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>> Good evening everyone. Please take your
seats if you can find one available. I call to order the January 13, 2026
meeting of the Glendale City Council. May we have roll call?
» Yes. Council members Asatan Brotman >> here.
» Carpetan >> here.
» Kasakian >> here.
» Mayor Najarian >> here. Will you all please rise and join
me in the flag salute? [clears throat]
» Repeat after me. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America
and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all. >> Please remain standing. And this
evening, we're honored to have Kelly Kessinger, senior chaplain from
Adventist Health, deliver our invocation.
Good evening.
Gracious God, source of wisdom and hope, we pause to give thanks for this
community and for the opportunity to serve it. We ask for guidance for our
mayor, council members, city staff, and all who lead that their decisions may be
marked by integrity, compassion, and a sincere desire for the common good.
» [snorts] >> We ask for patience when discussions are
difficult, clarity when choices are complex, and courage to do what is right
even when it's hard. We remember our neighbors who are struggling today,
those facing uncertainty, illness, loss, or financial strain. We ask that Glendel
may be a place where people are seen, valued, and supported.
May this meeting be productive, respectful, and guided by a spirit of
cooperation. so that together we may build a safer, stronger, and more
hopeful community for all. Amen. >> Thank you very much.
» Madame Clerk, may we have your report? >> Yes. The agenda for the January 13, 2026
regular meeting of the Glendel City Council was posted on January 7th, 2026
on the bulletin board outside city hall. >> Thank you. What's the next item? Next
are presentations and appointments. The first item is recognition of winter
decorating contest winners.
» Well, it's hard to believe that the holiday season is over. Um, but we all
have to get back to work. Uh, we are pleased to recognize the winners of the
city of Glendale's winter decorating contest. This was our second year
continuing this tradition and the response from our community was
tremendous. And in a moment we have a short Glendale
TV video highlighting the winning displays and then we're going to invite
the winners uh to come before us for a group photo and for some commendations.
So roll it please.
Heat.
Hey, heat. Hey, heat.
Heat.
Heat. Heat.
» [bell]
[cheering and applause]
» So, congratulations to all you homeowners uh who
submitted and decorated. We had a tight competition so only a handful receiving
the commenation. Uh I will call your address and if you'll come forward and
council will then join you for some photos.
651 West Doran Street. Please come forward if you're here.
» See the picture again. >> 15 uh 24. Can we run the video without
the sound? Maybe. Um 1524 Hillrest Avenue,
[applause]
538 West California Avenue,
318 Roads End,
3060 North Verdugo code [applause]
» and 1420
» for Keep it down. Please keep it down. I know it's exciting. For 1420 West
Kenneth Road. [applause]
Okay. And uh if my colleagues would join me to uh distribute the commendations.
[clears throat] All
right.
That's us. >> Thank you very
congratulations. Thank you for spicing up our community.
Well, thank you for doing this. >> That's good. Why don't we all stand
sideways? >> Okay.
» And that'll give us a little bit of room.
» Wait, should we do
» [applause]
» 53. So,
» well, that was a lot of fun. And I uh again thank all the residents whether
you won or not uh for participating decorating your homes. Maybe we'll the
next mayor can consider including a Halloween category of home decorating.
But I'll leave that up to to whoever has this seat next.
» Yes, Mr. Bman. I want to make a special shout out to one of the winners, Leslie
uh Little Right. Lidle >> Lidle
» Lidle who actually brought this to our attention. We almost dropped the ball
and didn't do it the second year and she wrote and said, "Why are you guys not
doing a competition?" There she is. Round of applause.
[applause] Round of applause. So, I I appreciate you keeping an eye out on and
and uh keeping us on our toes. Thank you very much.
» May I address for one moment? >> Can she?
» Uh briefly. >> Briefly, but come to the come to the
podium. No, no, no. have to come to the podium. It's our It's our rule. [snorts]
» Just the fact that we've got so many people in this room who are part of our
community that have come together, that's why we wanted to do this contest.
So, thank you very much for continuing it. I've met new friends. So, thank you.
» Thank you very [applause] much.
» Thank you. What is the next item, please?
Item B is presentation from the Glendel Police Department on substance abuse.
» Mr. Galania. >> Yes. Uh Mayor N City Councelor, I'd like
to invite Sona Opppian, our clinical program director with uh police
department for the presentation. >> Thank you. And I I met you at the
Glendel Health Fair. >> Yes, you did. and you had a very uh
informative booth and I felt that uh in the current atmosphere and situation
across the country that we need to uh recognize your efforts and receive some
of the very important information that you have to give to our community
members. So I turn it over to you Sona. >> Thank you and good evening council
members and I appreciate the opportunity mayor Najarian. Um can we have our
slides? Yes, please.
So, um until we get the slides up, what I can say is um our program called the
substance abuse and uh wellness resource program is nestled within the core
bureau of the Glendel Police Department. For those who are not familiar with the
core bureau, um core stands for community outreach resources and
engagement bureau and core handles um homeless outreach. We have the hope
team. We have um crisis intervention and um a lot of community outreach
events that are handled within core. So we are one arm of the core bureau.
Thank you. Um, so let me go back. So because of our time restriction, I'm
just going to give you a broadstrokes overview of our program. So we'll start
by talking about our mission, our vision, why this program was started or
how it started, why we need the program, um, what some of our program goals are,
what we do. Um I'll share some of our accomplishments
um a success story hopefully time permitting and then future projects that
we have for this next year. So, we started um with some grant
funding that we received from the honorable Senator Portantino's office.
And um one of the main reasons um that we got this funding was to address
overdoses and substance abuse within our city.
This was back in April of 2023 when Captain Alex Creoran reached out and we
um collaborated to start a program together. So, our mission really is to
provide resources and supports to anyone who needs mental health or substance
abuse services. This can be somebody who's arrested with a narcotics charge
um to someone who's just seeking services and is unable to find resources
due to their socioeconomic status. Um and our goal is really to help build a
healthy community by working with our families.
So um just really quickly um I get asked this question a lot. Why do we need this
program? So, if you can see uh on the slides um from the CDC, we know that
from 1999 to 2023, we had over 86,000 people die from an opioid overdose. And
this is just opioids. Um we saw a small decrease from 2022 to 2023.
Um but that was mainly due to the use of Narcan or to the administration of
Narcan and I'll talk a little bit about that. So we all know that we have a
national opioid epidemic and um there's a huge stigma associated with substance
abuse and mental health regardless of all the efforts that we're still making
in our community. Um so some of our program goals include
um raising awareness about substance abuse, giving uh appropriate education
to both students, parents, community members,
um to decreasing stigma um like I said
before and providing um services to people who get arrested um with
narcotics charges. is um in addition to all of that, we try to establish
community relationships with several of our community organizations and I'll
talk a little bit about that in a minute.
Our this is our team. Um we have um I think most everyone from our team here
except um Lieutenant Milligan, but the rest of our team here is here in the
audience. So I thank them for their support and um being here.
So what do we do? Um in a nutshell, if you you can think of our program as a
hub or as a um static point uh of where people can
go to regardless of where they're where they are on their journey of getting
help. So whether it's somebody who's having trouble at school and we need to
connect them to services outside of the school or we need to work with their
public defender regardless of where they're where they are. We are that
constant point that stays with them throughout. So usually what that will
look like is I will get a referral. I will meet with the individual or the
family, do an assessment and then provide appropriate resources.
But that can take two months, that can take three months, things can change,
they come back and then we work with them throughout. So um in this slide,
these are just some of the organizations or some of the steps that we've taken
with um some of the referrals that um we've gotten into our program. Um this
slide is uh an illustration of our community partners. Um we utilize the
Glendel Public Library um as a place where I meet with families. They have
been very generous with us to give us a key and a room for when um we need to
have our meetings because it's a pretty neutral um location.
Um the YWCA works closely with us. Um the city of Glendel homeless services,
we also work closely with them. Um, and one more thing I want to mention on on
that slide is Oh, sorry. Going backwards.
Uh, sorry. Sorry.
Can you make the slide bigger? Sorry, it's
going. Okay. Um, I just want to make a point about our narcotics bureau. They
are a big part of our program because they attend several events with us and
do presentations with us. Um, and we just had one of our program um, the
youth empowerment program graduation. And a lot of the feedback we got from
the students was that they really enjoyed the collaborative effort that we
had with the narcotics bureau and having the officers be there and present with
us. [snorts] These are some of our community outreach
and prevention efforts. Um so we've partnered a lot with GUSD
both in 2024 and 2025. Um mainly in 2023
um we worked to establish our program mission, vision, our logo and um you
know um the objectives for what our program will look like. So that's why
you don't see a lot of events for 2023. This is again a um list, not a
comprehensive list, but a list of some of the events we participated in in
2025. And um here are some photos.
Um we have a photo of you, Mayor Najarian, when you visited us.
» Oh, that's me. >> Yes. [laughter]
And um >> I was saying, who's that handsome guy?
