By Justin HAGER

A Crescenta Valley Town Council meeting turned hostile last week after a community member accused Councilmember Desiree Rabinov of lying at a previous Council meeting.

The meeting began as a celebration with President Harry Leon congratulating and honoring Preston Midgley on completing his project at the Crescenta Valley Methodist Church and achieving the rank of Eagle Scout. Other celebrations early in the meeting included Glendale Unified School District’s (GUSD) Superintendent Vivian Ekchian and board of education member Jennifer Freemon excitedly celebrating a return to in-person classes and the success of the first two days of school, and a presentation by LA Metro staff on the new and improved Routes 90, 91, and 690, which will connect Sunland and La Crescenta to Downtown Los Angeles, North Hollywood Station, the Hollywood Burbank Airport and the Olive View Medical Center with greater frequency and efficiency.

Following the LA Metro staff presentation, Councilmember Desiree Rabinov invited community members to participate in the next Streets and Transportation Committee meeting, whose agenda includes discussion of the proposed pedestrian, street and water-capture improvements proposed by Los Angeles County in the CV region. While answering questions about the proposal, a community member accused Rabinov of lying at a previous meeting and of taking action on a matter based upon a single letter of support. Rabinov defended herself and, after a short exchange of passive-aggressive hostilities, the meeting continued.

The CV Weekly investigated the claims that Rabinov had lied or been misleading at last month’s meeting and found no evidence to support the claim. To the contrary, the video recording of the meeting found Rabinov’s statements to be consistent.

It is important to note that Rabinov is not personally responsible for the decisions of the County but is only the messenger for the county decisions regarding transportation and street infrastructure in her role on CVTC.

CVTC is an advisory board, a liaison between the community and the office of the LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger. As such, this board can make recommendations, share the community’s opinions and work with Barger’s office to communicate any proposals.

CVTC President Leon made a motion to have the County come to a future meeting to speak on the proposed street improvements.

Joanna Linkchorst, founder and president of the Friends of Rockhaven, expressed her gratitude to State Senator Anthony Portantino for securing millions of dollars to preserve and protect the historic site. Her gratitude was tempered by frustration that the City of Glendale could take up to three years to determine whether to accept the money, leaving Rockhaven in the lurch and few levers for the Town Council to pull to speed up the process.

One lever the Council does have is to at least make sure its voice is heard and recorded for posterity. In fact, their official purpose “is to listen to, address, and communicate residents’ needs, ideas, and concerns to the appropriate public agencies, City, County and State.” To this end, they voted unanimously to send a letter to the state of California in support of insulating 6,000 miles of power lines in the Angeles Forest as part of fire mitigation measures to protect vulnerable communities. The letter is in response to a decision by the state that would require Southern California Edison to dedicate a large portion of project funding to renewable energy production such as solar and wind, thus depleting the budget for insulating lines against fire.