By Julie BUTCHER

“I’ve lost count of the number of times this council has lamented the imposition of central control by the legislature in Sacramento over our local issues. It is very disturbing to this council and very disturbing to the members of our community regardless of what political party they are from,” stated Mayor Ara Najarian who minced no words at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Glendale City Council when expressing these local concerns to State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez.

Pérez had introduced herself and offered an overview of her accomplishments in her first legislative session: funding to transition CAL FIRE seasonal firefighters to full time in recognition that fire season in now permanent and year-round in California; increased funding for housing and homelessness; extensive tax credits to retain jobs in film and television to “keep those good jobs here.”

Senator Pérez recognized and thanked City Clerk Dr. Suzie Abajian and Councilmember Elen Asatryan for strong local support for AB 91, the MENA Inclusion Act that requires California state and local agencies to collect and report detailed demographic data for people of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) ancestry. The goal is to improve public services, policymaking, and support for these communities, which were previously often lumped into the “White” category, by allowing more specific data collection on groups like Iranian, Iraqi, Egyptian and Armenian Californians. The new data collection requirements begin in January 2028.

“This will ensure that our Armenian community will be counted,” Pérez said.

Shane Lee of Glendale YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) addressed the council in glowing support of the new state senator. 

“She’s amazing and we’re so happy she’s our representative in Sacramento,” Lee said. “She’s a champion of everything that is good and just and noble in this world – she’s a champion of immigrants and women and queer rights. AB 91 is awesome!”

Not everyone was impressed with her work in Sacramento.

“SB 79 really ripped the heart out of this community,” Mayor Najarian said, noting his additional concerns that legislation encouraging denser housing may inadvertently have a chilling effect on improving public transit. 

“Residents are coming to me and saying we don’t want that Bus Rapid Transit – as you know, [a dedicated bus lane] planned from North Hollywood to Pasadena, high frequency, very convenient stops, an express route – they’re coming to me and saying, ‘We don’t want that transit because it’s going to trigger this high-density housing.’ It’s putting me and members of the Metro board in a difficult spot – I hear them talking about canceling their good transit projects.”

Councilmember Ardy Kassakhian was slightly less direct with the state senator, first urging that she continue to work on legislation protecting small business owners from frivolous lawsuits alleging minor violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

“When it comes to housing, we want to be partners with the state,” Councilmember Kassakhian explained. “Glendale has built its share of affordable housing and continues. In the past Regional Housing Needs Assessment met its required quota. However, in this round we are being punished with everyone else with additional demands on housing and zoning … without any support for these mandates from the state or toward providing services to maintain the quality of life that we know is essential.”

He noted Pérez’s past experience on a city council.

“You know what our residents expect from us – police, fire, utility services, open parks and open space,” Kassakhian concluded. 

He suggested the state develop incentives for cities that have met housing goals, a carve-out, rewards, incentives, grants for cities to be able to support increased housing density, incentives that might incentivize cities that are not meeting reasonable goals.

Ejmin Hakobian appreciated the commitment to fire recovery efforts. 

“However, I am deeply disappointed by your vote on SB 79,” Hakobian said. “You served as a city council member and every city council in your district passed a resolution against SB 79 and you disregarded that.” 

At the end of her comments to the council, Pérez clarified several details regarding the implementation of new housing rules under SB 79, first noting that an amendment limits the new provisions only to existing transit stations and to those currently planned as of Jan. 1, 2026 and that the law allows flexibility to identify alternate locations for increased housing density – especially when that density is situated next to single-family homes.

City officials then proudly announced the opening of the lottery for Pioneer Village, a 340-unit city-built affordable housing project at 515 Pioneer Drive, with 92 of the units designated for seniors. Lottery winners will be selected on Dec. 18 and the lottery will be open from Nov. 27 until Dec. 11. To sign up for consideration or for more information, visit https://nationalcore.org/communities/515-pioneer/.

The council voted to approve contracts to update playgrounds at two of the city’s mini parks. 

At Wilson Mini Park, in the city’s Citrus Grove neighborhood, the 17-year-old playground equipment will be replaced and improvements made to the playground’s accessibility. Safe surfacing and shade will be added for a cost of up to $300,000, funded by Measure A regional county park funding. A survey of the community found a majority favored the “Café and Ice Cream Store” design.

