By Julie BUTCHER

The Glendale City Council held a short but jam-packed meeting on Tuesday night, its first of the new year, on a night that Mayor Elen Asatryan announced the city was opening its emergency operations center in response to severe high winds. 

The mayor urged Glendalians to sign up for text alerts bit.ly/EmergencyEnroll and to follow the city on social media for updates and emergency information. She added that folks can contact the city’s communications team directly at communications@GlendaleCA.gov or by calling (818) 545-4213.

The council unanimously approved the appointment of Edith Fuentes to the Planning Commission; Alex Parajon to the Audit Commission; Erasto Ongkeko Jr. to the Building and Fire Appeals Commission; Sue Bell Yank to the Arts and Culture Commission; and Regina Alcazar to the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Commission. Councilmember Vartan Gharpetian balked at the appointment of Ted Flanigan to the GWP Commission.

“I’m okay with all of the other nominations,” Gharpetian said. “I believe we should be a little bit careful about appointing consultants or lobbyists. I read Mr. Flanigan’s resume – [he has] extensive experience, I’ll admit – very knowledgeable, very experienced, but I don’t think we should appoint consultants or activists or lobbyists.”

Gharpetian reported that Flanigan’s business had done work for the city in 2019 and 2022 and that Flanigan had served on the commission in 2020.

“I served on commissions for 10 years,” Gharpetian continued. “The role of the commission is for the average joe of the community to help the city, to be kind of in the middle, not to be too much to one side on any issue.”

Councilmember Ardy Kassakhian made the motion to nominate Flanigan to the GWP Commission, noting that he had served on the commission before and that he had done work for the city.

“For those who may not be aware, Ted Flanigan is regionally if not [nationally] recognized in the field of energy efficiency consulting – not just with Glendale but various agencies – and we’re actually quite fortunate to have him as a Glendale resident,” Kassakhian said. 

Kassakhian added he believed enough time has passed to make previous work Flanigan had done for the city no longer a conflict of any kind.

“I don’t want average joes,” Councilmember Dan Brotman said. “I want people who can really bring their expertise to bear and contribute something and help guide us.”

Councilmember Brotman commented further about Flanigan’s independence. “He’s not an activist. He’s straight down the line. I appointed him originally and when the Grayson question came up and there was a debate about whether we should have five Wärtsiläs or three Wärtsiläs and he voted for five,” he said. “He didn’t just say I’m going to be the activist.”

The appointment of Ted Flanigan to the GWP Commission passed with three votes. Councilmember Gharpetian voted against the appointment and Councilmember Ara Najarian was not present at the meeting.

Mayor Asatryan had asked the police department for an update on the policy of the city regarding the detention of individuals based on immigration status. Glendale police chief Manny Cid briefed the council.

“I want to be clear and emphatic: the Glendale Police Dept. does not and never has been involved directly in doing immigration enforcement,” said Chief Cid. “It is generally out of the scope of municipal law enforcement – local law enforcement – to be involved. Immigration operations and enforcement efforts are generally reserved for the federal government and federal entities. So, by both policy, law and practice our police department does not engage, doesn’t directly assist, ICE or Homeland Security in immigration enforcement.”

Chief Cid then explained that the passage of SB-54 by the California State Legislature further restricted the role of local police departments in the enforcement of immigration laws. Glendale is in full compliance, he reported.

Glendale has a contract with ICE and Homeland Security that allows those agencies to utilize local jail facilities to temporarily house (24 – 48 hours) detainees already in custody for other crimes. Cid reported that the contract has not been used since 2018 and in 2018 only six such detentions occurred.

Chief Cid concluded that it was essential to the mission of keeping Glendale safe that its residents “feel confident being able to approach a police officer, to report a crime, to call us when they need help; it strikes at what we’re trying to accomplish.”

“With all due respect to our federal leaders, the idea to come into local areas like Glendale or the greater LA area and do mass sweeps just logistically presents a great amount of challenges and the federal government would largely have to rely on local agencies to accomplish that which is contrary to state law here in California,” added Chief Cid.

Finally, Councilmember Brotman introduced sad news of the passing of local beloved environmentalist Jack Walworth. Walworth was described as having been one of the leaders of the Glendale Environmental Coalition, eventually becoming the group’s co-chair along with Jackie Gish, who was present at the council meeting with friends and family of Walworth’s.

He was passionate about addressing climate change and he “knew that what we did at the local level really really mattered,” Councilmember Brotman eulogized his Walworth. 

Mayor Asatryan added her “deep condolences.”

“Jack was an amazing activist who was valued very much. I loved all of our conversations, and I loved that he always kept one day solely for his wife and family,” she said adding that the council would adjourn its meeting in memory of Jack Walworth.