Um, one thing I will also mention here is the DA National Drug Takeback Event
was something that we did um last year um or last year and we did it in April
and October and each day we only did the drug takeback for four for four hours
and during that time we were able to collect um 200 13 pounds of unused and
expired medications. So, this is a, you know, partnership with the DEA and our
police officers where no questions asks, you bring and you drop off your unused
or expired medications. Um,
this is um some data to um about Narcan. you can see um how Glendel Fire
Department and Glendel Police Department administer Narcan or how many times they
did it in 2024 and 2025 and these are year to date. Um
so we are making an effort to really um encourage documentation and use of
Narcan as much as possible because it reverses the um opioid overdose and um
it can save a life. So, we've done several trainings with Narcan both in
the community, in the schools, um, and throughout several um, community events.
Again, this is just another slide that highlights our accomplishments.
Um, we've done presentations at Roosevelt Middle School. We've done
presentations for parents and scouts at Homemen at Men. Um, Red Ribbon Week is
also a a week where we're pretty active within our schools. Um,
we've also um um completed three public service announcements. I don't know if
we'll get to see them, but they focus all on fentanyl. So, um they're on our
website. We have a website within Glendel PD. It's it's a work in
progress, but we have some really good resources there, including resources for
veterans. Um,
I will briefly share a little bit about this success story just to give you an
idea of what that looks like. Um, so I th this timeline is represents
a two-year process. I started working with this 17-year-old
um from one of our high schools uh who came from a family with um a low
socioeconomic status had um problem with substance abuse. Um we were able to
coordinate a hospitalization because I we work closely with our hope team, the
school and our local hospitals. Um
after that hospitalization, we were able to get treatment for him. Um after which
um he relapsed again, but moving forward because of a arrest he had and because
of a court date that he had within the Glendel courts, I was able to work with
our public defenders and request a mental health diversion or substance
abuse diversion. and um really help him get into treatment. So,
you know, this he is now 19 years old and um clean and sober for a few months
now. So, um there's a long process, but we we stay with the person, you know,
regardless of what the need is or where they are in their um journey of
recovery. our future projects. Um these are some
of them. The one that I would like to highlight um today is
um documentary screening um of a movie called Dirty Drugs. Um the focus is on
fentanyl and um it is going to be on February 26th at 6:00 p.m. at the Look
Theater. We're going to have a panel discussion um after the movie and we're
going to have resources for the community as well. So um this is one of
the events, but we have um an event this Friday as well at the Pacific Park for
Teen Night Out and several other things that are in the works.
Um this is just some feedback that we received from the community or um
families that we've come across. Um and for the community, what they you
can do as a community member is if you have anyone who's in need of our
services, whether it's substance abuse or mental health, um please feel free to
refer them to our program and we will work with them.
This is our contact information, my information, and Seline. Seline is our
program assistant. We are both working part-time for this program. So, um, just
keep that in mind. And that is our website.
Um, >> thank you.
» Thank you. Should we Sorry, [applause]
» we have a sorry, a flyer for the movie screening for anyone. Okay. That's at
the theater. Save the date. >> There you go. February 26th and your
information is on the Glendale PD website.
» Yes. Yes. Under substance abuse and mental health.
» And if someone calls in, >> uh, they're not going to necessarily be
arrested for substance abuse. The first step is to help and right
» resolve the issues. >> I'm not a obviously I'm not a police
officer. I'm a clinician. I work very closely with our officers, but the goal
of our program is really to provide supports and services. So, um, and we
are actually going to do a PSA on, um, the good Samaritan law to help people
know, you know, that they can reach out or they can call for help without
getting arrested. >> Good. Well, thank you. Thank you very
much. Do my colleagues have any questions or comments?
» No. Can we put the information [clears throat] that information sheet
one more time? the contact information.
» Thank you. >> No, the one before this.
» There you go.
» Okay. So, if you know someone that needs [music] help,
» substance abuse or mental health arena, please
» contact our police department. >> And uh yeah, I just want to say thank
you. It's a really big problem, not just in Glendale, all over
» everyone. and uh the sooner we can find and identify the signs especially when
they're young and offer the help >> and support that individuals need then
um I [clears throat] think you know if we were to look at it from a very um
» kind of a cold statistical issue if we don't do things early on we all end up
paying the price for it in a number of ways not the least of which the lives uh
that are destroyed um by chronic substance abuse um untreated mental
health issues and others. So, you know, I encourage everyone if they know
someone who's struggling, uh you've heard it here, you have some resources
here from the city now. Um there is no reason for you to not reach out and
maybe you're just curious, just call, ask questions about uh what is the best
uh help that you can provide to a loved one, a friend, or someone that you know
who's struggling. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you.
» Uh we have a speaker. Oh, Mr. >> I was just going to say thank you, but
also ask you a question. The screening is that free?
» Um, all the services are free. So, you mean my assessment screening? No, the
film screening I meant. Sorry. At the Look Theater. Is that free of charge?
» Yes, it's free of charge. >> But people need to uh RSVP.
» They are going to RSVP and the city manager's office is going to have um
more information on how to RSVP, but space is limited [snorts] because we
only have one theater. So, I would encourage people to RSVP as soon as
possible, but we will have more of these screenings. This is the first one. Um,
and hopefully all will go well and we can disseminate it more in our community
and have the panel discussions to start talking.
» Okay. So, anyone in the community can um >> it's open to anyone for free.
» Okay. Wonderful. Thank you again for what you do.
» Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. [applause]
» We do have a speaker. I'm going to permit two minutes on this item.
» Our speaker is Herbert Milano.
» Mayor Nigarian members of the city council. My name is Herbert Molano. I
applaud the city council for the uh funding and the support of programs like
this. I've uh became aware of the program uh early last year when I saw a
message that appeared on the city's website that fentinel overdoses had had
quadrupled and I didn't know if they quadrupled from two to eight or if it
quadrupled from you know 20 to 80. The uh it didn't really give me a number and
I requested a meeting with the police department and I with the doctor who
just presented the information to you. I met with her as well [snorts] and what
it it brings to mind is the following uh and I know Mr. because we talked
about this many times for the better part of 20 years is that the city needs
to reconsider providing an annual quality of life report where all of
these measures concerning drug use, high school graduation, the uh uh domestic
violence, all of the issues that pertain to society's problems be presented to
you such that you can set a budget based upon the situation that the community
finds itself in. I have made this presentation to the
city council no fewer than 20 times during the years and it is a shame
because we had a fantastic report back in 2001 2002 and I encourage for the
city to put in the budget a process by which you collect the information that
is necessary for us to evaluate how we are doing and what are the problems of
the community. She just mentioned basically that we had
60 uh opioids cases where Narcom was used. Giving us national numbers doesn't
really address the problem as to what it's really for Glendale. And that's
what we really should know yeartoear so you could establish goals and programs
to basically address them. I appeal to you one more time. Thank you very much.
» Thank you. [applause]
What is the next item, please? >> Mayor, the next item is item C,
proclamation for KoreanAmerican Day. >> Okay, before we get into the
proclamations, um I would like to mention and recognize
some special guests and visitors that we have from the sister city of Bowen. We
have a cadre of students from uh Bowen and many of them you can
tell the young people in the room uh are from there. So if they would all please
like to stand up and be recognized. [applause]
And this is one of the purposes of our sister city uh programs uh is a cultural
exchange, not just a exchange of dignitaries at the council level or
government level, but but to have students, actual
young learners who have their whole lives ahead of them, uh exchange their
understanding of our cultures and our manners and our systems of education and
government. So these young people are from the uh Bowen sister city. You've
got a wonderful city. I visited there just a few months ago and I think I
explained a little bit in some of my remarks earlier at that time. But I
would like to invite one of the students forward to make a few remarks to the
city council um from the student representing the students of Bowen. So
please come forward.
Thank you. And I didn't have your name. I knew it before. I I we met earlier,
but if you could please let everyone know uh your name, your age, your
schooling, and then you can have your remarks, please.
» My name is Tio Gim and I'm 16 years old. My school is
middle school.
» Okay. Thank you very much. And if you have some remarks, uh you're welcome to
start. >> Honorable mayor and distinguish me
members of the city council. Good evening.
My name is Chi Gim and I'm truly honored to stand here today as a student
representative from Bone County, South Korea.
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude for
inviting us to this prestigious chamber. Standing here tonight, it finally feels
real that I'm in the United States and my heart is filled excitement and the
for the experiences ahead. Before arriving,
I was both excited and nervous about exploring a world I had never seen.
However, thanks to warm your warm welcome and hospitality,
my fear had faded and I feel deeply at home in Glendale.
To me, America was always a country I was I only saw in textbook. Today,
standing here in person and addressing you in this beautiful city, it feels
like a dream come true. In particular, I was deeply moved to learn about the
KoreanAmerican Day proclamation being held today. As a young Korean
student, I feel immense pride and gratitude toward the city of Glendale
for honoring the history and contributions of the Korean community.
This be visit is a precious journey where everything we see and feel becomes
a lesson. I'm confidence that our time here will
open our eyes to wider world and serve as a foundation for our future dreams.
Although I am still a student, I will cherish the kindness I have received
here. When I return home, I will share these
memories with my community and strive to grow into a global leader who can
contribute to the friendship between our two nations. Once again, I sinc
sincerely appreciate the mayor and the city council for your warm hospitality.
