Bart Turner, second from left, Ray Strahl, Jamie Aldama, Emmanuel Allen and Lauren Tolmachoff participate in the Glendale City Council candidate forum Aug. 8 at the Glendale Woman’s Club as club President Grace Kobojek moderates./Photo by Ed Sharpe/Glendale Daily Planet
By Cary Hines | Glendale Daily Planet
Candidates for Glendale City Council faced off Aug. 8 during a candidate forum at the Glendale Woman’s Club.
The two-hour event began with opening statements from each of the five candidates — incumbent Bart Turner and Ray Strahl vying for the Barrel District seat; incumbent Jamie Aldama and Emmanuel Allen competing for the Ocotillo District seat; and incumbent Lauren Tolmachoff running unopposed in the Cholla District.
“Everybody knows the condition Glendale was in five, six years ago,” Turner said. “We not only were in financial straits, we’d lost a lot of longtime employees that knew and understood the history and culture of Glendale. We’d also had a turnover of elected officials, as well. And I could see signs that Glendale was on the wrong track and headed in the wrong direction, and I thought, ‘If not me, who? Who’s going to run and get the ship steered straight again?’