The Elk Mini Park replacement project will cost up to $400,000 and is expected to be funded by CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) funding plus a grant from the California Parks and Recreation Society Healthy Play Funding Initiative. The community survey opted for the “Mother Tree Grove” design to replace playground equipment last updated in 2004.

Dr. Jackie Gish commented on Glendale Water and Power source disclosure report and power content label for 2024.

“Although I’m not ecstatic that the sum of renewable and carbon-free energy was 50% of the portfolio for 2024, it is understandable given some of the disappointing output from Eland and the Hoover Dam. This number was lower than the estimate in the IRP of 55% and substantially less than the California average, but it still shows that a substantial part of the portfolio is from natural gas or other fossil fuels. Two weeks ago, two council members and a staff member said that it doesn’t matter if we switch our furnaces from gas to electricity because most of our power comes from gas anyway – this is clearly not true and will be even less true in the years to come.”

By a vote of 3-2, the council approved a so-called “reach” code, an amendment to the city’s building code requiring the use of electric heat pumps replacing traditional gas furnaces.

Councilmember Vartan Gharpetian opposed the measure.

“I asked what [was] the reason for this ordinance and no on will give me a clear answer; it’s written here for a reduction in green house gas emissions. Climate change was one before the last on people’s priority list. If this move was so good, we wouldn’t have to subsidize it by $1,000 a ton for every A/C unit. We are taking the voluntary measure the state has and making it mandatory and I don’t understand why.” 

Mayor Najarian also voted against the new code.

Council regular Beth Brooks observed, “So basically what you’re doing is the same thing you’re complaining about Sacramento doing to you with all the housing mandates. You’re basically saying, ‘This is in your best interest. We’re going to make you do it; we’re going to make you pay for it – and there’s nothing you can do about it because it’s really good for you.’”

The council unanimously adopted a comprehensive Roadway Design Policy seeking to establish a “comprehensive set of citywide street design guidelines that will consolidate multiple existing planning policy recommendations into a single, unified design framework that can be practically applied,” according to the staff report.

“We’re not going to remove a lane if it has a significant impact on traffic flow or if it pushes traffic – in any significant way – into neighboring streets,” Councilmember Dan Brotman clarified. 

Glendalian Alan Durham questioned a routine contract for painting three fire stations and the Montrose Library. The lowest bid was considerably lower than the other bids at $78,000 but the company – Fresh Style Painting – is based in Manteca in the San Joaquin Valley. Durham expressed concern about its ability to do the work from there. City Manager Roubik Golanian assured the council that the firm is bonded and has the requisite experience and insurance and that “if not we can call their bonds and make sure the project get completed.”

Councilmember Kassakhian proposed some sort of program encouraging local purchasing – a Buy Glendale effort – noting that approximately one quarter of the city budget comes from sales tax and that “every dollar spent here in the city goes to help provide the services we’ve come to count on.”

Councilmember Elen Asatryan read a statement responding to ongoing allegations and a recent report deeming the allegations unfounded.

“Alex Balekian publicly accused me of corruption and then filed a police report. I could say Alex Balekian is an alien who has landed from a UFO. That doesn’t make it so,” she said.

She explained the police processed the claim alleged through the county’s public integrity unit to ensure full transparency and the absence of any kind of conflict and that throughout the entire investigation she stayed silent. 

“While that review was still pending, Mr. Mohill distributed a newsletter telling the public I was under investigation and further disseminating the allegations. They were false then and they are false now. Last week, the formal conclusion was reached that the was ‘no misconduct and that the allegations were so baseless that they didn’t even warrant investigation.’”

She pledged to defend her reputation. 

“Defamation is not protected speech,” Asatryan said.

Finally, the council approved two houses to be nominated to the Glendale Register of Historic Resources and offered Mills Act contracts: 1855 Verdugo Knolls Drive, built in 1923, a Tudor Revival-style single story home in the Verdugo Woodlands neighborhood and 1502 Royal Blvd., an American Colonial Revival built in 1965 by notable architect Gerard Colcord.