By Julie BUTCHER

“This is the first dog to ever pee in a Council chamber,” said Kevin McManus embarrassedly after five-month-old puppy Sweet Pea relieved herself on the carpet at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Glendale City Council. McManus is the director of Public Relations and Communications for the Pasadena Humane Society. Sweet Pea showed up at Pasadena Humane stray and stressed and in need of medical care and was successfully fostered by a Glendale family. She is now looking for her forever home.

Councilmember Elen Asatryan used the opportunity to remind Glendalians that Pasadena Humane is Glendale’s provider of animal services: adoptions, fostering and vaccination clinics. She shared “Team Glendale’s” participation in the organization’s recent Wiggle Waggle Walk/Run fundraiser. The organization even offers 10-day trial adoptions, McManus added, a foster-to-adoption option. Sweet Pea is now a playful, affectionate, curious pup who has a trick of “competing with a laptop for lap space” and is available for adoption along with other available pets: visit https://pasadenahumane.org/adopt/view-pets/. She is also featured prominently in Pasadena Humane’s social media: https://www.instagram.com/p/DXSSC-0Cejn/.

On Tuesday night, the Council voted “to enter into and execute a contract with Ferguson Enterprises, LLC for the replacement of the City’s Water AMI [Advanced Metering Infrastructure] system, and a Professional Services Agreement with the Willdan Group for inspection services related to the project. The project will replace approximately 36,000 water meters and communication endpoints and will implement a modern AMI software platform. The new system will improve operational efficiency, enhance leak detection and provide customers with access to detailed water usage data to support conservation efforts,” according to the staff report. The contract for new meters and updated technology is $24 million with a 10% contingency; the personal services agreement for four years of construction inspection services will cost $462,400. 

Forty percent of the city’s 36,000 water meters are not communicating data to the utility and need to be read manually. The technology cannot be updated and is no longer supported by the manufacturer. The meters were replaced in 2008-09 and typically have a 15-year life expectancy, GWP Assistant General Manager Chisom Obegolu explained. 

Council critic and candidate Beth Brooks urged the Council to reject the new meters and instead hire 10 new meter readers and supply them with handheld meter-reading devices. 

“It’s nice to give people jobs,” she said, comparing the cost of meter readers at an estimated $50,000 per year “versus $25 million. This is not okay. You cannot do this.”

Councilmember Ara Najarian urged careful communications and timing when the meters are installed. 

“Nothing upsets residents more than not having water, except perhaps paying for parking in Montrose,” he quipped.

Also on Tuesday night, the Council acted to fix the Doran Street grade separation, a longstanding danger. The staff report states, “[T]he Doran Street Grade Separation Project is located at the Metrolink rail corridor crossing along Doran Street, between San Fernando Road in Glendale and San Fernando Road West located in Los Angeles. This crossing is one of the highest-risk rail crossings in Los Angeles County, with a history of collisions and fatalities, making this grade separation project a critical safety investment. The project will replace the existing at-grade railroad crossing with a grade-separated connection to the Fairmont Avenue overpass and includes roadway circulation improvements in the vicinity of San Fernando Road West and Doran Street.” 

Ninety trains reportedly traverse the intersection each day, facing seven and a half hours of gate downtime weekly with commuter rail service anticipated to increase 30% by 2035. There have been 14 recorded incidents, and the California Public Utility Commission has mandated these improvements. 

The project is fully funded through a combination of state, federal and Measure M funds and the work will be done in conjunction with the City of Los Angeles with bids opening in May and the work completed in two years at an overall total cost of $79 million. 

The San Fernando Road grade separation project will add a new bridge over the Verdugo Wash; extend the roadway; add a new traffic signal and a retaining wall; add drainage, striping, signage, street lighting and landscaping.

The Council heard an update on the condition of the pavement on the city’s streets, 378 miles of roadway including 27 miles of alleys. The replacement value is estimated at $840 million. 

“The most recent PMP indicates an overall Pavement Condition Index (PCI) of 65, reflecting a network in fair condition and a change from the PCI of 72 reported in the previous cycle five years ago. The analysis estimates that restoring the entire network to optimal condition would require approximately $238 million,” the staff report detailed.

Public works staff explained that this means the city needs to spend $9.7 million per year rather than the $3 million currently being spent to maintain the city’s streets.

Next year’s budget deliberations begin today, Thursday, April 30 at 9 a.m. with a five-year forecast of the general fund and an overview of the proposed FY2026-27 budget scheduled for the first budget study session.

Mayor Ardy Kassakhian announced two other upcoming events: Today, Thursday, April 30 at 6 p.m., there will be a lecture and book talk with Pulitzer Prize winning poet Peter Balakian, cosponsored by Glendale’s Library, Arts & Culture department and the UCLA Promise Armenian Institute, in the Glendale Central Library Auditorium, 222 E Harvard St.

On Sunday, May 3, is the annual Run the Verdugos 10K run. 

“The course begins in beautiful Brand Park, climbs steadily to one of the highest points in the Verdugo Mountains, and then heads back downhill for a fast descent to the finish. Breathtaking views of the LA Basin, the San Fernando Valley and the Pacific Ocean await you at every turn. From the race’s highest point, at 2,536 feet above sea level, the panoramic view of the San Gabriel Mountains is truly spectacular,” event organizers describe. 

More information can be found at https://www.runtheverdugos.com/.

Crescenta Valley High School student researcher Angelique addressed the Council to share her research into the city’s organics recycling program. When the city dropped off kitchen compost pails, she explained the genesis of her research, her neighbors gave them to her family because they were not going to use them. 

Collaborating with the city’s integrated waste management staff, Angelique surveyed 230 residents and determined that 32% participate and always recycle their organic waste; 32% never recycle their organic waste; and the rest participate “sometimes or rarely.”

“Providing resources is necessary but not enough to guarantee participation in the City’s organic recycling program,” she reported. 

Some of the obstacles to participation are the lack of clear information about what to put where; there are behavioral barriers, she added, that make changing habits difficult, noting that some potential participants were put off by the smell and the pests attracted. Residents in apartments face added challenges.

Some suggestions to improve the program include improving the bagging requirements; offering more attractive and varying sized kitchen and outdoor pails; incentives; clearer instructions; more practical designs; and improved communications with landlords of multi-family properties.

“People are willing to participate. It’s not just the lack of effort but the gap between intention and action. In order to increase resident participation, we need a system that fits into people’s everyday life,” the student-researcher concluded.

At an afternoon special meeting, the Council took steps to continue addressing a housing crisis for 188 Glendale families faced with the loss of specific federal funding.

The Glendale City Council will meet next on Tuesday, May 5 at 6 p.m. in City Hall, 613 E. Broadway.