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 […]
By Julie BUTCHER It is not unusual to hear regular complaints by callers into the weekly Glendale City Council meetings criticizing the pay and benefits paid to city workers. One regular caller is known to rant about the outrageous salary paid to the city manager, never missing a chance to point out the burgeoning pension […]
By Julie BUTCHER “Demonizing and dehumanizing the mom and pop landlords of our community is not good and I don’t like where it leads,” commented Councilmember Ara Najarian on the harshness and divisiveness expressed by some of the people who called into this week’s Glendale City Council meeting. He referred to those advocating for various […]
By Julie BUTCHER The controversial, long-awaited preliminary environmental review of a project proposed to produce renewable energy from the gas produced by the Scholl Canyon landfill was released this week, subject to a 90-day comment period to solicit input and feedback. The draft environmental impact report (EIR) is available for review and comment at http://glendalebiogasgeneration.com/#draft-eir. […]
By Julie BUTCHER Taking a significant step forward on a course decided by the Glendale City Council in 2013, the council voted this week to move ahead with a trash franchising plan that will contract out trash collection of the city’s multi-family and commercial properties to four haulers in four specified zones. The 4-1 vote […]
By Julie BUTCHER Glendale City Council returned to the council chambers this week – city hall elevators were back in service after lengthy repairs – to tackle a long list of issues, approve a status quo contract with most of its employees, and extend most COVID-19 related emergency orders through the end of July. First […]
By Julie BUTCHER Rep. Adam Schiff (CA-28) addressed the Glendale City Council virtually from Washington, D.C. at the beginning of its Tuesday evening meeting, commenting on the extraordinariness of thousands marching peacefully in Glendale and how interminably long it felt to kneel on the pavement for eight minutes and 46 seconds. Schiff outlined what he […]
By Julie BUTCHER Following the June 2 meeting of the Glendale City Council, the police department issued a comprehensive policy statement detailing its use of force and other policies compared to recommendations from Campaign Zero, a national police reform advocacy organization. “The City of Glendale and the Glendale Police Department (GPD) have received many inquiries […]
By Julie BUTCHER Long after curfew on Tuesday night, at the end of a very long day of various long meetings, the Glendale City Council adopted a $906.8 million budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year on a vote of 3-2. Councilmember Paula Devine cited a campaign commitment made to vote against transferring funds from the […]
By Julie BUTCHER “The Exclusive Negotiating Agreement between the City of Glendale and Avalon Investment LP (‘Avalon’) for the Rockhaven site has ended. Avalon had proposed an adaptive rehabilitation of the buildings and grounds for use as a boutique hotel. During the Exclusive Negotiating Agreement time frame, Avalon completed a thorough due diligence process which […]