By Julie BUTCHER

Early in Tuesday night’s uncharacteristically short meeting of the Glendale City Council, Councilmember Vartan Gharpetian shared photos of traffic backed up on La Crescenta Avenue and a picture of a bicyclist riding in the traffic lane, not in the green protected bike lane. He called for more enforcement of existing laws.

Councilmember Dan Brotman responded, “I was not going to do this tonight but given my colleague’s efforts to find fault with the La Crescenta project … .” The councilmember then read a letter from a resident praising the changes. The resident wrote that she felt compelled to write about how the lane changes have positively affected her and her family. 

“‘We love them,’” Councilmember Brotman read. “The road is significantly quieter … this is the first time I’ve lived somewhere where it felt like the change happening actually answered a problem I figured I just had to live with.’”

Councilmember Ara Najarian added a note to his ongoing “exit exposés,” this time advising potential council candidates: “You’re not going to be able to keep your day job. This job is not just what you see here. You think, ‘I can make a 6 o’clock meeting and if we have to go to 10 or 11, it’s no problem.’ There’s hours and hours of work and meetings that go on before. There’s the budget, months of budget sessions, several hours of budget meetings.

“This doesn’t count for your weekends either. You think, ‘I can handle my work on the weekends.’ There’s going to be a lot of work and community events and if you seek a seat on a regional board – a water board or Metro or the airport authority – you’re going to be missing a lot of work.”

“Maybe pay an extra bit of appreciation to those who have run and been elected to the city council, who aren’t retired or independently wealthy,” Councilmember Najarian urged.

Najarian also called for an Ethics Officer “to make quick determinations and take some action.” He specified the need for complete independence: the city attorney works for the council; the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) takes years to adjudicate complaints; the district attorney, if it rises to that, also takes months and “if it’s not a real juicy case, may not act at all.”

Mayor Ardy Kassakhian announced the Glendale Rotary Club’s annual Cars for Cops & Kids event on Sunday, June 7 in Verdugo Park. Hundreds of cars start arriving at 7 a.m. and the event starts at 9 a.m. Proceeds support the Glendale Police Foundation Explorers’ Program, the Glendale Fire Dept. Teen Program, and Glendale parks’ youth programs.

Mayor Kassakhian added a push for participation in the city’s emergency preparedness planning and invited comments on the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan before June 30. Glendale residents can “share feedback on strategies to reduce risks from earthquakes, wildfires, flooding, extreme heat and more.” Learn more at https://engage.glendaleca.gov/lhmp.

Finally on Tuesday night, the council voted 4-1, with Councilmember Gharpetian voting no, to purchase 25 MW of solar power through a 30-year power sales agreement along with Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power at a cost of $46.75 per MWh. The solar project is based in Millard County, Utah and will help the city meet its renewable energy goals and state mandates. Currently, Glendale energy is 48% renewable and 67% zero carbon-based. State requirements mandate that the city use 60% fully renewable energy by 2030; the city is on pace to be at 50% by 2030, Glendale Water and Power general manager Scott Mellon reported.

The council will meet next on Tuesday, June 9.