By Julie BUTCHER

Glendale YMCA Chief Executive George Saikali and a delegation of local high school students fresh from their enthusiastic participation in the statewide activities of Youth & Government received recognition from Mayor Zareh Sinanyan at the beginning of the February 26 Glendale City Council meeting.

“Youth & Government folks always say, ‘democracy must be taught, one generation at a time,’” Saikali told the Council. “Proudly, we were able to send the first delegation in many years with your help and the work and encouragement of Jennifer Hiramoto from your staff. She told me that this is the best thing we can do for young adults. We’re not the wealthiest part of Glendale, so we worked to make this affordable for our parents, and the Mayor and Jennifer helped raise the funds.”

On consent, the Council agreed to accept $723,163 in grant funds from the State of California’s Department of Housing & Community Development’s California Emergency Solutions & Housing (CESH) program, for services to address local homelessness. Nearly $400,000 will be used for short-term rental assistance for homeless individuals and families; local service providers have teamed up for intensive case management and job services through the Verdugo Jobs Center; another $100,000 is earmarked for emergency housing intervention to help avoid homelessness.

The Council considered and adopted a 2019 Hazard Mitigation Plan. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) requires that the plan be updated every five years in order for local agencies to remain eligible for hazard mitigation funds, grants, and public assistance following a disaster. A diverse community-based committee sought public comment before presenting its findings to the City Council.

The City’s Commission on the Status of Women reported to the Council summarizing its 2019 strategic plan. Quoting from a report analyzing Glendale-specific data, the report notes, “one of the most remarkable findings from this report was that the women in Glendale not only made as much as their male counterparts, but earned 105% of what men in Glendale earned.” Councilmembers expressed support for the commission, some questioning whether it was meeting often enough to fulfill its mission.

Councilmember Vartan Gharpetian commented about the 105% number, “it means the men in this town are doing something right, treating women right. It gives me great hope!”

Finally, the City Council acted to adopt this year’s installment of a multi-year plan to adjust the salaries paid for critical city jobs. According to city staff, this compensation alignment plan started in Fiscal Year 2015/16 following six years without cost-of-living increases. Glendale city workers faced layoffs and, in one year, a pay reduction. Aimed at addressing hard to recruit and retain classes, the City surveyed 29 job classifications across an agreed-upon list of ten comparable cities and targeted those classes most out of line, beginning with those 10% or more below market rates. The wages are to be aligned by the prospective addition of new pay steps at the top levels of the pay scales for jobs in accounting, groundskeeping, traffic painting, wastewater maintenance, and others in supervision and administration.

“We don’t want to lose our city workforce,” Councilmember Ara Najarian said. “These are the people that make Glendale happen. A city is a service organization. We don’t provide goods, except the power plant. We provide services. We don’t want to lose our workers to other cities. This is a way we can show our appreciation for the hard work of our employees. I wish we had the funds to make blanket increases – there are cities that are able to do this – the Anaheims and Santa Monicas. But this is a fiscally responsible way to show our employees that we care.”

Councilmember Paula Devine agreed, saying, “these are street maintenance workers and traffic painters. They are just the people we should all be willing to give raises to. These are really the heart and soul of the workers we have in our city who are providing services for all of us. I have no problem okaying these adjustments.”

Local resident Mike Mohill opposed the pay adjustments in his public comment. He advocated that the City leave California Public Employee’s Retirement System (CalPERS) to stop overly generous public worker pensions including those paid to police officers and firefighters.

  Julie BUTCHER