The Glendale Environmental Coalition has announced its endorsement of Ardy Kassakhian and Karen Kwak for Glendale City Council in the March 5 General Municipal Election.
GEC is endorsing Kassakhian for a second term on the City Council because of his track record of bringing forward and supporting environmental, climate and governance initiatives. Khassakhian proposed the resolution to achieve 10% solar and storage on Glendale rooftops by 2027, supported the citywide bans on polystyrene and gas blowers and recently voted to direct GWP to integrate Council’s Clean Energy by 2035 resolution into its energy planning document. He was specific and thoughtful in responding to GEC’s endorsement questionnaire, including about how to get Glendale to 100% clean energy, how to deal with plastic pollution, and how to improve local transportation and increase pedestrian and bicycle safety.
GEC is endorsing Kwak for a seat on the City Council because of her commitment to representing the interests of renters and those living in South Glendale, an environmentally impacted area of the city. She is a tireless advocate for clean energy, especially for expanding access to low-cost solar and storage energy solutions to renters. She is also a voice for safe and convenient local transit options. Kwak’s responses to the GEC questionnaire showed her awareness of the needs in Glendale neighborhoods and her determination to get good energy, environmental, waste, and transportation plans implemented. She has been an active member of GEC since its beginning in 2017 and works with other environmental groups as well.
Two other candidates, Vrej Agajanian and Vartan Gharpetian, were acknowledged for responding to the GEC endorsement questionnaire.
GEC issued a similar questionnaire on environmental and climate issues to individuals running to represent Glendale at the state and county level. This is a time of great turnover in political representation, as several incumbents are either running for other offices or termed out. Many new names are on the ballot. GEC will not be issuing endorsements for these races and has instead posted all the answers received from candidates for Assembly Districts 44 and 52, state Senate District 25, and Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors District 5. Not all candidates responded. These questions and candidate responses can be found at gec.eco/gec-queries-state-county-candidates-2024-election/.
Jackie Gish and Jack Walworth
Co-chairs of Glendale Environmental Coalition
First published in the January 20 print issue of the Glendale News-Press.
