By Julie BUTCHER

On May 19 the Glendale City Council conducted its fifth – and final – budget study session reviewing the details of a proposed annual FY 2022-23 budget inching north of a billion dollars at $1,095,412,445, 12.6% over last year’s budget. The full budget goes to the council for adoption on June 14.

Before digging into the details of the seven city departments that support all the other municipal operations, Glendale Police Chief Carl Povilaitis answered outstanding questions about the police department’s SWAT team. The city does not have a full-time SWAT team. Instead, the 28 members designated as SWAT officers and the 14 employees certified as part of the city’s Crisis Negotiating Team (CNT) are distributed across the department. CNT members train on suicide prevention, for example, and can be called upon to respond when needed. The total cost of the two teams is $489,000, Chief Povilaitis told the council; it would cost approximately $5.8 million if it was organized as a full-time team.

The Finance Dept. is budgeted at $7.3 million for the coming fiscal year. Human Relations will cost $60.8 million, an increase of 12% over last year. HR staff has concluded negotiations with the city’s four bargaining units, boasting predictability and stability as a result, and plans on focusing on recruitment, hiring and updating its staff demographics data.

Glendale’s City Clerk’s Office employs six full-time employees, including the elected position of city clerk, and provides support to the city’s commissions and boards as well as to the council, and is responsible for coordinating elections and maintaining the city’s records. The budget increases by 2.9% to $1.2 million for FY 2022-23.

With a projected budget of $16.02 million, the city attorney’s operation employs 12 attorneys. The council previously asked the city attorney to estimate the cost of prosecuting crimes refused by the Los Angeles district attorney. City Attorney Mike Garcia replied that the change would require a charter amendment and would cost more than $4 million. The City of Manhattan Beach has asked to take over the prosecuting of state misdemeanors and the DA refused, Garcia also reported.

Mayor Ardy Kassakhian urged a full review of the city charter to update the city rules and to clean up old language and provisions.

The council determined that both the city manager and the city attorney should receive annual evaluations as do the rest of the city’s employees.

Management Services is expected to cost $7.3 million in the coming year; the department is responsible for sustainability, communications and community relations, including the city’s TV crew and public information officer, the city manager, internal auditing and a unit dedicated to innovation and performance. The 27 full-time employees hope to focus on staff training and improving customer service.

Councilmember Ara Najarian urged the addition of assistance for the members of the council.

“I have a daytime job,” he said. “We complain about not having enough support every year. I don’t know how it would be organized, apportioned or allocated, but we need help to do the best job we can do. It’s the wrong place to be pinching pennies.”

“Ideally, if money were no object, you’d each have your own assistant,” City Manager Roubik Golanian responded.

Mayor Kassakhian observed, “We used to have community relations staff – I think there’s a positive return on investment – staffing in the city manager’s office is the lowest I’ve seen it – we need to increase staffing by at least two.”

Councilmember Paula Devine disagreed.

“I take on the role of fiscal conservative – now is not the time to be adding extra staff,” she said.

Councilmember Vrej Agajanian suggested hiring part-time staff as independent contractors to “help out two hours a day.” Councilmember Dan Brotman noted that it would be a perfect opportunity for an internship program.

The city’s Information Technology Dept. is expected to cost $26.1 million, a reduction of 9.2% based on reallocating some staff to the police department.

Finally, the smallest city department is the City Treasurer’s office, with five full-time employees who support the elected treasurer in overseeing the city’s investments. The budget of the department is $1.06 million for this upcoming budget year, up 9.4% based primarily on increases in wages and the cost of benefits.