Ara Najarian to run for L.A. County Supervisor seat

[UPDATED 3/19 6:08 p.m.] Glendale Councilman Ara Najarian has announced plans to run for a Los Angeles County Supervisor seat currently held by Mike Antonovich next year.

On Thursday, he filed papers required to start campaigning and join the race in the 5th District to succeed Antonovich, who terms out in 2016.

An attorney and resident of the 5th District for more than 35 years, Najarian has served on the City Council since he was first elected in 2005.

He said he’s been floating the idea of running for the Board of Supervisors the past two years and that a decade on the Glendale City Council dais has prepared him for the role.

“My experience as a councilman, I think, well qualifies me for some of the issues that the county faces, although the county has them on a much larger scale,” Najarian said.

During his tenure, Glendale has had a balanced budget every year and managed to maintain a workforce at City Hall to meet the service needs of local residents, Najarian said.

“I’m very much in focus on providing for the residents, whether they’re small issues such as a pothole in front of their driveway or whether it’s larger issues such as helping maintain our parks and our libraries through impact fees on the development community,” he said.

In recent years, Najarian has been a staunch opponent of developments bringing nearly 4,000 new residential units to the city, voting down a majority of projects.

He said, however, that his position on development wouldn’t necessarily apply to other parts of the county, such as the Antelope Valley, where there’s plenty of room to grow.

Outside City Hall, he’s been a longtime member of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board of directors.

During his time on the board, lower-emission trains have started being used. More safe and durable trains were also purchased following the deadly 2005 Metrolink crash in Glendale that killed 11 people.

But Najarian’s time on the board hit a bump in 2012, when Antonovich became president of the authority board and removed Najarian from the Metrolink board, replacing him with Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas.

Antonovich, at that point, said his decision was based on his belief that Ridley-Thomas was more aligned with his own vision to create a regional transit system including rail links to airports.

Najarian was reappointed to the rail oversight board the following year by a new president.

“As far as I’m concerned, any ill will on my part has long since gone away,” he said.

Najarian added that he and Antonovich have worked on many other issues together concerning the 5th District.

So far, Najarian’s opponents are all fellow Republicans — county prosecutor Elan S. Carr, Republican state Senate Minority Leader Robert Huff and Antonovich’s chief deputy, Kathryn Barger, who’s already won the supervisor’s endorsement.

Najarian said he is currently interviewing campaign strategists and people who can help raise money in his run for a supervisor seat.