By Julie BUTCHER

Early during this week’s meeting of the Glendale City Council, Councilmember Paula Devine asked about the city’s current rules for backyard beekeeping, advocating for a review of the policies to allow for safe aviaries. The city attorney informed the council that beekeeping is permitted only in areas zoned as SR for special residential use and therefore prohibited in most of the city’s residential neighborhoods.

Devine previewed comments from callers later in the meeting and reported on outreach she had heard from local backyard beekeepers: “The neighbors love the honey.”

A representative of the beekeeping community detailed the importance of protecting honeybees, “the gentle bees,” and enhancing the population of pollinators. He urged the council to amend the code to allow for the practice, as does the county of Los Angeles and local cities including Culver City and Los Angeles. Backyard beekeepers in Southern California, he said, go back to 1873.

Glendale resident Lydia Shabestari also called into the meeting to support changing local laws to allow for beekeeping, expressing the beekeepers’ commitment to “safe hives, the safety of our neighbors and support for pollinators.”

The council agreed to consider an amendment to the zoning regulations at a future meeting.

The council also agreed to defer action on a proposed ban on the sale of flavored electronic smoking products, waiting on action pending by the California state legislature. Staff told the council the state’s deliberations would be completed by Oct. 1 and the city could act then, if necessary.

Councilmember Dan Brotman then pulled a proposed contract for weed control services from the consent calendar for further scrutiny, questioning the potential use of glyphosate (“Round-Up”) and other toxic chemicals. The city’s public works director asserted that the contractor would be “discouraged” from such use and encouraged to “use safe alternative chemicals” and told the council, “If we take that out, the cost for weed treatment will increase substantially.” The council voted to review separate bids including and excluding the use of these chemicals.

“It’s worth doing the extra due diligence,” Brotman said. “It’s more difficult, I understand, in my own gardening but it’s worth taking the extra step. Let’s do that.”

Reporting on the city’s Slow Streets project, Brad Calvert, assistant director of the city’s Community Development Dept., explained that delays had slowed the transfer of funds for the barricades and signs needed to implement the program. The city has reached out to all the applicants and apologized for the delays; Calvert reported that many of the participants have been enthusiastic in their support and that the signs and barricades should be delivered to the approved streets in the next seven to 10 days.

As usual, when the council opened its phone lines to public comment many callers commented on the city’s policy of requiring the wearing of face coverings in public, potentially issuing fines for non-compliance. Police chief Carl Povilaitis assured the council that police officers have the discretion and authority to issue fines but that the police department was encouraging and securing good cooperation from the public.

Assistant City Manager Roubik Golanian informed the council that the city and the school district are working together to develop a poster contest for K-12 students to encourage the wearing of facemasks to protect public health.

Councilmember Ara Najarian asked about current COVID-19 testing for Glendale residents. Fire chief Silvio Lanzas replied that the current advice from Los Angeles County is to first contact one’s primary health care provider, then find a testing site and available appointment time on the county’s testing site [https://covid19.lacounty.gov/testing/] which is coordinated by LA city and county and the private non-profit CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort).

Responding to concerns that oxygen levels are compromised when wearing a face covering, Mayor Vrej Agajanian responded, “I’ve tested it and even with six masks on I can still get enough oxygen.”

The council next engaged in a lengthy, detailed conversation about the problems caused by Mylar balloons.

“Since 2007, GWP has experienced 168 outages as a result of Mylar balloons. These account for about 18.8% of power outages and equate to 223,317 hours of customer interruption,” the city’s report detailed. Glendale Water and Power General Manager Steve Zurn shared slides summarizing the long history of attempted but failed statewide legislation to ban the sale of the balloons.

“No agency has passed an ordinance against Mylar balloons,” Zurn said noting that attempts to work with the industry had “to date not been successful in mitigating their damage and disruptiveness.”

Councilmember Devine asked about the legality of a local ordinance.

“We can lead on this,” she said. “How many customers have suffered because of outages, the danger of the shorting of transformers [and] the workers put at risk to make repairs?”

Councilmember Brotman seconded the intent.

“I’m proud to be part of this council leading on this,” he said and Councilmember Ardashes “Ardy” Kassakhian agreed, highlighting worldwide shortages of helium, a non-renewable resource.

“We can’t ban squirrels,” Kassakhian said of another common source of outages, “but this is something we can do.”

The council agreed to look at a local ban on the sale of the balloons but rejected a potential ban on the possession of Mylar balloons as too extreme and too difficult to enforce.

During the final public comment section of the meeting, Glendale City Employee Association president Orlando Urquidez called to raise concerns about actions taken at previous meetings to explore the possibility of implementing employee furloughs. Urquidez offered background on the group of workers he is part of as a 19-year city employee.

“Ours is the largest bargaining unit in the city,” Urquidez said. “It’s also the lowest paid. Furloughs would be devastating. Glendale is not a well-paying city for general workers and the city has fallen below; we’re not even at median now. A 10% salary cut would be detrimental to hundreds of your workers, workers considered essential, who have put themselves at risk to continue providing services. This is their dedication.

“We’re unique in that a majority of Glendale city workers live here or grew up here or have family here. We also almost all have second part-time jobs. We cannot be essential one day and expendable the next.”

Sgt. Ben Bateman, president of the Glendale Police Officers Association, also called to comment on the proposed cuts.

Although his members are considered essential and would not be furloughed, Bateman urged the council to utilize the high reserve fund.

“Citizens passed Measure S to give city leaders the ability to maintain city services,” he said. “One day of furlough equals a 10% reduction in city services to the public. A reduced work force means reduced service to a community relying on them. City employees need the support of the council, to show them that they’re not expendable and that you will support them.”

Glendale Management Association president Craig Hinckley called too, advocating that the city look at all possible areas to cut and “exhaust all other options.”

Several city librarians were also heard from. A children’s librarian explained everything that had been done during the pandemic to provide library services to the community, to help families access virtual resources and to help patrons learn to use the technology.

“I was surprised and panicked at the suggestion of furloughs,” one librarian said. “We’re so proud of serving the community. We’ve put our own health and the health of our families at risk to deliver those services.”

“Libraries are a tool of economic equity, not only for our more affluent neighborhoods but for every one of them, now more than ever,” another librarian observed.

“I love my job and this community deserves nothing less. It’s demoralizing to hear talk of furloughs before every other option has been considered,” said another Glendale city librarian.

  Julie BUTCHER