I hope that our meeting tonight remains a cherished memory for all of us. Thank
you for your kind attention. [clears throat]
[applause]
» Thank you students. It's wonderful to have you with us for this week.
Now, we have a proclamation, series of proclamations to present for
KoreanAmerican Day, which uh is today, January 13th of 2026.
I would like to invite uh to the podium to receive these
commendations uh Yong Ku Kang from the uh consulate of
the Republic of Korea in Los Angeles. Jun Lee, the consular educational
affairs officer of the consulate. Mr. Chang Lee, president of the Korean
Glendale Sister City Association. Mr. Steve Park, president of the
Korean-American Federation of North Los Angeles. TC Kim, president of the
Korean-American Foundation of Glendale and the KoreanAmerican Memorial
Foundation representative and the Hwarang Youth
Group. >> So, if you'll all come forward,
my proclamation is designating
January 13, 2026 as Koreanamean Day. Uh, as you know, I'm going to summarize the
proclamation. It's rather long, but uh, Glendale and its adjacent cities are
home to a significant Korean-American population, representing one of the
largest concentrations of Koreans outside of the Korean Peninsula. And
whereas Glendale is proud to be home to a longstanding sister city partnership
with South Korea, fostering cultural, educational, and civic collaboration.
And whereas the first Korean immigrants fought for the freedom and independence
of the motherland, and their children grew up to be patriotic American
citizens, served in the US armed forces since World War I, and made other
important significant contributions to the vitality of the United States.
Therefore, I are an Ajarian mayor joined by the Glendale City Council proclaim
January 13th, 2026 as Korean American Day.
Thank you. [applause]
And if my colleagues would like to join me,
got some
Okay. Yeah. Everybody come out. Everybody from
Greek community for them.
Okay, I know we called your >> I have one too. Okay.
[snorts]
» Hey. Oh, the kids need to
» take a knee, kneel down
to win the game.
» Okay, >> weo
Okay, everyone. A big smile.
I love you.
Thank you. >> All right.
[applause]
» How are you? >> How are you? my regards.
Thank you.
Mr. Kim, >> thank you.
» Good evening, everyone. Uh, happy Korean-American Day. Um, today we're
celebrating uh with about 2.5 million other Korean-Americans throughout the
nation, over 50 proclamations, and here for Glendel, we have, as you can see,
many representing from the Korean community here today. um wanted to just
say that the Korean-American day is not just remembering the our ancestors and
the uh remembering their arrival as a Korean-American immigrants but it's to
recognize the friendship between two countries USA and and South Korea only
to say that the Glendale city is very unique because there are about 28
California cities uh that has sister city relationship with South Korea out
of which Glenda has the most. We have three sister city plus three uh
friendship cities. So you can say Glender is the friendless city to South
Korea and we're celebrating our friendship over the years and this is a
time to say thank you for all your help from the Gund city and the city
government everyone to support the Korean-American community and how we can
continue to grow this relationship for the future. We want to teach the next
generation how important this friendship is and for us to continue. And to do so,
uh, we prepared a appreciation flag to the leaders of the Glendere city. The
last time I presented this, I've been doing this for 13 years. Last time I
presented this was about six years ago. So I'd like to, if I can invite all of
you back for the beautiful appreciation plaque that we prepared for the Korean
community, present it to you. >> Okay.
wear out this car
» to to Mayor Ara. >> Here we go.
» Okay. >> See,
» thank you. >> Oh, it's almost getting [applause]
a fresh one.
» Okay. [applause] Sorry.
Nice. All right. Let's another photo for this.
» Okay. >> This is from uh us with community to
you. >> Thank you
» for your support.
[applause]
» My god.
Thank you. We'll pass it up. Yes, we'll pass that. Thank you so much.
» Thank you so much. Say hello to [clears throat] the mayor.
» Okay.
Well, I want to thank everyone also for coming and uh visiting, especially those
who have traveled so far to visit our country, our great state, and our
wonderful city here in Glendale. Welcome to Glendel. I hope the rest of uh their
visit is uh exciting. Um you made it just in time. Had you come a couple of
weeks before, it would have been rain and thunderstorm and you wouldn't have
recognized California. But you're here at a great time. the weather is turning
and um you know we we're very proud of the ties with our Korean-American
community. Obviously, we have a school where we have Korean language immersion
uh and very active members of the community um here. So, we're very
grateful for that relationship and the contributions our uh Korean-American
residents make to us and have a enjoy the rest of your stay. Thank you and
thank you for the recognition. [applause]
» I would like to invite Angela from the Warang. Did I pronounce that correctly?
Youth. Youth group. >> Thank you. Good evening, honorable mayor
and city council members of Glendale. My name is Angela Lee and I am the summit
chairperson of the Huadang Youth Foundation. Thank you for the
opportunity to speak tonight. I am honored to be here in recognition of
KoreanAmerican Day. Korean-American Day observed on January 13th commemorates
the arrival of the first Korean immigrants to the United States in 1903.
With little more than hope and determination, they laid the foundation
for generations to come. Today, Korean-Americans are proud contributors
to every part of American life. Here in Glendale, the Korean-American community
plays a vital role in the city's cultural and economic strength. From
family, small family-owned businesses to community organizations and youth
groups, Korean-Americans help Glendel make it a more vibrant and diverse and
welcoming city. KoreanAmerican Day is not only a celebration of heritage, but
also a reminder of shared values, hard work, service to others, and commitment
to community. These values align closely with the spirit of Glendel and the
promise of our democracy. As a student, Korean-American Day is meaningful to me
because it reminds me that my identity is something to be proud of. It also
encourages young people like me to become responsible leaders who
contribute positively to our society. On behalf of the Hadang Youth Foundation, I
would like to sincerely thank the city of Glendale for recognizing
Korean-American Day and supporting our community. Thank you.
» Thank you very much. [applause]
What's the next item?
» Next item is an announcement. The nominating panel for vacancy on the arts
and culture commission created by resignation of Sue Bellank
uh will be will be Asatrian and Brotman. This
starts the 60-day clock for the panel to make a nomination subject to a 30-day
extension. >> Okay, we got the 60-day shot clock on
that. Um, thank you. What is the next item?
» Next are consent items. The following are routine and may be acted upon by one
motion. Any member of council or the audience requesting separate
consideration may do so by making such requests before motion is proposed.
Thank you, >> Mayor Narian. There are no public
comments on this item. >> Okay. Is there a motion?
» I'll move the consent calendar. >> Second.
» Let's take roll call. >> Council members Asatan Brotman.
» Yes. >> Carpetan.
» Yes. >> Kasakian.
» Yes. >> Mayor Najayan.
» Yes. Next item. >> Next are city council and staff comments
including reports from conferences and regional meetings.
» Mr. Broman, I will start with you. Why don't you start at that end?
» Okay. Pass, Mr. Garbetta. >> Yes. Um, not much for tonight. I just
want to say it's great to be back. I hope everyone had a nice Christmas and
New Year holiday season and uh, we're back to work. Um, um, I wish everyone to
have a great 2026 and I'm sure it will be a better year for all of us this
year. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. >> Thank you, Mr. Kasakian.
» Thank you. Um we uh I had the pleasure of going to the I Glendelc chapter's
holiday get together. There were a number of other uh community events that
were happening. Um and uh it was wonderful to see a lot of folks uh that
we hadn't seen uh over the holidays. Uh I want to ask um for us to again staff
is probably already working on this but time is of the essence. Um over the
weekend I had to come by city hall to pick get something from my desk and
there were about four or five of these delivery robots parked and just sitting
there on Isabel um doing nothing. Um and I've I've mentioned this before, we
worked very hard to maintain a certain quality um on our streets and sidewalks
in Glendale. We took pride when we were able to eradicate the scourge of
abandoned shopping carts only to be beset by these random um uh robot
delivery devices. Uh so I'd like us to uh as hastily as possible, as quickly as
possible, uh bring to the council and if we need to pass an urgency ordinance to
ban um their operation until we come up with guidelines, rules or determine what
we want to do with them, I'd like to ask to consider that as as well because it
is really getting out of hand. Um uh and lastly, I want I saw over the holidays
that there was a sobriety checkpoint that was established on Glenn Oaks. I
want to thank our police department um for doing that. I think we need uh more
of that as much as possible. And I'd like to ask, and I don't need an answer
here, but I was going to ask this of staff afterwards, but I'll use this
opportunity. I'd like to know when was the last time I can't remember if
someone can remind me when we received a report of um the uh citations that we've
issued uh through the police department, moving violations. Um, so we can get a
sense of what is uh the patterns out there. What are we issuing more tickets
for? What are we seeing that we're not uh able to issue tickets for? And uh
give us a better understanding so we can make better policy decisions. Thank you.
