ASK THE CANDIDATES
RESPONSES
Question 6 of 6:
For years the City had a full-time Historic Preservation Planner, but this position became part time about five years ago, even as the number of historic resources in Glendale has increased exponentially. This understaffing has led to significant delays and frustration: for example, property owners report difficulty getting responses to questions about their historic buildings; the current timeline for creation of a historic district, from application to approval, appears to be approaching the four-year mark; almost a year and a half after the South Glendale Historic Resources Survey was prepared, properties are still not flagged as historic in the property portal. Given the value of historic resources to our City, the importance of clarity for property owners, and the CEQA implications of failing to ensure that resources are properly identified, would you support hiring a full-time Preservation Planner, and/or more qualified preservation planners, if elected? If not, how do you propose to address the problems we have identified?
(Candidate names with asterisks indicate TGHS member.)
Greg Astorian
I agree with and will advocate for a full-time Preservation Planner. Additionally, providing a small part of the job must be to involve educating and informing the public of the advantages of historical designation and preservation, as well as wonderful ways of adaptive re-use. As an example, when the Famous Department Store building was purchased by the current owner, I alongside the owner, worked with Andrea from Glendale Historical Society to register the resource and restore it in a manner that was perfect for adaptive/mixed use property that it is today.
Dan Brotman*
My understanding is that Glendale has over 1,000 properties in designed historic districts and more than 500 designated historic resources. It is unfair to expect a part-time Preservation Planner to be able to handle this workload effectively. Yes, I would support hiring a full-time, professionally qualified Historic Preservation Planner. I would also insist that TGHS and the Historic Preservation Commission play roles in recruiting this person.
With more staffing, we should be able to make the historic status of all properties available to the public clearly and in a timely manner on the City’s property portal. We would also have the resources for the City to choose impartial qualified consultants (or even City staff) when developers are required to prepare historic resource evaluations; developers should never be able to choose their own consultants, as we have seen too often in recent cases.
Paula Devine*
If re-elected, I would support hiring a full-time Preservation Planner and more qualified preservation planners.
Vartan Gharpetian
Yes, but to my knowledge that Planner has always been Jay Platt.
In general, we are short handed in Planning Department. Many of our planners are being taken by our neighboring cities by offering much higher salaries and benefits. We need to create a new position and hire a professional to fill that position.
Ardy Kassakhian
Yes. I support the hiring of full-time Preservation Planner and the supporting staff who can shepherd some of our long-term projects through and act as in-house experts for the public when they have questions about what can and should not be done on a certain project or property. I am uniquely aware of the current situation as I have personally referred scores of individuals who have contacted the City Clerk’s office with inquiries about specific properties. It would be a great relief to have someone full time who is available to answer these questions and make presentations to groups about what are the city’s historical resources.
William Keshishyan
I would most definitely explore and support the option to hire a full-time Preservation Planner, given the extent of historic resources Glendale holds.
Leonard Manoukian
No Response.
Susan Wolfson*
The City’s financial sustainability is an issue of great importance to me because all of our quality of life issues are at risk if the City does not keep its financial house in order. Having said that, I would support re-allocating the historic planner position to a full-time position as part of an overall comprehensive reorganization of staff resources. This should be feasible since taxpayers approved the Glendale Quality of Life & Essential Services measure (“Measure S”) in November 2018. Protecting the City’s historic resources in a timely and effective manner clearly requires a greater commitment of City staff resources.