By Julie BUTCHER

On Tuesday night, the Glendale City Council once again took up a request by Councilmember Vartan Gharpetian “to agendize a discussion of the removal of certain city-owned parking lots from consideration in the City-Owned Residential Overlay (CORO) in the General Plan Land Use Element Update and Surplus Lands Act (SLA) approvals.”

Mayor Ara Najarian agreed to entertain another discussion of the inclusion of these properties in the state listing of “surplus properties,” potentially leading to the development of these city-owned parking lots.

“It does not mean that I’m in favor of this – in fact, I see this as an opportunity to frankly and directly address some of the miscommunication and false information that’s out there,” he said. “Unfortunately, this has turned into a campaign issue that is being ginned up.” 

Councilmember Elen Asatryan said that given the issue will already be coming back to Council for further deliberations it would be irresponsible to spend additional funds and expect more work from staff.

Councilmember Ardy Kassakhian voted to revisit the list of surplus land in an attempt to respect the wishes of Councilmember Gharpetian. That discussion will be held at an upcoming Council meeting. The consideration of removing the specified parking lots from the CORO will not be part of that debate unless one of the three council members who voted to include the lots in the land use plans votes for reconsideration, in accordance with Robert’s Rules of Order.

In other business, the Council authorized the expenditure of up to $3.4 million to join in a contract with Verra Mobility for the installation of speed cameras at nine locations across Glendale as part of a five-year, six-city pilot program to test the automated speed safety camera system.

AB 645 created the framework to test the new tool aimed at improving road safety and reducing speeding and resulting collisions. During the first 60-day period, only warning notices will be sent out; after that, fines of between $50 and $500 can be issued. The cameras only photograph license plates, not drivers or passengers, and all violation data will be kept confidential, only to be used to evaluate the efficacy of the pilot.

The program is anticipated to cost approximately $1 million per year with citations offsetting the costs and surplus funds being used to pay for additional traffic calming improvements.

The nine locations where the cameras will be installed and additional information about the pilot program can be reviewed at GlendaleSpeedSafety.com.

The entire Council and those in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting celebrated the work of Glendale Police Chief Manny Cid following the announcement that he is leaving the city to accept a position as police chief for the city of Anaheim.

“It is with a heavy heart that I accepted the position,” Cid told the Council. “I’ve grown to love this community – it feels like a second home.” 

He reported he is leaving the Glendale Police Dept. in good shape: staffing is as good as it has ever been; morale is strong; and crime is down 20% overall since 2023.

Also on Tuesday night, the Council voted to authorize the expenditure of $150,000 to fund an electric vehicle integration study with the University of California, Los Angeles’ Smart Grid Energy Research Center. 

Council regular Beth Brooks urged the Council to freeze the study.

  “It’s not the amount. This is Phase I of the electrification of all the vehicles in the city, which I think should be frozen at this time if it affects rates of residents,” she said. “This is a precursor to spending more money. This is something we don’t need.”

Glendale Water and Power (GWP) General Manager Scott Mellon answered Council questions noting that the study would be funded through GWP’s public benefits charges and the Council previously approved $200,000 for the study to look at various types of protocol communications and interconnections.

“The transportation fleet is electrifying all around the state,” Councilmember Dan Brotman weighed in. “It’s going to happen here, [no matter] whatever anybody thinks. The question is with all these batteries, how are we doing to integrate them with our utility so we can draw down power when we have a shortage during those hot summer afternoons?

“Do we want to pay a whole bunch of money to provision generation to meet that need? The power is going to be out there – it’s going to be stored in those batteries at the time of day when there is excess and cheap electricity. We want to be smart about using it. This is called ‘demand response.’ This is how you run a modern utility at lowest cost so you’re not building up a whole bunch of capacity for the few hundred hours out of the year when you absolutely need it. We need to start learning how to do this. To not do this would be, I think, the height of silliness.”

During the period of councilmembers’ comments early in the Council meeting, Councilmember Kassakhian recognized the third night of Hanukkah, sharing “thoughts and prayers to the victims of the Bondi Beach massacre and for all of [our] Jewish friends and neighbors who are celebrating a slightly more somber Hanukkah this year.”

Councilmember Brotman highlighted the Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony held on the first night of the holiday at the Adams Hill Mini Park, focusing on the positive messages of Hanukkah. He thanked the police for ensuring the crowd felt as safe as possible. 

Brotman also reported that he observed trash on the street, reported it through the city’s “MyGlendale” app and that the trash was removed within 24 hours. He encouraged Glendalians to download the app to request city services. Residents can report problems online as well: https://www.glendaleca.gov/residents/how-do-i/contact-the-city/report-a-problem-online.

A resident of Glendale’s Rancho neighborhood invited the public to Christmas caroling with horses organized by Equestrian Trails, Inc. and Corral 38 on Sunday, Dec. 21 starting at 12:45 p.m. in the alleyway next to Silver Saddle Stables. In addition to singing Christmas carols “often really poorly,” the event is an opportunity to collect food to share with those less fortunate, the speaker shared. Contact ranchohorses@gmail.com for more information.

The Council finalized updated procedures for selecting the mayor and opted to hold the 2026 mayoral selection vote in April and in July starting in 2027.

Finally, the Council gave final approval to a residential development at 126-128 Kenwood Street, between Broadway and Harvard Street, of a new 45,983 square foot, five-story, 40-unit multi-family residential project above two levels of subterranean parking with 69 parking spaces. 

The Council will meet next on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026.