» Thank you. >> That's all. Okay,
» Mr. Brown. >> Yes. Um I just have two things. one uh I
want to give a brief report um uh on uh the meeting of the Glendale I'm
sorry the Burbank Glendale Pasadena Regional Housing Trust which I'm
currently chairing. Um this is a three city trust that um manages money that
was uh provided originally in a grant um with the help of Senator Portantino
uh and then continues to seek additional funds. So, we we met recently and I
realize sometimes the the the the news on what we do doesn't really get shared
with my colleagues and and the public. So, we do have a few um uh
accomplishments that uh I'm proud of. One is that the the um the trust
received a $5 million grant from uh from the state from the um well, it's
called the local housing trust fund uh which is a fund set up by the state um
HCD for affordable housing projects. So the the trust received a $5 million
grant. It was actually one of only four trusts around the state to get the full
amount that was available out of about 37 applicants. Uh Glendale receives uh
or will receive 4 million out of that 5 million. Um complicated reasons for why
we're getting 4 million uh and uh Burbank is getting 1 million. Um but
anyway, that is money that now we have available for our next affordable
housing project when that comes to us. Um, we were also awarded in the trust
$3.6 million to run a first-time home buyer mortgage assistance program. Each
city will get a third of that. So, each city will get um what is that? Do I have
this right? 1.8 million. Uh, no. 2 million.
» No, no, no. I It's 1.8 million times three, actually. So, the 3.6 million was
the wrong number. So, what is that? Three uh
» 5.4. Okay. Um something like that. Okay. But I know each city is getting 1.8
million um to run this program. Pasadena will actually administer the program for
us. So we don't have to do that inhouse. I know at one time we did have a
program, but we've we've since terminated that and um Pasadena has the
staff and the capacity to do that for us. So, it'll be very uh easy for us to
just plug into that and um and I'm sure information will be coming through staff
as to uh how um how that will be um communicated and who's eligible and that
kind of thing. But it's it's exciting that we can uh relaunch that program.
And uh and then we are applying for an additional $5 million grant under
something called the regional early action planning program uh for gap
financing. These are for projects that um we want to support that are falling
short of their financing and we can provide um uh loan financing or in some
cases grant financing. Uh anyway, I wanted to share that with everybody. So,
the other thing I have is I want to give uh kudos to David Eisenberg of the
Sierra Club. Um he doesn't know I'm saying this now, so I don't know if he's
watching, but he organized something called uh the Glendale Art Walk. Um and
uh and I attended for part of it anyway. It was a fourmile path that he figured
out all around uh the downtown Glendale taking in 50 public artworks including
murals, statues, utility boxes and creative crosswalks. He organized this
thing himself. Uh and there was a a good group and I was asking people where they
were from and actually most of the people were from were not from Glendale.
They were from the east side. They were from you know Pasadena. They were from
different parts of LA coming to Glendale to kind of see what we have to offer in
terms of public art. It was really it was really uh fun and and and amazing
and and I just want to give him credit for having spent his personal time to to
put that together and to walk the entire thing. I think I only made maybe two
miles of it. So anyway, that's it for me and uh happy new year to everyone.
» Thank you. Uh I just have a few things. Uh the first item
um comes from from me there. This isn't on the agenda, but January 9th was
National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day. And I deeply appreciate law
enforcement at the local, county, state, and federal levels. Um
it's a it's a difficult job. I have a son who's in law enforcement. I have a
nephew who's in law enforcement. [snorts] Um, and they tell me it's it's
not an easy job that they do have um challenges. So, that was January 9th. We
missed it. We had a weird schedule, but I wish I had a proclamation to hand out,
but uh I do want to recognize uh law enforcement officers and extend uh
appreciation for their hard work. Uh we have a few things. Yes, we can
clap for that. Yes. Yes. [applause] Uh so we we're back in action. The city
council, as you can tell, is uh back in action. The city activities are ramping
up. Uh coming up this week on January 15th, which is Thursday, from 7 a.m. to
9:00 a.m., we are going to be commemorating uh Martin Luther King Jr.
with a breakfast. So, join us on Thursday for a community breakfast
honoring the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. and reflect on his
contributions to uh American society. That is going to
be held at the Glendale Elks Lodge on Colorado near the intersection of
Colorado and brand. And there is an RSVP that we're asking you to make to um
daggerian at glendelca.gov. And this will also be on the website.
Our keynote speaker is Shannon Bradley, the chief health, equity, inclusion, and
community officer for KEK Medicine of USC. So it'll be a wonderful uh morning.
you can come down and uh mingle with members of the local government, local
community, and hear the remarks from our keynote speaker. The next event is
January 20th. It's next Tuesday, usually the time for our regular city council
meeting, but we are having city hall in your neighborhood.
And the neighborhood is going to be the Fremont Park neighborhood in the newly
renovated community room. Many of you may have had a chance to see uh Fremont
Park and perhaps the community room when we did our grand opening a month or so
ago. It will be at 6:00 p.m. Uh this will not be livereamed,
so don't fi don't think you can just, you know, watch it on TV while it's
going on. it. Uh will it be recorded for for later broadcast?
We'll see. But but come in person. It's more fun in person. It's a very informal
uh atmosphere. We are going to have presentations from [snorts] different
departments. No phone calls. So if you want to make comments, you have to be
there in person. Mr. Mohill in person. I know you'll be there. Um so
we encourage all of you to attend. There'll be um similar to the last one
we had which was in the Spar Heights Community Center. Very informal time to
ask questions. Council members will be uh mingling and uh being able to speak
to you and answer any questions or issues that you may have. You can yell
at us. Uh you can applaud our work, but uh there will be some good information
given out. So that's January 20th, city hall in your neighborhood. And uh I wish
everyone a great uh new year and productive new year. We are going to be
doing uh great business here at city council.
Mr. Golanian, anything from staff side? >> No sir. Thank you.
» Very good. We will uh conclude this part of the agenda and move to the next item.
» The next item is community event announcements. Three minutes per
speaker. Members of the public will be permitted to announce upcoming events
taking place in the community. Mayor Nagan, we have two uh comments on this
item. >> Please call them up.
» The first uh individual is Herbert Milano.
Good evening members of the city council. U Mayor Nigerian and staff. My
name is Herbert Milano. Uh since early September I have been conducting a
weekly television show uh on issues having to do with Glendel similar to
what uh the issues are in many cities with regard to budgeting with regard to
the emphasis on proper information that the public needs to know. Uh starting
tomorrow, we'll be doing three uh forums for candidates for office for anybody
who's already pulled form 501, meaning that have the intent to run for office.
Uh and the the forums are available from four to six individuals. Uh we already
have some individuals who have signed up for it and will be there tomorrow uh at
the uh the studios of Armenian American Broadcasting Channel. there at TV on
1110 Sonora Avenue. Uh we will be setting up the type of questions that
are normally not covered in the uh uh regional or uh the the different forums
that normally fall under the purview of the homeowners association and it's
going to be different from the way that the League of Women Voters presents it
to you. What we like to do is to address the same type of questions to potential
candidates uh based on the major decisions that you
have made in the past four years. So we will be presenting the decisions that
you made oftentimes unanimously and then ask the candidates for office how they
would have voted and ask you basically to give us a a fresh reason for the uh
the manner in which you created your vote. is a way of creating
accountability for the incumbents and to see how our uh uh proposed c new
candidates will will answer uh the similar type of questions that you
faced. So, it's a little bit different format. I have not given uh ahead of
time any of the questions to anyone. So, they all be the same. So, I'm inviting
uh councilman member Don Brain since you pulled the 501 already. uh and uh Miss
Asatron if she pulls the form 501, she'll also be invited to attend. So I
look forward to it. We will be broadcasting every Monday at 7:30 p.m.
on that particular channel. Thank you very much.
» So Mr. Milano, just uh procedurally it the filing period I don't even think has
opened, has it? I mean, are people pulling papers from the the city at this
point? Madame Clerk, >> the filing period is from February 9th
to March 6th. However, uh individuals can submit their 501 forms, which is the
the FPPC form >> Yeah. declaration for Okay. So, I don't
want you to miss out any candidates who may be joining the field after and let
people not think that it's just this group of I don't know how many you have
in mind, but I hope that you'll uh consider getting the viewpoints of
others who may be joining the race. >> Absolutely. Uh uh mayor, this is really
really essential that we be as inclusive as possible. The uh but I we didn't want
to compete with established forms that already are extent. So this gives us a
chance to at least uh get a little bit more information on those candidates or
or those individuals who have a desire to become candidates and then eventually
file the the other forms necessary to to be a proper candidate.
» Okay. So are you excluding yourself from that list of candidates, Mr.
» No, I am not running for office. Sorry, but I know it sounds like it. Yes.
» Thank you. Next item. Next speaker. >> Next speaker is Mike Mohill.
Are you running for council, Mr. Mo? Since that question is already out
there. >> I'll let you know.
» You've got time. >> I'll let you know.
» You've got time. >> Yeah.
» Good evening, Glendor residents. My name is Mike Mohill. Want to wish you all a
happy New Year's. >> Happy New Year.
I'd like to make an announcement. You know, our Glendo community
newsletter reaches approximately 20,000 people when it goes out every time. It's
the largest circulation in the city. We want to expand that reach and we're
now on Instagram under the name of Mike Mohill.
