Everyone is looking to a bright future for Glendale.
Local government plays an important role in community governance as an accountable and efficient forum for local decision-making.
Councils will be elected to the position in April. First of all, I think candidates should explain people how to vote, because many of Glendale residents do not understand complicated voting system. Today, on January 13 RM Global Health Glendale Headquarters visited by one of the candidate to council position Mr. Edward Lafian. It's nice to be able to say that -- and talked about the needs of the Glendale
I think with Edward Lafian in charge, there will be a greater understanding of the needs to rebuild the infrastructure in education, health and safety. I plan to be in his office next week to let him know what we need.
What this means is that we can created, for example the additional route for ambulances, because two major hospitals in Glendale, Glendale Memorial (South part of city) and Glendale Adventist, on the North, are located on the major traffic routes, especially on holiday seasons. May be we can get more buses out there and expand the busway in the Glendale, connecting colleges, schools to Glendale Galleria and Americana. It might help to solve our traffic problems, but we have to bring all these together to make a start.
And the public is going to have to help. They are going to have to get out of their cars one day a week. We have to have better planning along transit corridors for service cars in areas like downtown.
As long as the doctor doesn't suggest putting cyanide in the water. Are there any candidates you'd like to see as City of Glendale Council better than ED Lafian?
In the past several months, it is obvious from construction taking place in Glendale that new business ventures have begun to come to Glendale. Certainly, Ed Lafian is able to build partnerships that will bring new investments to the our community.
Glendale will become a sought-after location for new businesses because Edward has ability to educate ourselves in economic development and seeking out opportunities to bring good jobs to the citizens, while working to sustain and support existing businesses in his partnership with the different organizations.
Much of the work that will be done cannot be done by one person, only Mr. Lafian can handle it. Shortly after taking office, in assessing the strengths, weaknesses, and areas of potential development, it became clear that very little economic development should be done in Glendale. Good idea will be, in order to assess what needed to be done, to work with Glendale Development to have a Housing Needs Assessment completed. That process defined our housing inventory and our need for revitalization of older homes. Next, try to develop a sewer expansion plan, and to seek federal and state funding, but in order to apply for those funds, a Comprehensive Plan needed to be completed.
That is why Edward Lafian invited a group of pro-Glendale citizens to take part in the first-ever Glendale Economic Development Committee to provide valuable input in both the Community Survey, and by attending Open Houses and the Public Hearing. Glendale residents should work together to develop a plan to set a course for positive change for this community. Economic development is about more than just bringing jobs to Glendale. It is about educating people, housing, and employment, and creating wealth by fostering entrepreneurship and relationships. Also important to note is that education and cooperation with local schools prepares students as potential employees for businesses that wish to relocate here.
Many small projects should be completed. Projects in the park, including new restrooms, upgraded tennis courts, and the addition of the Glendale Music Festival, have allowed citizens to take better advantage of the parks with their families. Major renovations to the Golf Courses, grounds improvements, and acquiring new amenities allows the City to utilize the facility for professional and economic development promotion.
For sure we need to address personnel issues by implementing a stringent drug testing policy. When we began looking into what it would take to put that process in place, we discovered that there had never been an employee handbook, or manual of rules for Glendale employees. In order to begin drug testing, that project had to be completed.
In addition to the employee policies, the City had never been compliant with the HIPAA (Health Information Portability and Accountability Act) laws with regard to record keeping. Realizing this was a serious issue to the privacy rights of employees, Edward is going to hire Human Resource Manager to handle proper, confidential organization of employee files, maintenance of the policies and procedures, and to administrate the drug testing policy so that drug screening information remained strictly confidential.
One of the most challenging projects at the beginning of his administration must be identification and inventorying the City’s capital. It is possible to make sure that the City is spending its dollars wisely, and that we are getting value for the things we are paying for.
When we began to review costs for things like employee health insurance, insurance on equipment, and how to reduce costs while making certain the quality of the service remained the same, it became clear very quickly that the City had been paying insurance on vehicles it no longer owned, vehicles that had been taken out of service, and there were newer vehicles that were never added to the policy coverage.
One of the most visible and obvious accomplishments of Ed's administration will be the Glendale Fire Station and the Glendale Police Department. He will make City to be able to cover all possible needs for them. Recognizing them will gives those hard working men and women the dignity, honor, and respect they deserve for doing a very difficult job each and every day to protect the lives and well-being of citizens.
Edward will upgrade public safety in the years to come.
In a cooperative effort between the City of Glendale and RM GH, for the first time, a new college may be built in the City. This investment in Glendale will provide opportunities keep our children out of streets.
Many people are not aware of the professional obligations of the city council. This is an issue for future council, to provide clear information for our residents.
We need early childhood program and what it means for young families in town.
Many mobile homes that appeared not to be safe, healthy, or fit for human habitation, so, should be created the mobile home ordinance, requiring mobile home owners to have proper underpinning, proper utility hookups, safe staircases with railings, and a host of other requirements to keep adults, children, and animals out of harm’s way. This will allow the City to do its best to make sure that only safe, newer mobile homes are brought into the City, and that once they are in place, all of the safety requirement are met to keep children from the harms of getting underneath exposed mobile homes. There’s more work to be done on this issue.
Civic pride and volunteerism are inspiring to bring a brighter future for our children. students should be involved in numerous activities. People all over the City must take pride in their properties, cleaning up debris, keeping their yards cared for and taking time to stop and enjoy all of the new park facilities and festivals.
There has been much talk about brain drain and youth retention. Those two terms simply mean, we in Glendale need to stop the process of our educated kids leaving the City after college for good career opportunities. We need to be better at giving them good jobs to stay for and a reason to move home to work and raise a family. Edward has promised to work with and through others on a regional basis to attract business and industry to the area to provide employment opportunities to everyone.
One of the goals for the future and beyond include: working with Legislature to correct the unfair property taxation structure that has caused property tax rates to increase because the legislature did not consider the ramifications of repealing the inventory tax for Glendale property owners. It has to be corrected and I will continue to lobby for sensible change in the tax laws that will lower our property taxes. The other thing we are doing to lower our taxes is to bring new businesses to Linton. Each time a new business comes, your assessed valuation goes up, and however, your taxes will go down over time with each new business that comes. This is vital to lowering our property taxes because the legislature really caused a major spike in those assessments.
Mr. Lafian is completing plans that will help the City support the needs of the aging. These plans will also help us attract and retain those who would like to retire productively in our community. Those four key elements are transportation, living independently, parks and recreation, and other services that provide support to an aging population, including enhanced facilities and services.
We need person like Edward, supporting us in our endeavors to make Glendale a better place to live, work, and raise a family, supporting us through the good times and the difficult times.
I would like to ask you for support in the upcoming elections.
Dr. Ramaz Mitaishvili
ramaz@rmgh.net
Glendale, CA
USA
