manoukian said. ``I don't represent either one camp or the other.''

Manoukian estimated that 3,000 to 3,500 Armenian-Americans voted in the election, a massive increase over the 800 to 1,200 who voted in previous Glendale elections.

``I think our campaign got a tremendous amount of energy from the Armenian-American community. That was my goal,'' Manoukian said.

The new council members replace Mayor Eileen Givens and Councilman Larry Zarian, both of whom have been part of the council's longtime ``business-friendly'' majority.

Local homeowner groups had hoped this would be the year they could secure a homeowner-oriented majority on the five-member panel. In recent years, homeowner activists have been running more aggressive campaigns in order to stop hillside development and to slow business growth downtown.

The first big success came in 1997, when Councilman David Weaver, an advocate for the homeowner point of view, was elected.

After two years of being the odd man out on the council, Weaver said he's pleased to have an ally in Gomez.

``I couldn't be happier,'' Weaver said Tuesday. While Weaver is unsure of whether he and Manoukian will agree on issues facing the city, the councilman said he admires Manoukian.

``You are going to see some good thinking on the council,'' Weaver said.

Both Gomez and Manoukian had comfortable leads with all precincts reporting. The results, however, are not final, because some 900 provisional and absentee ballots still need to be counted.

The election had been closely watched by the city of Burbank because early on nine of the 13 candidates said they would be more sympathetic to Burbank's complaints about jet noise than the current panel. The city of Burbank wants a curfew on night flights and a noise budget before dropping its opposition to the expansion of Burbank Airport.

The city councils from Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena all appoint airport commissioners to the airport's governing board. However, the Glendale and Pasadena city councils and their commissioners have long supported expansion and resisted Burbank's calls for curfews and other flight restrictions.

Both Gomez and Manoukian said they would be more sympathetic to Burbank than the current council in order to end the impasse over expansion. The current council, with the exception of Weaver, has attempted to stay out of the battle and left decisions up to their appointed airport commissioners.

``I do believe the council has to be more involved,'' Manoukian said.

Gomez went further, saying he supports a mandatory curfew on night flights. On Tuesday, he said one of his first actions as a councilman will be to call for new talks with Burbank.

``We need to begin a dialogue with Burbank again,'' Gomez said. ``You have to end that hands-off policy.''

The campaign for two open seats featured an oversize field of 13 candidates, last minute smear mailers, a 60 percent spike in absentee voting and a very rainy Election Day. Even the most confident of political veterans declined to predict winners. The only thing everyone could agree on before the votes were in was that this race was too close to call.

Both Manoukian and Gomez ran aggressive mail campaigns. Manoukian sent out about 8,000 mailers with absentee ballot applications, helping to boost the increase in absentee voting. On Tuesday, both ran exhaustive get-out-the-vote efforts, coping with rain that some feared could keep voters away from the polls. This year 17,547 people turned out at the polls, an increase over the 15,898 who voted in the 1997 council election.

Glendale has 78,059 registered voters.

Development was a major issue in the race. Residents living in hillside areas were looking for candidates who would oppose projects such as Oakmont V, the 572-home development that has been proposed in Northern Glendale. Those living near downtown said they were fed up with traffic from overdevelopment of Brand Boulevard.

Mike Smith, another homeowner activist, came in third. Smith, who trades rare documents for a living, lost in the 1997 council race by just 120 votes and was considered a top contender this year.

Bob Yousefian, a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals and a home remodeler, came in fourth. Larry Miller, a flower shop owner, was fifth, and Hoover High School teacher Nick Doom was sixth. The other candidates, all of whom failed to get more than 5 percent of the vote, were David Wallis, a retired engineer and partner in an Armenian-language television station; Joe Mandoky, a street minister; Kat Bayati, a retired traffic engineer; John Beach, a retired property manager; Jeff Lushbaugh, who collects signatures for ballot initiatives; Erica Passman, a lawyer; and Georgi Robinson, a retired businesswoman.

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Chart: Glendale City Council