Raggio Says He Won’t Seek 3rd Term on Council : Politics: The announcement is expected to draw large field of candidates for the April election. The mayor plans to try his hand at sculpture.

Mayor Carl Raggio announced Wednesday that he will not seek a third term in office, saying he has had his fill of politics and will test his skills, instead, in sculpting stone.

The announcement is expected to draw a large field of candidates for the April election when three City Council positions will appear on the ballot. Council members Ginger Bremberg, who has served three terms, and Dick Jutras, completing his first term, are expected to seek reelection, although they have not yet said so.

“I’m seeking a change,” said Raggio, 64, who built a third story for an art studio onto his Verdugo Woodlands home when he retired in 1990 after 39 years as a design engineer with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

“I want to test myself and see if I’m good,” he said, explaining that an art teacher years ago “told me I had promise.”

Raggio said he plans to continue his role as a leader in Glendale transportation issues. He hopes to retain his council-appointed position on the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena-Airport Authority and will remain active in the Tri-City Transportation Commission, a coalition of leaders from Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena he helped form three years ago.

The Glendale grandfather of eight said he decided almost a year ago that he would quit the council at the end of his second term. However, he said, he kept his decision quiet until Tuesday when he privately told the other four council members and the city manager of his intentions.

“The timing seems to be appropriate,” he said at a press conference Wednesday. His wife of 42 years, Lynne, will graduate next spring from the University of Redlands with a bachelor’s degree in science, which was a goal she set for herself after raising the couple’s three children, Raggio said.

Eight candidates ran for election after former Councilman Jerold Milner stepped out of office last year after serving two terms. Thirteen candidates vied in a hotly contested race for three open seats when former Councilman John F. Day chose not to seek reelection in 1989.

In announcing his decision, Raggio said he will work hard to oppose a proposed ballot measure by Milner to limit members of the City Council and school board to two terms.

“I don’t think they’re needed,” he said, calling the measure divisive and “one of the worst things that could happen to Glendale.” He said experienced council and school board members are needed to provide “an orderly way of passing on knowledge.”

One of the designers of Explorer I, the first U.S. Earth satellite launched into orbit in 1958, Raggio said he plans to “continue to be actively engaged in the technology of transportation.” He has been a leading advocate of a research program using aerospace technology to develop alternative methods of transportation--such as light rail and electric-powered automobiles--based in the former Lockheed headquarters in Burbank.

“We have an ideal place here for a revitalized new industry that will create housing and jobs,” said Raggio, a director of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York and a pioneer in the development of industrial technology parks.

Since his election to the City Council in 1985, Raggio has carved a reputation as a forward-thinking idealist and has frequently demonstrated his agility in solving complex math formulas in his head. But, for a while at least, he said he plans to simply chisel his ideas into stone after he leaves office in April.