By Julie BUTCHER

The Glendale City Council took time at its Tuesday night meeting to honor and say farewell to retiring Manager Yasmin Beers, who leaves this week after 33 years of service to the City of Glendale.

“I am saddened that you have left us,” said Councilmember Ara Najarian. “While we recognize your decades of work, your commitment to the city is beyond question and your impact will be felt for decades to come. We hate to see you go.”

Beers thanked her family, including her immigrant parents who came to this country to make a better life for their daughters. She recognized the city’s executive management team and became emotional when thanking the city attorney, her “partner in crime.” (City attorney Mike Garcia clarified that no crime was involved, then warmly thanked Beers for her service, vision and steadfastness.)

According to City Public Information Officer Eliza Papazian, the Council “approved the appointment of Roubik Golanian as interim city manager to succeed retiring City Manager Yasmin Beers while the Council considers its options on a permanent appointment. At this time, the City Council has made no decisions on a permanent appointment nor has the Council made any decisions on the next steps regarding the appointment of a permanent city manager. The Council continues to consider its options and will make further announcements in that regard in the near future.

“Golanian’s appointment will be effective Oct. 17, 2020. Mr. Golanian has provided dedicated service to the Glendale community for the past 20 years through the positions of senior civil engineer, city engineer, deputy director of Public Works/city engineer, director of Public Works, and most recently assistant city manager. He has been serving as the assistant city manager since May 1, 2018. Before his career in Glendale, Roubik served in the private sector as an engineering technician, project engineer and supervising engineer for a private consulting firm, as well as the County of Fresno and cities of Ceres and Torrance respectively. Roubik holds a Bachelor of Science with honors degree in civil engineering and a Master of Art degree in organizational leadership. He is registered in the State of California as a professional civil engineer. Roubik and his wife Maria have three sons, Christopher, Alexander and Mathew.”

In a letter dated Sept. 21, Glendale’s Coalition for an Anti-Racist Glendale urged the Council to use “the opportunity that hiring a new city manager provides Glendale. The passage of the Sundown Resolution on Sept. 15 has shown us that the city has taken the first critical steps to center diversity, inclusion and equity.”

The letter continued.

“Now the work of racial justice must begin. The process of determining who will be the new manager is a precise and timely example of the Sundown Resolution applied. We ask that you commit to a national search process that more closely speaks to your unanimous commitment. We know that efforts to end systemic racism need to be led from the top.”

The group urged a national search, using the recent hiring process utilized by the Glendale Unified School District as a positive example.

As part of this year’s budget deliberations, Mayor Vrej Agajanian insisted on monthly financial updates to make sure the city’s finances were staying on track as the fiscal ravages of the coronavirus hit in the early spring.

Updating the Council, finance director Michele Flynn announced that the picture is “rosier than anticipated.” The $10.5 million shortfall that was expected was reduced by approximately half with one-time revenues further closing the gap to under $1 million.

“We urged a measured approach, [waiting] until the numbers came in,” retiring City Manager Yasmin Beers recalled, “because we’d never been through something like this before.”

On the expenditure side, Flynn reported, every city department has come in under budget, adhering to a hiring freeze that shows in the savings numbers.

The Council voted to accept a grant from California Humanities for a program called Glendale Tree Stories. The $20,000 is to be matched by staff time, working with the Glendale Youth Alliance, to “record stories from the community regarding their favorite trees in the city and the reasoning why, with a focus on capturing the diversity of Glendale and building consensus around our appreciation of urban nature.”

Although it was on the agenda, Mayor Agajanian delayed until next week consideration of the pending ban of Mylar balloons.

“I’ve received almost 200 emails and calls and texts. They say there is a study going on and have asked us to wait to vote on this until they can bring the study to us. So, out of respect, I’ve postponed action on this until next week,” he said.

Finally, the Council debated the release of a request for proposal (RFP) for a pilot “shared mobility” study. The Council considered a pilot scooter/e-bicycle program last fall but opted out at that time. The current proposal is to solicit proposals for a flexible program centered in the downtown and south parts of the city.

Bradley Calvert, assistant director of the Department of Community Development, described the parameters of the study: It would be a one-year pilot with a report back to Council at 90 days, seeking up to two vendors to test up to 500 devices, both scooters and electronic bicycles, operating from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., with the capability to scale up or down based on usage and public feedback, with a robust engagement and safety education component.

“We don’t just want to throw these devices out there,” Calvert told the Council.

Riders must be 18 years old. Scooters are prohibited from riding on sidewalks, allowed only on routes posted below 25 mph or above with bicycle lanes; helmets are not required per state law.

Councilmember Paula Devine acknowledged that “micro-mobility programs like this are the trend, and I’m in favor of the pilot, but I’m against scooters for safety and aesthetic reasons. I’d like to see the RFP split between scooters and bikes for analysis.”

“To clarify, only motorized scooters are banned from sidewalks,” Councilmember Ardashes “Ardy” Kassakhian said. “[We don’t want to get] hundreds of angry emails from 6 year olds.”

Councilmember Dan Brotman expressed support for the pilot, noting that he is “not concerned about safety issues – I think we can avoid the issues the early adopters experienced in some of the beach cities.”

The RFP was approved by a unanimous vote of the Council, modified per Devine’s motion to provide for separate analysis of standard and e-bikes as well as electronic scooters.

  Julie BUTCHER