Also, Facebook, Mohill News.
In the future, we're working on a website,
which will again expand our influence in the city. We're an allv volunteer
organization. People love to read us. City employees
help us write this. We have whistleblowers who contact us.
We're all about making sure that Glendale is run efficiently.
We don't try and play favorites. You know, I'm an equal opportunity offender
and I'm also an equal opportunity praiser.
So again, I just want to bring up the fact that we're on Instagram under the
name Mike Mohill and Facebook Mohill News.
And in the near future, we have a website. Thank you all and again, happy
new year all. >> Thank you. And I'm not running for city
council, but if I did, what would happen? What do you think?
Think I'd have a good chance? [laughter]
» You always bring uh ideas to the table, Mr. Mohal. I'll say that one.
» Yeah. Okay. Bye. >> Thank you.
» And that will conclude this part, the community event
announcements. Next item, please.
Next is the first period of oral communications. Maximum three minutes
per speaker, 30 minute aggregate speaking time limit. Members of the
public may address the council on agenda items or non-aggenda items within the
city council subject matter jurisdiction. If a speaker addresses the
council on an agenda item during the first period of oral communications,
they may not speak again when the agenda item is called. A speaker who addresses
the council on a non-aggenda item during the first period of oral communications
may not speak during the second period of oral communications.
Mayor Najarian, we have um seven cards and two callers on this item.
» Okay, let's go through it. You all have three minutes.
» Our first speaker is Tony Pasarella. Following Tony is Mike Mohill and Chris
Pratt.
Good evening, council. Tony Pasarella. The community health and safety watchdog
strikes again. Enforcement failure. Gas powered leaf blowers. Glendale pass
ordinance 6068 in 2023 codified in GMC
8.50 banning gas powered leaf blowers citywide. Enforcement was slated to
begin September 1, 2024 with warnings and escalating fines for
violations. This ordinance was designed to protect
public health, reduce harmful pollution, and eliminate noise. But nearly 18
months later, violations continue daily citywide with virtually no consequences.
The ordinance relies on comp complaintbased enforcement,
meaning residents must call in violations to the city. Some laws make
that reasonable. For example, smoking on apartment balcony or night noise uh
where violations are private or intermittent and patrols are nearly
impossible. Like leaf, leaf blowers are not like
that. They're loud, visible, and predictable. A single code officer could
drive through a neighborhood and immediately identify violations.
Yet, Glendale approach leaves enforcement entirely to the residents.
Ensuring compliance is rare and inconsistent.
My work takes me throughout Glendale, and I witness this every day.
Gas blowers are used openly all day, six days a week with no regard for the law,
no deterrent, no penalty. The public health noise and environmental harms
continue unchecked. This is not enforcement gap due to
hidden violations. This is policy failure.
Some bans are com are complaintbased because enforcement is impractical. Leaf
blowers are different and comp compliantbased enforcement is guaranteed
to fail. A law that is violated citywide every
day without consequences is not environmental
policy. It's institutional failure. I
respectfully request that council direct staff to implement the enforcement
mechanisms and ensure code compliance follow
through and publicly report enforcement actions and outcomes
because a law without enforcement is a lie told to the public. Thank you.
» Next speaker. >> Our next speaker is Mike Mohill.
Following Mike Mohill is Chris Pratt and Herbert Milano.
Evening Glendo uh Glendale City Council. My name is Mike Mohill.
You know, I've come before this council many times and I've written on in my
newsletter many times the finances of the Americana at brand
[clears throat] council members. Is Glendo making money from the Americana?
I don't think so. because it was making money. You'd let this the taxpayers of
Glendale know every year the city bought the land,
not leased the land to M to Mr. Rick Caruso so that he can he can get money
use the money to get a loan to build his Americana at at brand.
the city was supposed to share with the uh income of the Americana and we have
never seen a report that
Glendale taxpayers are getting money. I think art you called Mr. Caruso
the [clears throat] pope of Glendale because nobody wants to touch him.
I'd like to see this council agendaize the American ad branch finances.
It's about time because when you all ran for city council, you all told me at one
time you were going to agendaize it and you never do.
It's time. It's over time to agendaize this item.
Glendale taxpayers deserve an accountability.
We should also have an outside consultant do a report on the American.
I don't want the city to do the report, the analysis because they're going to be
biased, you know, go to the what do they call
some type of of within the city council, a former uh city manager, uh what's her
name? Forgot her name. Okay, you know that you know the word the terminology.
It's Nonsense. The report was in the city
website. I want a outside consultant to do the
forensic analysis of the and if and Mr. Broman and Miss Ellen Satine running for
city Rio for city council. I'm going to ask again all the candidates who are
running for city council. If this council does not agendaize the
American finances, let's do it. Well, I I want this to be done before the
election. I want to have it on the record that can
be it can be reported in all the local newspapers that Glendale is making money
from Americana or it is not. Remember Glendo taxpayers spent millions
of dollar and also by the way we're paying uh money on the the interest on
that loan. You know other cities um they they
leased the land to Mr. Carroso. But no, Glenda was so wise. We gave him the
land. We should thank Mr. Jim Starboard, who was the city manager at the time.
I haven't seen his head here in a long time.
You know, elections have consequences. And I want to see an accounting this
year in 2026. Let the taxpayers of Glendo know how much money we're either
making or losing. Thank you.
Next speaker. >> Our next speaker is Chris Pratt.
Following Chris Pratt is Herbert Milano and Not Haruchunyan.
» Happy new year, mayor and members of the council. I join my fellow citizens in
asking for accountability. We're the parents and the neighbors and the
workers and the taxpayers of Glendale. And we're the people who sit in these
seats meeting after meeting because it matters. This week we watched a
horrifying video out of Minnesota. A woman was murdered during a federal
immigration enforcement action. Whether you agree or disagree with the policy,
the image shook people to their core, and it could have been any one of us.
Our family has a six-year-old, too. Here in Glendale, we've seen what happens
when people stand up and say no. When residents showed up and demanded
the city end its involvement in housing and protecting ICE, that only happened
because the watcher spoke up. And that's why we're here tonight, to remind us of
something uncomfortable. What happens when power goes unchecked always starts
small. It starts with process being ignored, with rules being bent just this
once, with voices dismissed because they're inconvenient. We're growing
tired of watching power protect itself instead of the public.
We are tired of council members forming LLC's and accepting six-f figureure
consulting fees routed through international corporations while
preaching transparency. We're tired of wealthy donors receiving special
dispensation for noise ordinances while ordinary residents are told to endure
it. And yes, we're tired of public park contracts being steered away from the
winner of of free and fair process toward insiders with friends on this
dis. That's not leadership. It's abuse of discretion. At the last meeting in
this very room, the council discussed a $5 million traffic camera contract. And
on this stage, the council cited the city losing the Gloretta Park lawsuit as
a reason not to put that contract out for fair bidding. Let that sink in,
Glendale. The takeaway wasn't, "Hey, we broke the law and we must do better." It
was that was uncomfortable. So, let's avoid oversight next time. That's the
opposite of accountability. A judge didn't intervene to embarrass this city.
A judge intervened because the law was ignored. And the answer to that cannot
be fine. Then we'll just stop asking. You chose to serve this community. You
were elected to represent its people, not power, not insiders. And we're
asking for accountability. You can pass an urgency ordinance for robots at city
hall, but you can't release a free and fair public works RF RFP despite being
compelled by a California state judge to do so. So, we'll keep watching every
meeting, every vote, every workaround. We're finding each other. We're learning
the rules. We're waking up to the power and responsibility we carry as citizens.
Glendale is going to get loud. We're going to stay loud. We're going to keep
watching. Thank you. >> Our next speaker is Herbert Milano.
Following Herbert Milano is not Harunan and Edmond Hagopyan.
Mayor Nigerian members of the city council. My name is Herbert Milano. I
have a couple of visuals if they can actually produce them. The U I want to
address the issue of the city's debt for the past 20 years which kind of aligns
pretty well with the number of years you've been in city council. Mr. Narian
back in um around 20 years ago uh the uh the city's obligation or the city's
obligation per dwelling u was somewhere on the neighborhood of
about $696 per dwelling for the purpose of
addressing the pension system. And that particular
ordinance that was passed by the city council in
2001 has had a huge impact on Glendale
residents. Yet it was passed with less than 60 seconds. No debate, no
discussion, no present, no presentation by the city treasurer, nothing. It was
cryptic and it was just say 3% at 50. Can we modify the patient system with
that? But look at the numbers now. Every family now has a burden of $9,510
as a result of that without counting the hundreds of millions of dollars that we
have already paid Kalpers in order to assist for that. Next slide, please.
All right. So now we have the city's bonds, the bonded obligation,
which way back uh in the year 2005 was around $3,000 per family. And now we are
at $8,760 per family. But here's the kicker. If
the city were to issue general obligation bonds, you would be forced to
go to the public and get the public to vote on it. But the city didn't do that
when he wanted to basically finance the uh the police building. It went through
a different gimmick where now you have a a finance authority. The finance
authority can get the bonds and then you lease the property back to the city and
the voters are out of the loop because then you don't have to go to the voters.
