ELECTIONS / BURBANK : Golonski, Wiggins, Spanos Chosen for City Council : Balloting: Wilcox defeats incumbent Kaufman in a race for the local school board.

In a race dominated by debates on how best to attract businesses to revitalize the local economy, Burbank voters Tuesday elected a small-business owner, a financial systems manager and a former executive with a national mortgage company to serve on the Burbank City Council.

They picked a newcomer, Denise Wilcox, over an eight-year incumbent, Vivian Kaufman, for an open seat on the local school board.

Dave Golonski, Bill Wiggins and Susan Spanos were the top vote-getters in the race for three seats on the five-member Burbank City Council. All of the newly elected council members are newcomers to Burbank City Hall; there were no incumbents in the race.

Golonski, 34, a financial systems manager who ran unsuccessfully for a council seat two years ago, was the top vote-getter.

What made the difference, he said, was that this year he spent more time raising money and “knocking on people’s doors.” Golonski and his supporters walked the streets of the city, personally speaking with voters at their homes--a campaign strategy that he said was well-received.

“I think people liked our message. They want to see their neighborhoods protected and economic progress,” Golonski said.

“They want a council that will work to find a balance.”

This time, Golonski also received several key endorsements, including those of the Burbank Fire Fighters Assn., the Burbank Police Officers Assn. and the Burbank Labor Coalition.

Wiggins, 43, owner of Automation Plating, a Glendale metal-plating company, was the top vote-getter in the primary and placed second in Tuesday’s balloting.

“The pledge I want to make is to be available and to keep the lines of communication open for the next four years,”’ Wiggins told a group of about 40 supporters at the Holiday Inn.

Throughout the campaign, Wiggins stressed the idea of running city government in a business-like fashion, particularly given the city’s “ever-tighter financial constraints.”

“I face a directly analogous situation each day as owner of a 70-employee firm,” Wiggins said. “. . . To stay competitive, I must work closely and continually with my employees to discover ways of providing the same or a higher quality of services to our customers at a proportionally lower cost.”

Wiggins was endorsed by the police officers association, the firefighters association, the Burbank City Employees Assn. and a number of other labor and business groups.

Spanos, 29, the only woman candidate, is an organizer of charity events for the elderly and disabled for her church and was once an account executive with a national mortgage company. She is only the third woman in the history of Burbank to win a seat on the City Council.

“It was a matter of getting my message out to as many people as I could,” said Spanos. “The message was: Bring Burbank back to the basic, economic prosperity, safety and our schools . . . These are the issues that are on people’s minds.”

The losing candidates were Robert Kramer, Richard G. Messer and Ron Shively and write-in candidate Jules Kimmett--a well-known civic gadfly who received 22 votes.

Wilcox said she won the school board race because “the public did not trust the board anymore. They were looking for a change and that’s why I won.”

Wilcox argued throughout the campaign that the district had neglected to apply for $23 million from the state to modernize the schools, money she said the city should have been eligible to receive. “I helped voters see that the board really blew it on this one,” she said.

City officials had hoped that warm weather and longer hours of daylight would draw more voters for Tuesday’s general election than showed up for the primary in February, but “it seems like the turnout is pretty similar to what it was in the primary,” City Clerk Marge Lauerman said. “There’s not a whole lot more.”

The February primary was held during heavy rains and wind brought in by one of the many storms that battered the city earlier this year. City officials attributed the low turnout then--20%, or 10,000 voters--in part to the bad weather.

But voters Tuesday had the benefit of a classic Southern California spring day--warm weather and sunshine--as well as more hours of daylight because of the change to daylight savings time. Still, little seemed to change.

Even though the early returns were disappointingly similar to those in the primary, city officials held out hope that more voters would opt to cast their ballots later in the day.

“People are hoping that because of the daylight saving time and the nice day, people will vote after work,” Lauerman said. “There may be a big influx at 5 and 6 o’clock.”

In the most recent prior City Council election, in 1991, the turnout was 33%, Lauerman said. But that year there were two slow-growth measures on the ballot, and the voter turnout is usually significantly higher for ballot measures, Lauerman said.

Tuesday’s council election was particularly significant because voters filled three seats--the majority--on the council. In the school board race, an incumbent who has served on the board for eight years battled a lifetime resident of Burbank, who is also an educator in the Los Angeles Unified district, for one open seat.

This year’s City Council race was dominated by issues related to Burbank’s fiscal condition. Because of state budget problems, the city expects to lose $5 million to $7 million in state subsidies. Candidates agree that Burbank has still not recovered from the loss of about 15,000 jobs when Lockheed and other businesses left the city about two years ago.

Throughout the campaign, council candidates discussed ways to trim the budget but maintain the city’s current level of services. They also discussed ways to “market” the city and attract businesses to replace those that have left.

Future uses for the land once occupied by Lockheed were also widely discussed. Candidates discussed whether a 20,000-seat sports arena, a Wal-Mart or a major studio should be constructed on the site.

Many rejected the idea of a sports arena, arguing that it would increase crime and traffic in the city. The Wal-Mart plan was rejected by most candidates because they said it would offer only low-paying jobs and would hurt “mom-and-pop” businesses in the city. Candidates also questioned the financial package being proposed by Wal-Mart.

In the race for one open seat on the school board, the condition of Burbank schools and how to best repair them was a hotly debated topic.

Schools in the Burbank Unified School District--particularly the two high schools--suffer from severe deterioration. They have no air conditioning and poor lighting and communication systems. Auditoriums, lunchrooms, libraries and offices are also inadequate and many repairs have been delayed.

The district recently has also had to grapple with the problem of overcrowding for the first time in its history.

The two school board candidates debated whether the district had done all it could to repair the schools, or if the board had neglected to apply for millions of dollars available from the state.

Each candidate accused the other of misrepresenting or misinterpreting the facts.

One seat on the school board was filled earlier. Joe Hooven, vice president of the Burbank Educational Fund, won a four-year term in the February primary election.

Candidates noted that Tuesday’s election was different from previous Burbank elections because of the extensive use of television.

“I think one of the things that was great about this election was there were a lot of forums and televised presentations. . . . I think those were really helpful,” said City Council candidate Dave Golonski.

The city of Burbank videotaped seven-minute presentations by each candidate and aired them on a local cable channel throughout the campaign. A forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters and others were also televised.

Bill Wiggins said the many debates gave Burbank residents many opportunities to see and hear the candidates.

“I hope that the forums and the TV coverage enabled the voters to become far more familiar with the candidates than they have been in the past,” Wiggins said.

Times correspondent Carmen Valencia contributed to this story.

Burbank Election Results 100% precincts reporting CITY COUNCIL 3 elected

CANDIDATE VOTES Dave Golonski 5,809 Bill Wiggins 5,746 Susan Spanos 4,765 Robert C. Kramer 4,670 Richard G. Messer 3,274 Ron Shively 2,780 Jules Kimmett ** 22

BOARD OF EDUCATION 1 elected

CANDIDATE VOTES Denise Lioy Wilcox 5,591 Vivian Kaufman * 3,680

* Incumbent ** Write-in candidate