By Mary O’KEEFE

Crescenta Valley Weekly sat down with Ara Najarian as he begins his fourth term as mayor of Glendale. Najarian was first elected to the Glendale City Council in 2005.

“We have a lot of issues coming before us,” Najarian said.

Grayson Power Plant

The largest decision Najarian feels the City is facing is the upcoming vote on what to do with the Grayson Power Plant. The Council has been looking for a long time at how to re-power Grayson Power Plant and will soon decide its future. 

“It is a large [issue] in terms of financial commitment, it is large in terms of the impact on residents and it is large in terms of the impact on the environment,” he said. “We are going to be making that decision as to how much of a gas generated plant we want to rebuild, how much we can rely on solar and battery and how much we can bring in from outside the LA Basin by way of transmission.”

These are big decisions and, Najarian added, the community has been extensively involved with the future of the plant. The City continues to get feedback from the community. The final decision could cost as much as $300 to $400 million.

“I think that’s our number one critical decision,” he said.

Homeless

The City of Glendale has made strides in support of the homeless, Najarian said.

“We have a special unit for the homeless that is trained in mental health issues. We have strong support from private groups, like Ascencia, the Salvation Army and other community services,” he said.

The special unit goes out every day to speak to homeless people and help them get shelter and services. There are some who accept their help.

“Unfortunately many do not,” said Najarian. “They are resistant to our outreach efforts, but we don’t give up. We keep reaching out to them and we try to discourage encampments.”

Glendale works with other cities and watches what works and doesn’t work in other communities. There is a lot of community support in how the City is working on this issue. Najarian said he has never heard anyone express concern about how the City uses resources to help the homeless.

With homelessness comes the topic of housing. In a recent press conference with the Los Angeles County supervisors on homelessness, there was a lot of talk about how rising costs of housing contributes in part to the increasing numbers of homeless throughout the County.

Housing

The City Council has tackled the subject of housing at several of its meetings where landlords and renters voiced their concerns over solutions to rising rent.

“Two months ago, the Council passed what it calls the ‘Right to Lease’ ordinance, but that’s a misnomer. Years ago, the [City] had a Right to Lease ordinance that gave a guaranteed opportunity for a tenant to have a one-year lease,” he said.

The past ordinance forced landlords to move away from month-to-month contracts, and Najarian said the most recent Right to Lease decision by Council is different.

“This is very different from what we had before,” he said. “[This] is essentially rent control.”

The recently passed ordinance states landlords cannot raise rents more than 7% in a 12-month period without facing a penalty. The ordinance states that 90 days prior to the expiration of the lease, the landlord must make an offer to renew for another year. Tenants have 60 days to accept. If the rent is increased over 7% in a 12-month period the tenant can seek relocation funds from the landlord.

“In some cases, [tenants] can be offered up to six months of the new rent [for] relocation fees and that is an exceptionally burdensome amount of financial penalty for landlords,” he said.

Najarian argues there have been numerous studies that indicate rent control does not lower rent.

“In fact, it has been widely studied and [what was found is] it takes rental units off the market,” he said. “Someone with apartment units may [decide] to go to Airbnb [type of temporary rentals] or may say, ‘I’m just going to convert these to condos and not deal with rents anymore.’”

He feels the type of Right to Lease approved by the Council was not a good decision.

“The better solution, and I’m hoping to push this, is to provide direct subsidies to those truly needy tenants, those who are in dire straits and can’t afford their rent, a local Section 8 program. I think that is going to make the most impact. It is going to encourage apartments to be built and to be brought onto the market,” he said.

His program would help those who are really in need and not those who can afford a higher rent and would not need assistance, he said.

Najarian testified in Sacramento recently on Senator Anthony Portantino’s SB 521 [see page 5], which would free up $27 million in funds.

“If we get that funding, we are going to dedicate it 100% to affordable housing. We can leverage that in the affordable housing development field to the tune of about $80 million. We can turn that $27 million into about an $80 million investment and it will provide hundreds of units of affordable apartments throughout the city. I think that’s the way we need to go,” he said.

CVW will publish Part II of the discussion with Mayor Najarian next week that will include his views on bridging gaps between the Glendale Unified School District,  far north Glendale and the unincorporated area of LA County/La Crescenta.