By Julie BUTCHER

The Glendale City Council adjourned its shortest meeting of 2020, just before the polls closed on Election Day in California, having taken formal action on items pending, honoring the memory of former mayor Dr. James Perkins, who died on Oct. 10, days before his 96th birthday, and the 100th birthday of Paul Ignatius on Nov. 11, famed Glendale resident who served as secretary of the Navy between 1967 and 1969 and assistant secretary of Defense during the Lyndon Johnson Administration.

“It’s not every day that we get to honor someone for whom a U.S. destroyer is named,” Councilmember Ardashes “Ardy” Kassakhian said about Ignatius, who Kassakhian noted was the highest-ranking U.S. military official from Glendale.

The Council formally adopted plans for a Sustainability Commission and approved new, more relaxed regulations governing parkways and sidewalks, both items previously briefed and debated.

City lobbyists provided a legislative update. Contrary to what is typical, this year the state legislature considered only approximately 2,200 bills; 482 moved forward to the Governor’s desk. Bills requiring funding were generally not considered.

Of note, the lobbyists reported, housing bills are being opposed by organized labor unless they include a requirement to include skilled trades workers. Changes to housing density bonuses are again being considered, in anticipation of the next two-year legislative session beginning on Dec. 7. Wildfires are also receiving a lot of attention, including AB3074 proposed by local assemblymember and former councilmember Laura Friedman, to require ember-resistant zones in high fire impact zones.

Workers’ compensation laws have been amended to consider COVID-19 as a presumptive cause of injury or illness to workers.

The state began 2020 with a $76 billion surplus projected. By June, the budget shortfall was $54 billion.

“The good news from Sacramento – if there is such a thing – is that state income tax and sales taxes are coming in higher than expected,” city staff briefed the Council, “and, depending on the outcome of the election, we could see federal stimulus to state and local governments and for infrastructure.”

Finally, the city attorney announced that the Council had authorized the employment of a professional executive search firm to help the city hire a new manager.