InternationalGlendale City Council candidates address hot-button issues at public assembly
Organized by the Unified Young Armenians, the forum is the first of the 2009 election season
Published: Wednesday February 18, 2009
A public forum for Glendale City Council candidates on Feb. 8 went for three hours. To save time, candidates indicated their positions on some issues by waving green or red cards. Here Laura Friedman dissents from the position shared by Vartan Gharpetian, Aram Kazazian, Ara Najarian, and Chahe Keuroghelian. Pogos Kuregyan
Glendale, Calif. - With the Glendale City elections just two months away, 11 of the 12 City-Council candidates gathered at the Central Public Library auditorium on February 8 for a public forum organized by the Unified Young Armenians (UYA).
The three-hour event gave Glendale residents a rare opportunity to meet most of the prospective leaders of their city. Absent was City-Council hopeful Edward Lafian.
Among the candidates in attendance were some familiar faces, including incumbents Ara Najarian, Frank Quintero, and Bob Yousefian, as well as Chahe Keuroghelian - who, now in his third run for City Council, is no stranger to elections in Glendale. Challenging the incumbents is a host of less recognizable names including small-business owners Laura Friedman, Michael Teahan, Lenore Solis, and Aramazd Stepanian, as well as former Design Review Board chairperson Vartan Gharpetian, architect Aram Kazazian, and retired police chief Bruce Phillpot.
Much of the event unfolded as a town-hall meeting, with some questions generated by forum organizers and more impassioned inquiries made by concerned audience members.
Candidates were asked to state their positions on a number of issues including the establishment of term limits for council members, the lowering of the flag in commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, the preservation of hillsides, reductions in the city's work force, and extension of hours for the Beeline bus service. This Q&A blitz was concluded with the candidates merely holding up green or red signs, indicating either their support of or opposition to the issues raised or supplying a 45-second answer, with the allotted time hardly enough to express more than a sentence or two.
The issue at the heart of every candidate's platform - though time constraints and the tedious process of interpreting everything into Armenian and English for the nearly 100 guests in attendance prevented candidates from fully voicing their opinions - was Glendale's budget shortfalls and the current economic downturn. As many of the candidates are local small-business owners or working professionals, they are acutely aware of the need to revive Glendale's struggling economy, create jobs, and advocate fiscal responsibility.
Taking on budget shortfalls
In response to moderator Milena Mailyan's question about the core problem currently facing Glendale and how the candidates plan to alleviate those problems during their term in office, Laura Friedman said: "The biggest issue facing the city right now is the budget shortfall, which is almost $8 million. We have to figure out how to balance a budget shortfall against all the services we want from the city. We need to go through the city budget and find inefficiencies and redundancies and make sure our city operates as efficiently as it can." Ms. Friedman went on to add: "We need to aggressively go out to the business community and try to bring the best businesses and the best jobs to Glendale."
All of the candidates weighed in on the city's current financial woes, citing the need to be selective in cutting or enhancing programs and city services. "When you are struggling with the economy, when you are struggling with the budget, thinking about what you can do to reduce the expenses, when you're talking about furloughs and laying off people, then definitely all those additional expenses will be put on a secondary level," offered Chahe Keuroghelian. "The infrastructure cannot be touched because it is the spine of the city. Small businesses need to be supported, and youth programs and senior citizen programs need to be continued."
Ara Najarian acknowledged the presence of those in the audience boisterously demanding affordable housing, acknowledging that this issue is a "crisis for the elderly and disabled." Referring to the $787 billion stimulus package that was still being debated in Congress, the incumbent hinted that he intends to get Glendale its piece of the large stimulus pie. "Right now the federal government is deciding on an $800-billion stimulus package and I'll be darned if I'll let that money go to other cities," Mr. Najarian said. "We have to grab some of that money for right here in Glendale. If they're going to be spreading it around, we have to get some."
Council member Bob Yousefian, on the other hand, disagreed with Mr. Najarian's insistence that Glendale should stake its claim on stimulus funds, inferring that, while in the midst of a financial crisis that has gripped the nation, Glendale should pull itself up by its bootstraps rather than wait for "big government" to ride in on a white horse and rescue it.
"I have lived in Glendale for 32 years and I have never seen a worse budget shortfall than I've seen in the last year," Mr. Yousefian said. "The whole idea that we can trust big government to come and save us. . . . I don't suggest you hold your breath. Washington is not going to save you. We [the city government] need to get back to basics."
Vartan Gharpetian, who said he believes the city lacks a definitive, long-term social and economic plan, enumerated ways in which Glendale could have generated funds in recent years but failed to do so. "Glendale missed the boat when the times were good and they could have made a lot of money in this city," he said. "We need to use our resources - like the Alex Theatre and the Civic Auditorium. They are sitting there vacant most of the time. We need to generate more money to help this city come out of the deficit. We can't live paycheck to paycheck. And, most importantly, we need to create jobs in this city."