And it is the same thing with the rest of the bonds. The rest of the
obligations that primarily look at the last five years since Mr. Broadman has
been here in uh here with us. Look at the significant increases that we have
had and yet the voters are not involved. zero money out of that obligation was
voted was actually presented to the voters for a vote. It completely
bypassed and I think that the charter review committee should be addressing
this. We should not have measures by which the city council can completely
bypass the voter and get us to the tune of billions of dollars in debt. Next
item, please.
All right. This is the combined debt of both of those obligations, just those
two. And of course, I I used smoothing to basically get this. Um, but
basically, the debt went from roughly $4,000 per family now to around $17,400
per family without the vote of the public whatsoever. We need to change the
charter so that whatever the city council wants to put us into such a
significant debt that we at least have the choice of determining what it should
be. Thank you very much. >> Our next speaker is Norunyan. Following
Nor is Edmond Hagopian and Liz Radley.
» Good evening. This is Maj and City Council member.
» Just a moment. Let's get you a microphone.
» So, good good evening everybody and uh happy new year. And uh as you know I'm
an ex firefighter and uh I got injured at work when it disaster came and uh uh
it was uh in 1989 and uh I don't know how you uh I was so
very hope I got injured at work you know and I got uh spinal cord injury and uh
so first day when the doctor came to my room and said you you have to leave in a
wheelchair and I I lost my hope because I was so hope to get to work again. So
and uh I suicide myself by electricity but unfor unfortunately
fortunately I didn't die. So but and then I start my career as I was in a
musician and I start working on a wood and a metal. I'm carving a wood and uh I
I have been living in United States uh since 2000 December and uh so I see
Glendel how gross Glendel and getting bigger and uh safe and a nice uh and I
had a chance to get one of the affordable housing that's art uh is in
it artists and I I showed my artworks and uh Mr. Mike Fort and I selected and
Mr. Guano. So it was uh there and uh it was very good and uh so I was uh so here
I'm here to declare that I was wrongly accused and uh become criminal and
punished by the judge and uh so I I choose wrong things to marry wrong lady
in a church and I never will someone who is amputated but I that uh it it was
wrong and uh it I I got that recognized last day but and then she wants to live
in that house where I lived for eight years and she convicted me because and
said many wrong things and maybe uh you know about that and kick out from the
house and I don't want to this occurs for two another house then I I
will go and uh will be selected to go uh these places because I cannot find
wheelchair places to live and uh so one years I live in a in a car and in
hospitals in some places now I have witness that uh every time with me and
she's my fiance and she's with with me and so And as as well I want to Glendel
to grow wheelchair wheelchair sport because I'm a sportsman and I need to
wheelchair basketball wheelchair grow in Glendel.
» Thank you. >> Okay,
» your three minutes are up. Thank you for speaking to us.
» Our next speaker is Edmin Hagopian. Following Edmond is Riz Red Radley.
» Hello. Good evening council members. My name is Edmin Hakobian. Happy new year
and I'm hoping we can have a productive year this year. I will be persistently
and continuously advocating for more information from the city on the boss
rapid transit project and also on the financials of the city. Uh the boss
rapid uh transit uh project has the potential to uproot the uh uproot the
entire community and I'm not exaggerating.
Um I have repeatedly asked for a fact sheet to be published by the city and
the response that I got from uh from the city management and from mayor Najarian
was uh the uh the count uh the metro is working on a on on on something that we
should wait for and the city declined to provide the fact sheet because it's a
county project. This county project is not just a overpass that goes over the
city of Glendel with no impact. It has an enormous uh it's going to change the
entire city, the density, the number of population, the services that we need
and I think it's uh irresponsible not to educate the people about what's going to
happen. I I I'm just asking for information and and the reason I'm I can
go look it up myself, but the reason I'm emphasizing that that comes from the
city because the residents deserve to know from our uh elected officials and
our city expert as to what's going to happen. Please, I I would really
appreciate it if you can uh take that seriously. It's it's a big concern. Uh a
lot of people don't know about it. that also has to do with the outreach. So
with you providing information, a fact sheet of what's going to happen when the
BRT comes in, that's going to allow people to decide what to do. And uh we
are in an I was we are in an election season, so that would also allow them to
ask their candidate and future council members as to what they are planning to
do. Pasadena uh they had a they have a memor
memorandum of understanding that the BRT is not going to have a dedicated uh bus
lane in their city and the other cities are working towards that and why not why
are we not exercising that as an option in our city or at least having a
discussion having having a pros and cons as to what's going to happen if we have
that option. Um uh my next uh uh remark is u uh in regards to the financials. Um
Mr. Golanian, you mentioned that you wanted to bring the revenue
opportunities to the council and I understand you skipped one meeting
because council member Asadrian was not here but then I I was really hoping to
see that revenue options the following uh session but it was not there. Could
you please provide that in advance? Thank you.
Next is Liz Redley.
» Good evening, mayor, city council members, and staff. Um, I want to
amplify again the Glendale Medic program, which as you all know is a
membership program. um so that if you are taken to the hospital or if you
receive paramedic services and you go by ambulance that it will cover your co-pay
from your insurance. Um there's a couple things I really want to make note on.
One is that you have to mail to GWP to join and then you have to redo that
every year. I'd love to see a way to be able to just click a link on the
website, sign up there, click a box that says automatic renewal, and never have
to think about it again because I've realized that mine has expired and I
need to mail in again. So, it'd be terrific if you could do that. I'm sure
Fire Chief Brooks would appreciate uh the greater income that would come in if
it was automatic and easy because a lot of people are going to go, "Oh, that's a
great idea." but never actually do the part where they have to put something in
the mail in order to enroll and then do it every year. Um, and secondly,
obviously, I would like to uh hope that you would speedily be able to follow the
protocols that u uh would approve the new interim police chief, Robert
William. Get rid of the interim, make him police chief. Thank you very much.
Uh we have two callers. Our first caller is Elise Kayan. You're on air. You have
three minutes. >> Thank you. Good evening. Uh Mayor
Najarian and city council. Uh I missed the consent items. They went by so fast.
Um and I just want to thank uh GWP for moni monitoring its facilities and
equipment and making um needed repairs and upgrades which you just approved. We
have a utility system that serves our whole city and it needs a lot of
equipment, facilities, expertise, and programs to run. And although utility
costs have skyrocketed across the country and across the state, um some in
Glendale are trying to pin this nationwide problem on Glendale City
Council decisions. Um, I note that Glendel Water and Power and Glendel City
Council have created programs that help lower costs for everyone. Off- peak
charging credits for electric vehicles, uh, is one of those programs. It
actually reduces the utilities costs. If EV owners commit to charging car
batteries during off- peak hours, GWP's business costs are lower because it will
then mean less infrastructure, less energy purchases, less polluting gas to
burn. It's a win for everybody, lowincome customers as well as EB
owners, which this program's critics don't seem to understand. So, thank you
for the off- peak charging program and thank you for the upgrades you approved
tonight. and to Glendale Water and Power, please bring the same focus and
concern to speed up a lot more city-sighted solar and battery storage
projects. Thank you. >> Thank you. And our final caller is
anonymous. You're on air. You have three minutes.
» Hi. Uh good evening. Um I would just real quick is the Glendale police chief
here tonight because I have a question for him.
the interim chief. You've been promoted. Uh uh interim chief Williams. Yes. Yes.
The Glendo police chief is. He can't answer your questions though, so it'll
be a one-way conversation. >> I see. I see. Okay. Well, um first thing
I want to say, surprise, surprise. Um, I don't know if the city council is
following this or not, but I just recently saw a video on Instagram
um channel called Only in Glendale. And um, surprisingly, we have young people
um, doing donuts at the DMV parking lot, which is really interesting. And I hope
the city of Glendel is aware of that. That's been going on um, at this DME
parking lot. So, um, the question that I like to ask
the police chief is, um, has this, have you
thought about considering creating a small counterterrorism unit at the
Glendel Police Department? That's my question. Thank you.
» We have one. >> Um, thank you very much. Uh we can
address it at some later time perhaps. Next speaker.
» Uh that is all. >> That is all. Okay. Uh that closes this
period of oral communications. What is the next item?
» Next are action items. Um the only action item is my item, city clerk,
regarding calling for and giving notice of the general municipal election to be
held on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2026. One, a resolution calling on giving
notice of a general municipal election to be held on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2026 in
the city of Glendel for the election of certain officer officers as required by
the provisions of the laws of the of the state of California relating to charter
cities. to a resolution requesting the board of supervisors of the county of
Los Angeles to direct the registar recorder county clerk to render full
consolidated election services with the exception of candidate filing to said
city relating relating to the conduct of a general municipal election to be held
on June 2nd 2026. Three, a resolution setting forth
regulations relating to candidate statements for the June 2nd, 2026
general municipal election. and four, a resolution of appropriation in the
amount of $669,882
for the June 2nd, 2026 election.
» Are there any cards on this item? >> There are no cards on this item.
» Would you like to just explain what this all means before?
