By Julie BUTCHER

On Tuesday night, the Glendale City Council took up two hefty issues for relatively long discussions. Responding to inquiries from the public and from council members, City Attorney Mike Garcia shared the results of a detailed report studying the possibility of moving from currently electing councilmembers at-large citywide to smaller, district-based council districts and of directly electing the city’s mayor, rather than having the position rotate among the councilmembers.

Glendale is a charter city and changes like these generally require a vote of the public. In 2015, Glendale voters rejected a charter amendment that would have allowed for district elections. In 2015 and 2016, respectively, the Glendale Community College and Glendale Unified School District opted to move to elections by district; district elections in both school districts began in 2017.

Among California’s 74 most populous cities, 78% elect their councilmembers at-large; 72% elect their mayor directly. Generally, Garcia told the council, those in favor of localized elections argue that each area would be represented by someone who lived in that area; those against the changes posit there could be fights over resources or heightened focus on parochial issues.

“Don’t we want to ask the voters what they think?” Councilmember Vrej Agajanian wondered, attempting to understand the process of averting a charter amendment election as it was detailed by the city attorney.

“The current system is working,” Councilmember Ara Najarian said. “Let me tell you about our neighboring cities. If you want a land use issue to be advanced, there’s only one person you have to speak to and it’s not the mayor or the head of the community development department or the city manager. It’s the councilmember in that district. This is what they call Balkanization. You might as well split up Glendale into five separate cities because that’s really what happens. Just look at Los Angeles.”

The council voted 3-1-1 to maintain the status quo at this time, with Devine, Agajanian and Najarian voting to keep the current system and Kassakhian abstaining.

Also on Tuesday, the council extensively debated a report from the police department critical of several policy directives issued by newly elected District Attorney George Gascón. Specifically, Glendale Police Chief Carl Povilaitis and Captain Robert Williams reported on the negative impact of three of the DA’s new edicts, noting a “slight uptick in the crime rate” in the city (overall crime is up 3%, violent crime up 13%, grand thefts up approximately 50%, they shared), coupled with the ongoing impact of the pandemic in delaying the courts in processing a backlog of cases.

First, Williams reported on the policy of eliminating cash bail, noting that “crimes such as solicitation to commit murder, felony assault likely to cause great bodily injury, felony domestic violence resulting in traumatic condition are some of the offenses that are neither serious nor violent [under this policy] and [therefore] qualify for zero cash bail.”

In the last 18 months, he further reported, the police department has seen increased rates of recidivism, with 452 people reoffending at least twice, 143 repeat offenders committing crimes three times, 60 reoffending four times. One individual was arrested 17 times.

Further, the police department shared, the DA’s misdemeanor case management system appears to be resulting in the lack of prosecution of any misdemeanors, with at least 825 misdemeanor cases submitted by the Glendale Police Dept. being rejected by the District Attorney’s Office, including people arrested in possession of illegal drugs.

“There’s no treatment or drug diversion. Those cases are immediately dismissed. There is no exception to this – and at this point there are no drug treatment programs available at the time of arrest or in lieu of any judicial process,” Captain Williams said.

“The blanket policy of not allowing special allegations to be filed results in violent individuals being released from custody and given probationary sentences rather than more appropriate sentences based on the actual violation,” local attorney and victims’ rights advocate Kathleen Cady said, calling in. “Some felonies are only considered ‘violent’ with an enhancement. They’re not prosecuting misdemeanors pretty much at all and this affects the quality of life and empowers the criminals. Hence the spike in crime we’re seeing across Los Angeles County.”

“I’m a long time Glendale resident, calling in tonight opposed to the other callers,” Ingrid Gunnell said, sharing that she is glad to hear “this report and discussion will not lead to a ‘vote of no confidence’ because both Ara Najarian and Paula Devine said it won’t.”

“I understand victims have rights and one of the main reasons that more than half of the county voted George Gascón in is because Jackie Lacey failed victims of police violence. George Gascón ran on a platform and that is what he is implementing. The recall effort of George Gascón basically began the day after he got elected.”

The question, Councilmember Dan Brotman contemplated, is “whether the incarceration first approach is effective. There’s a movement towards looking at alternatives to incarceration – the LA County board of supervisors set out a direction and what Gascón is doing is very much in that spirit.”

Councilmember Ardy Kassakhian noted, “Our correctional system is broken, and it doesn’t work and that’s a fact. Jails and prisons have taken the place of mental health institutions and care facilities, and our society is beset by a culture that treats humans like tissue paper, like disposable numbers – look at our homeless crisis – it’s hard not to think ‘a pox on both their houses’ when we see it. We imprison more people in this country than anyone else on the planet.”

Kassakhian proposed communicating with the DA directly, outlying the city’s concerns and asking for a response and a meeting between staff and the DA’s Office.

Councilmember Ara Najarian reiterated that his intent is “not a request for a ‘vote of no confidence’ or recall.”

“I spent two years as a non-attorney law clerk in Glendale and Downtown Los Angeles courthouses under Bob Philibosian,” he said. “Safety is of the utmost importance, and I fully support our police department.”

Mayor Paula Devine agreed. “It has to be demoralizing for the police department to make all of these arrests only to see the perpetrators walk out of jail and do it again. And again and again. It’s time we formally express our concerns. What we’re seeing now is not acceptable.”

Earlier in the meeting, Councilmember Dan Brotman reminded Glendale renters and landlords about the state’s program for COVID-19 support.

“It’s well funded and applies to both landlords and tenants and may cover utilities,” he shared in advance of the end of the eviction moratorium anticipated at the end of September.

City staff reported that of 465 questions that were asked on the city’s hotline, 30 calls regarded COVID-19 evictions; in Glendale, 2,462 applications have resulted in $33 million in rental assistance. Anyone can apply at https://housing.ca.gov/covid_rr/.

Councilmember Kassakhian wished the best of luck to everyone going back to school “at this exciting time, especially for parents who’ve had kids in quarantine for all these months.”

Mayor Devine expressed continuing concern that local hospital beds are being taken by COVID-19 patients while people in the emergency room are waiting, sometimes for many hours. She wondered if the city has approached local businesses to urge them to require vaccines for entry.

Staff announced a Pop-Up Health Fair on Wednesday, Aug. 25 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in coordination with the Armenian American Medical Society, in front of the Glendale Galleria, that will include free screenings, booths and vaccines.

Of important local note, last week the council approved the move to Phase II of Glendale Water & Power’s (GWP) Water Conservation Ordinance. (For details see the information from the city on page 4.)

“At least in Glendale, water can’t be used as an excuse for not building more units,” GWP’s Chief Assistant General Manager of Water, Michael De Ghetto told the council. “This is a great opportunity for residents and businesses to secure their own water future. The community has done a great job being a part of the solution; I have no doubt that they will continue to be even more efficient when using this precious resource in the future.”