Mayoral, Council Races Low Key So Far : Campaign: Term limits and affordable housing have been major issues leading up to the April 14 vote.

MONROVIA — Proposals to establish term limits, expand affordable housing and appoint a volunteer board to advise the City Council have been the main points in a low-key race for mayor and two council seats in the April 14 election.

Mayor Robert Bartlett and council members William Card and Mary Wilcox are campaigning for reelection on their experience, accomplishments and plans to improve public services.

Longtime Monrovia real estate agent George Baker is challenging Bartlett, and City Clerk Phyllis McCarville hopes to unseat one of the council incumbents. McCarville’s office is being sought by two longtime community leaders.

Baker and McCarville advocate term limits for the mayor and the council, which would require enabling action by the Legislature.

“I think it gives more people an opportunity to participate in our city because people are afraid (they will be defeated if they) run against incumbents,” McCarville said.

All of the candidates said they favor Measure A, the ballot initiative that would approve construction of a $9-million police facility at the corner of Lime and Ivy avenues.

Bartlett, who has been on the council since 1974 and mayor since 1988, opposes term limits, saying experience is crucial for those leading the city.

“I feel that Monrovia has enjoyed outstanding leadership. Unless they’ve done something to destroy your confidence, you should continue to allow the mayor and City Council members to serve,” he said.

Bartlett, 52, has lived in Monrovia all his life and works as sales director of national accounts at Viking Freight System in Whittier. He is a past president of the League of California Cities’ Los Angeles division, has chaired the league’s transportation committee and has been a member of the executive board of the Southern California Assn. of Governments.

He cites Monrovia’s improved economic status and community pride as two of his achievements over the last 18 years. “One only has to look back at the Monrovia of 1974 to realize the remarkable progress, which is reflected in not only how Monrovians feel about themselves, but how our community is viewed by others,” Bartlett said.

Baker, 64, is a 31-year resident of Monrovia who has owned a real estate office at the corner of Colorado Boulevard and Primrose Avenue for 28 years. Although he has not run for office before, Baker has been involved in city issues for many years and frequently speaks at council meetings.

Baker is pushing to limit City Council members to eight years in office, and the mayor to four years. He is also advocating that more affordable housing be built and that redevelopment funds be redirected from industrial development to housing.

He said that if elected, he will appoint five non-voting advisory members to the City Council with backgrounds in schools, business, senior citizens’ issues and local churches.

In the council race, incumbents Card and Wilcox cite fiscal solvency, infrastructure and public service as priorities.

Card, 39, has been on the council for eight years. An assistant principal of a Glendale junior high school, Card has lived in Monrovia for nearly all his life and has served as council liaison to the West San Gabriel Valley Juvenile Diversion Project, Community Services Commission and Cable Television Commission and heads the Youth Task Force for the Chamber of Commerce.

Card said the city must find new sources of funding to keep up its roads and buildings. He proposes combining a second fire station in the south part of town with a youth center. “We’d be more likely to receive grant money for a building with a combination of uses like that,” he said.

Wilcox has been in office 12 years and has been active in Monrovia community service for 35 years. The retired Sizzler restaurant manager serves as president of the city’s Art Festival and vice president of the Monrovia Historical Museum and is council liaison to the Old Town Merchants’ Assn., San Gabriel Valley Cities Assn., Library Board and Monrovia Coordinating Council.

She hopes to develop a master plan for community services in Monrovia that would identify the needs of residents for planning and grant application purposes. She would also like the city to work with the school district and Chamber of Commerce to form a nonprofit corporation to start a boys and girls club.

McCarville, 66, has been city clerk for six years. Along with limiting council members’ terms of office, she advocates a conservative spending policy, including exploring new sources of revenue and reducing the cost of government.

McCarville said the council and staff members have attended too many seminars and conferences at city expense. “It may not be a lot of money, but when we have a budget problem, I think that (traveling expenses) have been excessive,” McCarville said.

Both contenders for the city clerk’s job McCarville is vacating are also longtime Monrovia residents.

Steve Baker (no relation to George) has been named the city’s official historian, and his family ties to Monrovia go back to 1888. He is president of the Monrovia Historical Society and serves on Monrovia Old House Preservation Group and the Monrovia Historical Museum’s board.

Baker, 50, worked in banking for 20 years and is controller of a Los Angeles manufacturing firm and a church administrator.

Linda Proctor, 51, has her own business working as a consultant to film and television projects shot in Monrovia. She has lived in the city for 34 years and was twice elected to the Monrovia Board of Education.

Proctor was appointed to the Monrovia Centennial Committee and has served on various precinct election boards and as chairwoman of the Monrovia Volunteer Center board of directors. She was also a member of the Monrovia Police Facilities Advisory Committee, which recommended that a new police station be built.