» Yes. Uh the recommendation is that the city
council approve a resolution calling for a general municipal election to be held
on June 2nd, 2026 for the election of three city council seats, one city clerk
seat and one city treasurer seat each for for a four-year term and to adopt a
resolution requesting consolidated election services with the exception of
candidate filing from the county of Los Angeles the registar recorder county
clerk's office and to adopt a resolution setting forth regulations relating to
candidate statements and a and of course the resolution of appropriation for to
cover the election costs. >> Hey, does council have any questions or
I do a motion? >> Mr. Kra.
» Yeah, just just one thing I noticed when I read the staff report was the fact
that there's an appropriation requested that this is not a budgeted item and it
surprises me. I guess uh apparently that's how we've always done it. But we
know an election is coming. We know roughly how much it's going to cost, you
know, give or take. Um this is a large ticket. What is it? 700 give or
take,000, you know. Um why is it why don't we budget these things so that we
don't you don't come to us now and have to make a special appropriation out of
our reserves or or what have you. >> Sure. Maybe I can give that a shot if uh
the city clerk's okay with that. Um there was a time where we used to do it
this way and we did change it several years ago where we would budget half of
what we anticipated uh the cost to be in one year and then we would end up
carrying over funds that we didn't use to the following year. So essentially we
were locking up several hundreds of thousands of dollars uh every other year
when we knew we weren't going to use them. So really it was a matter of it's
it's six in one half dozen in the other. it's a fixed cost um that we're going to
have to pay one way or another. One of the challenges I think we have is and
the city clerk I think can attest to this is we don't exactly know what that
election cost is going to be uh in any given election year. Um it really is
dependent on what the county ends up coming back uh to us with based on what
their overall uh cost for running the elections actually is. It could vary w
uh pretty vastly depending on how many propositions there are on the ballot uh
in other agencies which ultimately affects our total cost.
» Okay. I don't know how my colleagues feel, but I it does make sense to me
that we would we would budget even if we air on the on the low side. Um, we know
this is coming and the purpose of a budget is to look at all the ins and
outs and make a holistic decision about where we want to put our money and to
then now have to come up with $700,000 I don't think is appropriate.
» Just a comment, but I mean I no issue with the
» we're hoping that no one runs in the elections and the incumbents just walts
into a reelection. So is is a issue here that we haven't we didn't anticipate and
we anticipate it right. Do you how do you earmark it or how do you prepare for
this expense >> uh either clerk or uh the assistant city
manager Mr. >> Techn ultimately it's an expense we know
that we're going to bear every other year uh and ultimately it it becomes
part of your budgeting process. We have always even in years where we have
budgeted it and I'm going to look over to my right here to our assistant city
clerk. Um, I can't remember a time where we didn't come back to the city council
and ask for an additional appropriation because we were off by a couple of
hundred,000. >> Mhm.
» So, but now but point being at least then there was some amount that was
locked up. Is the issue now that nothing is locked up? No, that can't be
» the case. Is that it? So, >> that's there. We we did not budget for
the election as part of the annual budgeting process because we anticipated
we consciously anticipated that we would essentially ask for the the
appropriation when we knew what the total cost of the election would be.
» I understand seems I I agree with Mr. Broman and perhaps it's a
condition of the fact that you know we did it a little differently for a number
of years when uh I was in that office. I would like to see us at least have some
of that placed in that uh department budget at least when you present us with
that. We know we're going to have an election every few years. You're right
that there is factors like for instance one of one of the other agencies um and
do they still do they pay their share? Do the school and the college board
still pay for theirs? So ultimately it's mostly our share or whatever it is. we
should still have something even if it's going to be 700,000. You know, we can
base we can base in the future the next election on what the last one was and if
we have money left over then we have money left over. If it's a little bit
more then we are where we are right now again. So that would be my preference at
least. I don't know if staff feels strongly I understand your reasoning. I
just think that um this gives us a better picture.
» No, we don't feel strongly one way or another. Again, it was just a matter of
not tying up several hundreds of thousands of dollars in one year and
carrying it over. But in years where we do have an election coming up, so it'll
be in 2028 uh in the 2728 budget, we can certainly put in a placeholder of
$700,000 or so. Uh and if we need to come back and ask for $100,000 to make,
we will. >> I' I'd hate for us to go to the public
and say, "Well, we're not going to have an election because we don't have
money." So, um I think it's better to tell folks that we have the money saved
up to pay for the next election to elect the officials that run the city.
» Yeah, we don't disagree, council members. Um and by the way, that would
not happen. Although I I don't want to give anyone ideas, right? As a matter of
fact, I asked the same questions of Mr. Dtalion, but point taken.
» Okay. Well, with that, I'll move the item.
» I'll second. >> Roll call, please.
Council members Assad Broman, >> yes.
» Carpetan, >> yes.
» Kasakian, >> yes.
» Mayor Najarian, >> yes.
» Next item, please. >> Next item is discussion of council
member future agenda requests. A request by Mayor Najarian to agendaize the
discussion to consider reordering agenda for future agenda requests to the
afternoon portion of council agendas. Um, Mayor Narian, we do have one speaker
card on this item. Well, the the title of the item is
pretty self-explanatory. These are the uh items that we wish to a as as we're
doing now uh discussing as to whether we want to agendaize this and the only
thing that uh is in play is the time uh at which we have that discussion.
Uh would we have to have a special meeting if there was well I guess
imagine a situation where there's no close session
» would be a special meeting because this is the regular meeting is always at 6
pm. So you would schedule a special meeting for purposes of
» we do that all the time. So I don't think that's a big deal. Anyway, that's
that's the the crux of this uh idea. Let's hear from the public for three
minutes. >> Uh, we have one speaker, Beth Brooks.
» Hi. Thank you. So I'm trying to understand this just for new business
you would call a special meeting in the afternoon because if you're going to
call a special meeting for this and sometimes these meetings go till 11:00
they're you know 5 hours and people are not watching and you know falling asleep
when they're watching or screaming at the TV. Uh why not then just divide up
the meetings uh and have two shorter meetings. I've always thought about
that. I've always thought that you should do shorter meetings like on a
Tuesday and then a Wednesday and that you do proclamations and you do you know
cert you do some things you sort of have a bis more business and then you have a
more you know community-based uh and you just cut it at two hours or three hours
you do something like that because if you are proposing this that's
essentially what you're proposing you're proposing let's take something off the
agenda and give it a that's normally on the agenda and give it a special
meeting. Why just this thing should have a should have a special meeting. I know
you usually meet in the afternoon because you do have closed sessions but
like you just said if you have one if you have some days where you don't have
a closed session you are meeting just to do this. I mean unless you're assuming
that these will take hours as you discuss new business then I understand
it. But if you're going to entertain this, it might be a good idea to just
entertain having, you know, changing the charter to have two shorter meetings,
you know, on a Tuesday and a Wednesday if this is something you're actually
talking about. Thank you.
» Any thoughts, Mr. Kasakin? So, I think I I was part of the impetus for for having
this come forward because we've seen how we sit here at at the end of the meeting
after we're all exhausted after we've all um you know, buted heads or you know
uh hugged each other, hugged it out and then the meeting goes on for another
hour. Um for items which are important, which are items that we hear from the
public that deserve to have consideration. In the past, any council
member could request an item, it would be, I think, put on directly, and then
that got too much. So, we said, okay, then another council member has to
second it. Well, that allowed for, you know, uh uh the continuation of these uh
items to be added. And then in order to check ourselves, we said we will put it
on the end, then we'll have this discussion, and then we'll have a vote
on the item to have it agendaized for it to then come back and actually be
studied. So, we just keep making more work for ourselves. Uh, and if we're and
and I don't think that there's anything wrong with that pro uh process because I
think there is something to be said about the majority of us have to agree
on what we want to have heard, discussed, and voted on. But that
process we can do that's kind of our agenda planning. It's our, you know, the
huddle that we're in before we um go to the scrimmage.
Um, sorry, it's playoff season, so I'm using some football analogies. Like,
let's do that in the afternoon. It's for us basically. It's for the council to do
that and it'll still be done openly and publicly, but it's not something that
necessarily warrants everyone's input because the time for that input is when
something passes that it gets over the hurdle and then is actually open for
discussion for everyone to come and have their input. The planning of it, the
pre-planning of it should happen between the city manager and staff um and us in
the afternoon in that session. I don't think it'll take much time, but if it's
taking an hour at the end of the e-me when most of us would like to be home
with our families, let's do it in the afternoon.
» Mr. Brain, >> I agree and I'll make the motion.
» I'll second. >> Is this is this just to agendaize for
» it to discuss all the >> the details of the
» short and sweet. >> Okay. Uh roll call.
» Council members Assad Broman. >> Yes.
» Carpetan. Yes. Kasakian. Yes. Mayor >> Najarian.
» Yes. >> Do we have any new business? Oh, I'm
sorry. There is a second period of oral communications.
» Is there anyone signed up for that? >> Yes. The second period of oral
communications discussion is limited to items not a part of this agenda. Each
speaker is allowed five minutes. Council may question or respond to the speaker,
but there will be no there will be no debate or decision. The city manager may
refer the matter to the appropriate department for investigation and report.
