By Brian CHERNICK

Ronnie Gharibian and Zanku Armenian were appointed to the Community Development Block Grant Advisory Committee during Tuesday night’s Glendale City Council meeting. Alejandro Parajon was appointed to the Audit Committee and Lynda Burns to the Commission on the Status of Women.

Councilmember Vrej Agajanian expressed his concerns, which were backed by Sinanyan, with the bidding process to enter a contract with a company to assist with the maintenance of Glendale’s biogas compressors and equipment. The bid was ultimately awarded to Vaughan’s Industrial Repair Co., but Vaughan was only one of two companies that submitted a proposal with the second company placing a bid more than half a million dollars higher. Vaughan proposed that its company could successfully inspect and maintain the compressor station – which is responsible for supplying landfill gas to the Grayson Power Plant – for $159,912. The only alternative bid from PSC-ARB Inc., which proposed a cost of $763,256 to perform the same work.

Asked by Agajanian as to why there was such a large discrepancy between the two bids, Glendale Water & Power General Manager Stephen Zurn answered that PSC-ARB proposed the larger price tag in case no one else presented a bid.

“We asked ARB, ‘Why did you even bid if your price was so high?” Zurn said. “And they said, ‘Because we figured if nobody else bid we would take a shot at it.’”

Agajanian also asked why there were only two bids for the project, to which Zurn explained that a combination of a lack of companies that specialize in biogas and the unique characteristic of the Grayson Power Plant were to blame.

“There aren’t very many firms that can or will work on our biogas power plant,” Zurn said. “It’s an old plant. There are a lot of old parts, it has a lot of old equipment and very few people in this day and age even work on it.”

Zurn went on to explain that if ARB were the only company to bid – and had proposed the same cost – he would have recommended to the council to reject the bid.

The council also passed a resolution reaffirming the city’s commitment to a community that is free of racism, hatred and bigotry in light of events in Charlottesville, Virginia. Councilmember Paula Devine shared her personal experiences with being bullied and harassed growing up as a kid, describing it as “disturbing” and “distressing” and urged parents to be aware of their children who might be exhibiting those kinds of behaviors and to teach them that is not how to treat one another.

Sinanyan expressed his disgust and disappointment with comments that were posted to an article regarding the recent controversy over The Americana at Brand’s rejection of ad space for and the recent documentary that chronicles the Armenian Genocide.

“They were just horrible racist comments, calling Armenian Americans all kinds of derogatory terms,” Sinanyan said. “We should condemn all those things in no uncertain terms because our city has no room for that.”

Sinanyan had previously come under fire in 2013 when vulgar comments made by him on social media came to light. He eventually admitted to posting them after initially deny it and went on to win re-election to the city council.

  Brian CHERNICK