By Mary O’KEEFE

The Glendale City Council began Tuesday night’s meeting by sharing the location of its meeting on Oct. 3. The City Council in Your Neighborhood will begin its meeting at 6 p.m. at Sparr Heights Community Center, 1613 Glencoe Way in Glendale. Roubik Golanian, City of Glendale manager, said an agenda is being worked on that will be “germane” to the area.

Councilmember Elen Asatryan asked staff what it had done to get the information out concerning this upcoming meeting.

“I had requested that we do outreach to the residents that live in the area,” Asatryan said of previous City Council in Your Neighborhood meetings. “One of the issues I have is there tends to be more staff than community members present.”

Golanian said staff had issued a survey to residents within that neighborhood to come up with ideas they would like to bring to the meeting. It also reached out to families with students in the neighborhood.

Although the meeting is located in Sparr Heights all residents are invited to the meeting. Anyone with questions concerning the meeting or would like to suggest a topic that is focused on the local neighborhood specifically, but not limited to the far north area of Glendale, can call (818) 548-4844 then press option 1.

Assemblymember Laura Friedman was present at the annual legislative update to Council. She went through some of the bills that are on the governor’s desk with specific interest to those in Glendale.

“You know that I spent many years, going back to my city council days, working on traffic safety. You know what a huge problem Glendale and the surrounding areas have had when it comes to keeping our streets safe, particularly for pedestrians and cyclists,” Friedman said.

A few years ago she proposed bill AB43 that was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021. The law allowed cities to cap or lower speed limits. Friedman said for the last four years she has been working on a bill that would bring a pilot program to six cities, one being Glendale, that would be an additional tool to help reduce traffic issues.

“This is the first time we were able to get this bill through the to governor’s desk,” she said.

AB 645 is a bill she said that works toward changing the culture of speeding and reckless driving.

“It will allow, under certain conditions, for Glendale and five other cities to pilot the use of automated speed enforcement, meaning using a camera. And before people start shaking their heads, because I would too if someone said [they] remember the old red light camera program, which everybody hated, I will give you a little bit of context,” she said.

The cameras would be placed in the most dangerous city corridors or near schools and other vulnerable populations, she said.

A driver would have to be traveling over 11 miles an hour above the speed limit to get a ticket and the first ticket would only be a warning. There is no facial recognition and no points placed on a driver’s license record. The fines for a second ticket are $50, which will be cut in half for those living at low-income levels. None of the money will go into the City’s general fund; the revenue raised through citations will be dedicated to the program or to make physical street calming in specific corridors.

Friedman said this bill had a lot of support including from AAA and the National Highway Safety Traffic Board. Both organizations sent letters to the governor.

 “States that have done this have seen up to 70% decrease in crashes related to speed,” she said.

The pilot will be for five years. Friedman covered several other bills that can be found at www.cvweekly.com.

Friedman also shared that through the years she had secured $933,000 for the City of Glendale for its Fremont Park renovation. She also shared her office’s 2023 Non-Profit of the Year was the Armenian Relief Society-Western United States.

Artsakh was on the minds and hearts of many at the meeting, including members of the City Council, as the “ethnic cleansing” appears to continue even after the ceasefire was called.

A BBC team saw families crammed into cars, boots [vehicle trunks] overflowing and roof-racks piled high with belongings. Convinced they are leaving their homes for good, people are squeezing as much of their lives as possible into their vehicles, reported BBC.

The City Council voted to extend for a year the ordinance that stops permitting for new or converting to drive-through restaurants. A speaker in Glendale who has a drive-through restaurant voiced his concern that this ordinance would affect businesses like his. City Attorney Mike Garcia stated this ordinance did not affect businesses that already had drive-throughs. If an existing property is sold its permits will continue; however, if the building has been abandoned for a year it would affect permitting for a drive-through.

Councilmember Paula Devine noted this is an extension of a study that is examining the impact of drive-through restaurants in the City.

Another speaker said he was speaking on behalf of developers that are in or have future development plans. He said he understood that it was a “foregone conclusion” that the Council would vote to extend this study for a year; however, he urged the Council to direct staff to conclude the report as quickly as possible. He added that staff had already been working on this study for a year and he was concerned that another year’s time would affect projects.

When asked, Bradley Calvert, director of Community Development, stated he felt they would have the report before the year’s extension is completed.

All but one on the Council voted in favor of extending the ordinance for a year. Councilmember Ara Najarian recused himself from the discussion and vote “due to an interest in a company that would be impacted by the adoption of the ordinance,” he said.

Council approved another extension by 10 months and 15 days that prohibits permits for the “establishment of new or replacement” retail businesses that sell firearms and/or ammunition.

Four councilmembers voted to extend with Najarian voting “no.”

Council approved a revision to the Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program by adding all-way stop controls at specific areas in the City. Councilmember Ardy Kassakhian had been attending the meeting virtually as he was not feeling well, and prior to this vote had stepped away.

During the discussion Najarian asked staff what had changed since 1996 when he was first on the committee for traffic calming. He stated that stop signs had been omitted specifically due to some noise issues and a false sense of security for pedestrians as they walked across the street.

Staff replied increased speed was a main issue of why stop signs are being looked at and added to the program now, and that stop signs could be placed in areas that are not able to have speed bumps/humps because those streets are emergency response routes. The stop signs would have to follow the same process as all other traffic calming tools, including collecting community response.

Glendale Water and Power (GWP) proposed a rate increase that will be spread out over three years. GWP will be scheduling community outreach meetings.

Councilmember Paula Devine asked about the “delay after delay” of the Grayson repowering project. GWP members responded there would be no rate increase concerning Scholl Canyon and Grayson Power Plant.

“I will see a 20% increase [if the proposed rate increase is approved]. I was devastated and shocked by this report,” she said.

Najarian asked why GWP didn’t warn the Council of the rate hike possibility.

Mark Young, GWP general manager, said he did warn the Council in 2017 and 2018.

There are several factors that affect this proposed rate increase, including higher interest rates and overall increased pricing for goods and services, but the delay in a decision regarding Grayson repowering and Scholl Canyon played a role, Young stated.

Golanian stated that moving forward the staff is seeking approval to perform a cost of service analysis of the full rate study as well as beginning community outreach meetings in October.

The Council approved, with Asatryan voting no, to move forward with the cost analysis.