We do have one speaker, Beth Brooks.
And we also have a caller. Okay.
I'm waiting for it to reset >> to five.
» It's at three. >> Yeah, I know it's [clears throat] at
three. Can we set the speaker's timer? Yeah.
Thank you. Uh given that you've weighed [clears throat] in on international, you
know, affairs before, I would love if you actually
uh put out a formal letter to the White House and the Secretary of Defense to
urgently do something uh against the massacre in Iran against
innocent people. This is this is horrific. Uh especially given the the
ethnic, you know, ethnic makeup of this city. I'm sure that there are people and
I hope that any of your family I hope they're not involved in anything. I hope
they're all safe, but there are, you know, many Armenians who who have ties
in Iran and I think that this would be very important for you to do. I think
every city council should be doing this. This is an absolute atrocity. Uh and and
we're just sitting, you know, he's just sitting on his hands uh doing nothing
and putting out uh you know, tweets. Uh so I would really urge you to please do
that because you this is a precedent you've taken before. you have you have
uh sent proclamations and things such as that nature. Um
uh I know you can't do anything about anonymous callers, but that's you know
just I just that's a pet peeve of mine. It's just really just ridiculous. People
can call in and say whatever crazy thing they want to. Not saying he's crazy,
just you know it just you know the ins just
uh I have a pet peeve about that. Um, I would like to present because I've
actually thought so much about this and it's not just this council. It's really
the way that that the public feels about government in every kind of way and why
they're apathetic and why they're fed up and why we come here because the public
because what we don't see or what I don't see I've tried to analyze it and
the analysis is you don't use objective criteria to make decisions. That's what
I'm seeing and it's not just you. So every side, left or right or whoever you
want to say it is, thinks of government like Santa Claus. And if their Santa
Claus gets in, they get everything on their wish list. And if their Santa
Claus doesn't get in, they don't get anything on their wish list. That's what
I'm seeing now with the city council. Wow. If he gets in, they're going to get
that. And if you get in and I'm going to get in and you know, you're going to get
that. But there if you utilized objective criteria, you would also
diffuse the arguments on both sides uh to say look, you're not taking our our
input into consideration. And there are a lot of things. Is it necessary? Do you
have the funding? Should you fund it? Do you have the legal authority? Is there a
clearly defined public purpose? Does it benefit the the general public? not a
narrow political or uh you know uh your pet pet group that you tend to agree
with. These are all questions you should be answering. Is it supported by data
and studies and measurable indicators? Is there a co costbenefit analysis? Are
the costs completely disclosed to the public? What is the funding source? What
are the long-term costs? You really literally have to have a matrix with
criteria the same way that you request an RFP and whoever is responding to your
proposal, there are points just like when Chris Pratt talked about the uh the
uh tennis vendor, there are points and that you actually look at that and you
you apply those criteria and then at least you could tell the public we
looked at this and we looked at that because I will say, you know, I will
argue against the bike lanes till I'm blew in the base because if you apply
any objective criteria to that it is not to be funded at all. There is no way
that should receive two cents. Okay? Because you also have to consider
is it harming the majority for the minority and what benefit does the
minority get out of it? Is it something people are you know that it's it's
they're dying and it's something that you're going to save their lives. you
you're you're basically not you're hurting 80% of the population to help
1%. That doesn't make sense in any world. That's a political decision. And
you will be relieved of people arguing that you're corrupt and you're, you
know, taking this from donors and you're doing that from donors. You will you
will eliminate those conversations if you present to people some objective
criteria that you have used for that. Because if people do hear things like,
"Well, this hurts 80% and helps 1%," they go, "Whoa, what what are you
benefiting from that?" And just because that's your political ideology, you
should impose that on people. That mothers who have to pick their kids up
at daycare should spend another 20 minutes in the car. I mean, you know, it
does none of this makes sense to people. So I'm imploring you uh to do that
because if you have disproportionate harm, there are so many ways that you
can apply criteria and also to think about
what kind of decision-m you're doing. Is it tactical? Is it strategic? Is it
short-term? Is it long-term? Because you can't, you know, have art installations
if people are homeless. I'm sorry that money. I'm sorry. You're going to have
to live without the art installations if people are are homeless. Priorities. You
have to set priorities and have objective criteria and that will help
you. and we could be a we could show every single city council how things
should be run if we do that. Thank you. >> Our next speaker is on on air. Fernando
Raldon, you have five minutes to speak. >> Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the
council, and uh members of uh the public. Happy New Year to everybody, and
uh happy MLK. And of course um we should also remember the memory of uh the great
Ed Roberts who was also a disabled advocate and also the founder of the
independent living centers in California and around the United States. Um my New
Year's resolution is simple. Um and I'm still going to ask this from uh from
city council. Please create a disability advisory group. I've already you've
already heard what uh what Mr. Small Hill said and he said it clearly, we got
to stop we got to make sure that our finances are in check. I want to make
sure that some of some of our budget here in in Glendel can be used for the
uh creation of a disability advisory council made up of volunteers such as
myself or any other disabil disabled person who lives in the city of Glendo
for the purpose of making sure that our we have more accessible housing which is
what we need right now. um better transportation. I'd like to see beline
expand a little bit more in their horizons and especially the dial ride
program and making sure that uh we have better connections with metro to make
sure that the bus routes are being met here at the city and around our
neighborhoods. The point is uh Mr. May me members of the council and I still
continue to ask this. We need more of the disabled input here in in Glendale.
I've lived all my life in in here in Glendel. I plan to live my retirement
here in Glendel as a person with a disability. So my hope is that uh the
that our voice with the disabled committee
um be heard especially in this upcoming election year. And as usual, that's my
two cents on that. Thank you. >> Thank you. And that is all.
» All right. And I believe that concludes our business our
» Yeah, I agenda. >> I'll I'll make a motion to adjourn. But
before we do, I do want to say that I think all of us, especially those who
have family in Iran, I I do not, but I have many friends um and uh close
friends who do. Um I'm have been in communication with them. I've been
following the news. My heart is breaking. I'm hoping that um those who
are uh protesting and speaking out for their rights and for freedom and for
better living conditions um are successful. Um and uh but I I would
pause before we make a public declaration unless there's consensus to
do so uh until I've had a chance to um talk to individuals and find out what it
is that we should say or be asking for. But I do stand in solidarity with the
people of Iran, with freedom loving people all over the world and with our
Iranian neighbors who hail from Iran here in the city of Glendale. Thank you.
And I move to adjourn. >> Before we adjourn, Mr. Mayor, I I kind
of agree with uh Miss Brooks. I think uh the European nation and most of the
world is very silent on this issue. I think they're turning the the blind eye.
Uh massive demonstrations all over the world. Uh and 99.9% peaceful. No
buildings were damaged. Uh no injuries to public. No police officer has been
assaulted. they don't flip the the police cars and
burn them down. Um but again I don't know for some strange reason everyone is
silent. Even the coverage that we they get uh by news media is almost nothing.
It's very similar to what was happening in Arts. 9 months of blockades and you
couldn't you couldn't even see it anywhere. And 120,000 people were
forcefully moved from their motherland. No coverage. I think um I'm really
shocked that human rights activists, women's rights activists, none of them
are out there speaking out about this what's going on in Iran. And uh the
people are fighting for their freedom. Um I think they will free themselves
eventually from what's going on from the uh the very vicious government that's
ruling for over 40 years. And I I I just I'm I'm really shocked that nothing is
happening. Nobody's saying anything. Nobody's taking a step to put a put a
stop to what's going on. Uh Iran is the only country that over 75% of their
population is between the age of I believe 20 25 to 40 and they're very
intelligent. They would they will free themselves up because they care about
what's going on and their rights especially the women's rights. We know
what happened in last 40 years. Uh maybe probably the the the issue they have is
they don't want to uh give into special interest groups. That's why maybe
nobody's talking about it. I I don't know. I don't have the magic answer. As
far as resolutions, I'm willing to look at it as well, but empty resolutions to
me it's uh we we issued resolutions as well. Of course, it's it's important to
do so, but I don't think it's going to make a difference in what's going on. I
think our uh government has to step in and [clears throat] do whatever it's
right. And many not only only United States, the entire world is watching and
not doing anything especially the European nations that they um pretended
to be the friends of the people of Iran, not the government, but the people of
Iran. But uh I stopped there, Mr. Mayor, and um
» yeah. >> Well, it's yeah, it's the death of any
person uh wherever located is tragic. Um, I think there's a lot of moving
pieces in the events in Iran. I think from what I've I've looked at both both
in uh Farsy and translations, this started as an economic protest due to
the collapsing economy due to the United States sanctions on the country. We know
that there are other uh governments involved in this with different uh
motives and I think before we decide to make a comment and uh encourage Trump to
bomb Iran or whatever he's been talking about, we need to just see what the true
facts are on the ground and then if if council decides to bring it up for uh a
further discussion, that's certainly something we can do. at that time. I
just don't know exactly what's happening. I'm hearing a lot of
different facts out there. Uh is there a motion to adjurnn?
» So moved. >> We are adjourned.