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ELECTIONS 2007:
Bric, Reinke win seats
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| Gary Bric opens the door to the Burbank City Council Chambers for the first time after winning one of two seats on the council during the Tuesday election. He and candidate Anja Reinke got nearly twice the vote that their competitors did. |
Restaurant owner and attorney trounce a married couple that was vying for two City Council seats in contentious race.
By Chris Wiebe
CITY HALL — Gary Bric and Anja Reinke entered City Hall on Tuesday to the roaring applause of their supporters — for the first time as elected council persons — after capturing two City Council seats in the general election.
With all 42 precincts reporting and 10,237 votes counted, Bric finished slightly ahead of Reinke with 6,301 votes, or 62% of the vote. Reinke received 6,286 votes, or 61% of the total vote.
Carolyn and Philip Berlin, who ran a joint campaign, finished the race in third and fourth place, respectively, separated by a 70-vote margin — with 3,338 votes and 3,268 votes, or 33% and 32%.
The results showed that a string of campaign mailers bashing Bric and Reinke in the weeks before the mail-in ballot deadline did little to deviate from the outcome of the primary election in February, when the candidates finished in the same order.
Bric, a restaurant owner, and Reinke, an attorney and Realtor, both alluded to that during their victory interviews in council chambers.
"The city of Burbank is such a small, great town that there's no need for certain types of politics," Bric said. "I said from the beginning I was going to run a clean campaign. We put our trust in the voters and obviously it panned out this evening."
Reinke shared Bric's sentiments, expressing gratitude to friends, family and members of the community who all contributed to her election.
"I made a pledge at the beginning of the campaign to run a clean campaign and I think the city responded to that," she said. "I think that the city of Burbank wants positive candidates that have positive things to say and want to do good things for the city of Burbank."
Carolyn Berlin chimed in with thanks for the support she and her husband received during the campaign.
"We want to thank everyone who worked for our campaign and supported us," Carolyn Berlin said. "We tried to communicate about the issues in terms of how a lot of people feel on things like traffic and development — and those issues are still with us."
During Bric's campaign, his second bid for a council seat, he touted the importance of independent decision making, with the council acting as a caretaker to protect against potential negative impacts of development, such as traffic congestion and parking shortages. In 2005, he was appointed to the Traffic and Transportation Committee, where he and other committee members have worked to remedy traffic-light synchronization problems in the city, as well as review parking codes for recreational vehicles
Bric also served as president of the Burbank Men's Golf Club and is a member of the Veterans Commemorative Committee.
Reinke, a member of the Police Commission and the Family Services Agency Board, stressed the need for a reasoned, logical approach to city business. She suggested the idea of developing a task force comprised of the Traffic Department, the Development Department and bus services to tackle all angles of the traffic congestion issue in Burbank. She has also suggested establishing a fine arts council to promote arts in the community, and she pursued the idea of having a Burbank film festival.
Bric and Reinke will be sworn in on May 1, with a goal-setting meeting for the entire council on May 5, City Clerk Margarita Campos said.
QUESTION
Are you satisfied with the Burbank election's results? E-mail your responses to burbankleader @latimes.com; mail them to the Burbank Leader, 221 N. Brand Blvd., 2nd Floor, Glendale, CA 91203. Please spell your name and include your address and phone number for verification purposes only.
CHRIS WIEBE covers City Hall and the courts. He may be reached at (818) 637-3242 or by e-mail at chris.wiebelatimes.com.
With all 42 precincts reporting and 10,237 votes counted, Bric finished slightly ahead of Reinke with 6,301 votes, or 62% of the vote. Reinke received 6,286 votes, or 61% of the total vote.
Carolyn and Philip Berlin, who ran a joint campaign, finished the race in third and fourth place, respectively, separated by a 70-vote margin — with 3,338 votes and 3,268 votes, or 33% and 32%.
The results showed that a string of campaign mailers bashing Bric and Reinke in the weeks before the mail-in ballot deadline did little to deviate from the outcome of the primary election in February, when the candidates finished in the same order.
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"The city of Burbank is such a small, great town that there's no need for certain types of politics," Bric said. "I said from the beginning I was going to run a clean campaign. We put our trust in the voters and obviously it panned out this evening."
Reinke shared Bric's sentiments, expressing gratitude to friends, family and members of the community who all contributed to her election.
"I made a pledge at the beginning of the campaign to run a clean campaign and I think the city responded to that," she said. "I think that the city of Burbank wants positive candidates that have positive things to say and want to do good things for the city of Burbank."
Carolyn Berlin chimed in with thanks for the support she and her husband received during the campaign.
"We want to thank everyone who worked for our campaign and supported us," Carolyn Berlin said. "We tried to communicate about the issues in terms of how a lot of people feel on things like traffic and development — and those issues are still with us."
During Bric's campaign, his second bid for a council seat, he touted the importance of independent decision making, with the council acting as a caretaker to protect against potential negative impacts of development, such as traffic congestion and parking shortages. In 2005, he was appointed to the Traffic and Transportation Committee, where he and other committee members have worked to remedy traffic-light synchronization problems in the city, as well as review parking codes for recreational vehicles
Bric also served as president of the Burbank Men's Golf Club and is a member of the Veterans Commemorative Committee.
Reinke, a member of the Police Commission and the Family Services Agency Board, stressed the need for a reasoned, logical approach to city business. She suggested the idea of developing a task force comprised of the Traffic Department, the Development Department and bus services to tackle all angles of the traffic congestion issue in Burbank. She has also suggested establishing a fine arts council to promote arts in the community, and she pursued the idea of having a Burbank film festival.
Bric and Reinke will be sworn in on May 1, with a goal-setting meeting for the entire council on May 5, City Clerk Margarita Campos said.
QUESTION
Are you satisfied with the Burbank election's results? E-mail your responses to burbankleader @latimes.com; mail them to the Burbank Leader, 221 N. Brand Blvd., 2nd Floor, Glendale, CA 91203. Please spell your name and include your address and phone number for verification purposes only.
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