Tuesday was the official public hearing on the tentative budget, which is scheduled to come back June 24 for final adoption, in time for the start of the new fiscal year on July 1. The $162.5-million general fund pays for the vast majority of city services as part of an overall $750.3-million budget.
The council is not scheduled to revisit the tentative budget until June 24.
The City Council on Tuesday directed parks officials to find an alternative to temporarily moving park ranger headquarters to Brand Park as a way to increase the police presence there as part of a $711,000 security upgrade plan that includes Carr Park.
The direction came after city Park Rangers Supervisor Russ Hauk, speaking on behalf of the Park Rangers Assn., warned that low ranger staffing, not the location of his headquarters at Deukmejian Wilderness Park, was challenging law enforcement at Glendale’s 41 parks and 5,500 acres of open space.
Moving two full-time and four part-time park rangers from the existing 2,800-square-foot headquarters into a temporary trailer at Brand Park would only further cramp his staff and provide no added benefit, Hauk said.
The proposal was put before the City Council as way to address ongoing concerns and complaints from neighbors of Brand Park in northwest Glendale on public nuisances and safety concerns that were heightened last June after a noninjury drive-by shooting there in broad daylight.
Parents at Zion Lutheran School are up in arms after being notified this week that the kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school will close for the 2008-09 school year and that this year’s summer school program has been canceled.
