Information center needed in Glendale
It seems more and more out-of-towners are visiting our fair city, thanks to the Americana on Brand, for the first time.
If the city sets up an information center in or about the Americana area with maps and other publications, we might generate some additional business, a ripple effect from the Americana, for other areas of the city.
The center can be run by volunteers who know Glendale well enough to guide the new visitors. Count me in.
SARKIS S. ABRAHAMIAN
Glendale
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GWP needs to get its act together
In the real world of shopping for what we need, we have the ability to shop elsewhere.
Glendale taxpaying citizens do not have that ability when buying city services.
Therefore, when it comes to the selection of city-paid service providers, it is the duty of the elected representatives, the City Council, to consult with the rest of us, the purchasing citizens.
We should not be treated as subjects when it comes to the selection of services that are paid for out of our savings.
Glendale’s population is treated by the dukes and barons of municipal government as if we are peasant subjects.
We can watch our council of impotent ombudsmen, who are satisfied to take what they feel they deserve, and console us, with the tired white-noise suggestions that they are trustworthy.
While this national standard is discouraging, it is amazing that there appears to be an anomaly in the form of the most-abused agency of Glendale government, namely Glendale Water & Power.
For some unexplained reason, this agency goes outside the pool of Glendale union employees in providing services to the population.
We have seen crews from Henkels and McCoy replacing parts of the Glendale electrical infrastructure.
These are outside union crews and their company, Henkels and McCoy, claims that the company is earning a good income while easily surpassing Glendale city crews by being efficient. A skill they seem to have learned by competing with other for-profit companies working in the private sector.
This proves that city operations need not be so exorbitantly expensive.
Presumably, other city operations could be negotiated with outside vendors in the same manner.
We can take it to the bank, that the threat of a good example likely will be removed when Glendale Management Services gobbles up any savings generated at Glendale Water & Power in a rush to subsidize the poorly guided agencies, by expropriating the Glendale Water & Power savings.
