Seven candidates are running for the La Canada Flintridge City Council:
* Elizabeth Blackwelder, 69, is a real estate investor and has been a resident for 40 years. Blackwelder is president of the La Canada Flintridge Trails Council. She served as a lieutenant in the U. S. Navy Reserve Hospital Corps and as president of the La Canada Flintridge Guild of Huntington Hospital.
Blackwelder opposes the proposed Sport Chalet shopping center in its present form. She has said the City Council must allow merchants to become more active in plans for redevelopment along Foothill Boulevard.
Regarding the city's general plan, Blackwelder has said maintaining the rural residential character of the community is one of her primary campaign issues. "If I am elected to the City Council, I will have the city's general plan re-evaluated to protect our city from further harmful development."
* Judy Breitman, 49, is divisional vice president for special events and public relations for May Co. California and has been a resident for 25 years.
Breitman is a city planning commissioner. She has been a businesswoman for 20 years and has management experience.
Breitman cast the only vote against the Planning Commission's approval of the conditional use permit for the Sport Chalet and has called the project "a mega-mall totally inappropriate in size and design for La Canada."
She called the general plan "very reactionary and very general. I would say we need a new master plan for the whole city."
* James T. Edwards, 45, owns a local insurance brokerage and has been a resident for 12 years.
Edwards is a public safety commissioner and has 20 years of business experience. He cites extensive volunteer work in the community, including 16 years with both the Los Angeles Reserve Deputy Sheriff's and the Montrose Search and Rescue Team.
Edwards has said he believes in the normal checks and balances through which the Sport Chalet plans have passed, and he believes that the council must move ahead with the project. "I'm for the process that has brought us up to the point where we are now."
Edwards has said he sees no problem with the existing general plan because it is not a static document. "It is something the council will continuously modify and work on as the needs of the community change."
* Joan Feehan, 58, is an incumbent and has been a resident for 22 years. Feehan served as mayor during one of her four years on the City Council.
