Seven candidates are on the primary ballot Tuesday in the race to succeed the termed-out Paul Krekorian for the District 2 seat on the Los Angeles City Council.
The district — encompassing North Hollywood, Studio City, Sun Valley, Toluca Lake, Valley Glen, Valley Village and Van Nuys — has been represented by Krekorian since 2009, and he exits as City Council President, taking over the leadership role following the 2022 resignation of Nury Martinez in the wake of the City Hall racism scandal.
Now, a new candidate will represent District 2. Those running are Marin Ghandilyan, a lawyer; Manuel Gonez, a housing advocate and environmentalist; Jillian Burgos, a small business owner; Jon-Paul Bird, a mental-health professional; Adrin Nazarian, a former Assemblyman; Sam Kbushyan, a commissioner and small business man; and Rudy Melendez, a laborer and artist.
If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote in the primary, the top two vote-getters will face each other in a runoff in the general election on Nov. 5.
Of the seven candidates, only Gonez and Burgos responded to a request from City News Service for comment.
Gonez, policy director for the nonprofit TreePeople, said he understands the struggles of families, parents and workers in the city, as he grew up in a low-income household and was raised by his single mother.
“I’m not a career politician, but a nonprofit leader committed to improving the lives and building stronger communities,” Gonez said. “Your voice is a powerful force for change, and your vote is the key to making a difference on critical issues.”
Burgos noted that she has two jobs, as a small business owner of a theater company and as a health care worker, and said that most residents need more than one job to survive in L.A. She described herself as a longtime renter and a member of the North Hollywood Neighborhood Council.
“NoHo has been my home for nearly 15 years and I became deeply invested in helping the people of my community,” Burgos said. “My mother instilled the values of service in me from a young age.”
She’s also touted her campaign as “truly grassroots” and “clean” — noting it did not take campaign contributions from police, Realtors, fossil fuel companies or corporations.
“Every day I hear people talk desperately about wanting change, but in order to have that, we have to vote for someone who isn’t part of the establishment and won’t try to woo you with empty promises,” Burgos said.”
According to their respective campaign websites, the candidates share the opinion that the homelessness crisis must be addressed by building more affordable housing and expanding interim housing for unhoused residents.
There is also a shared interest in bolstering tenant protection.
Bird and Burgos are supportive of land trusts, and working hand-in-hand with community organizations on housing. Burgos has said she will work to repeal the city’s anti-camping law, while other candidates back the law, with plans to expand the law to cover more areas around schools and day cares.
The candidates also share a commitment to reforming the City Charter, and to ethics reform.
On public safety, Ghandilyan, Gonez, Nazarian and Kbushyan have stated they would support efforts to hire more police officers. Ghandilyan noted she’d like to incorporate more drone technology in public safety efforts, according to her website.
Bird has called for a Los Angeles Street Safety ambassador program, with trained professionals who can patrol communities, offer resources, assist store owners and triage situations for the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles Fire Department and Unarmed Crisis Support, such as the CIRCLE program or therapeutic vans.
Burgos wants to see the city expand and prioritize intimate partner violence, as well as unarmed civilian mental health mobile response teams citywide and establish overdose prevention centers with full time addiction treatment professionals. Additionally, she’d remove armed police officers from schools and traffic stops.
Other priorities for the candidates include supporting local business owners, improving transportation services, green infrastructure and climate justice.
As of Feb. 28, Nazarian — a former chief of staff to Krekorian — led the pack in terms of campaign contributions with more than $664,000, according to the L.A. City Ethics Commission website, which oversees campaign finances.
The former Assemblyman also benefited from more than $276,000 from independent expenditures from non-campaign-affiliated groups such as Central City PAC Association, Outfront Media, the L.A. County Federation of Labor AFL-CIO on Political Education and Lamar Advertising.
Kbushyan raised about $399,000 in campaign contributions, followed by Gonez (about $195,000) and Burgos (just over $74,000). Bird raised about $51,000.
Vote centers will open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and on Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. The nearest official drop box or vote center can be found at locator.lavote.gov.