It's January, 2025. Most folks are banding together to support fire victims, and build a better Glendale.
Not our local extremists, though!
This week, City Council debated reinstating the City of Glendale's Human Rights Commission. Ara Najarian threw another tantrum to prevent a vote on a study (that is already funded by non-city dollars) of a pedestrian green belt through Glendale. Local goons Alex Balekian and Maro Yacoubian chimed in, as did Mike Mohill. (You can watch the public comment on your own time; we need to keep our remaining brain cells intact.)
Due to their conflicts of interest, Ara (who mightily contested his conflict of interest for a long time at the meeting start) and Vartan had to sit out the vote on whether or not to proceed with the STUDY. (Again, this meeting's vote was not to proceed with the actual project; it was to proceed with a state-funded feasibility and impact study.)
Watch: Mayor Asatryan asked Najarian directly why he is fighting the FPPC (the organization that regulates political campaigns/rules) determination that Najarian must recuse himself from the Verdugo Wash vote.
Najarian then refuses to answer Asatryan and pretends to not understand the question.
Councilman Brotman pointed out Najarian's stall tactic of contesting the FPPC ruling on recusal. Mayor Asatryan allowed public comment on the wash project to proceed, despite no vote taking place on the agenda item due to Najarian's tantrum.
After asking why it's taken so long and rambling back and forth with the City Attorney, feckless councilman Ardy Kassakhian caved into Najarian's delay tactic, effectively tabling the the vote for at least another month. In that time, the city risks losing the state funding secured for the STUDY of this project.
Watching Kassakhian hem and haw before giving into Najarian - a man who's sister appears to be involved in social media accounts that relentlessly mock Kassakhian's physical appearance and politics - was the cherry on top of this council meeting.
The usual NIMBYs called in, however they were outnumbered by Glendale residents who would like there to be a walkable network of green space along the Wash.
The Wash project would also potentially enhance fire resilience by creating a defensible area, something you would think all 5 city council members would support given our proximity to the horrific Eaton Fire and that they spent the first hour of the meeting praising the fire department and first responders.
Finally, Dan Brotman noted that the City sorely needs some sort of human rights focused group or initiative due to the hate speech and "dangerous speech" rampant in the city (and evident in many of the people who called in).
He also noted that someone on council may have passed along an email to council from a constituent, because the constituent received a "rape threat" in response to their email to council only about the Verdugo Wash (?!).