Weaver fury is calming

CITY HALL — The ongoing controversy surrounding Councilman Dave Weaver’s alleged comments about Armenian smokers in a June 26 Pasadena Weekly article appeared Tuesday to have fizzled.

Only one speaker at the City Council meeting, Vache Mangassarian — a staunch Weaver critic — returned to berate the councilman over the article despite expectations in the past week that a larger contingent of critics would take to the speaker’s podium at the meeting.

Critics, including representatives for the Armenian National Committee-Glendale Chapter, maintained their calls for Weaver to resign, issue a full apology or for his colleagues to censure him based on assertions in the Pasadena Weekly article that Weaver had tied opposition to the city’s coming anti-smoking ordinance to Glendale’s “substantial and politically influential Armenian community.”

Last week, Weaver denied making those comments and publicly condemned the reference after prodding from Councilman Ara Najarian.

No representatives of the Armenian National Committee attended Tuesday’s council meeting.

Chahe Keuroghelian, a former council candidate who publicly admonished Weaver last week, sat quietly in the audience.

Najarian, who has repeatedly pressed Weaver about the article, defended his decision last week to drop the matter in order to avoid stoking a controversy based largely on hearsay.

“If any new information comes out, I’ll be happy to reevaluate my position,” Najarian said.

The writer of the Pasadena Weekly article, Carl Kozlowski, and his editor, Kevin Uhrich, are scheduled to address the controversy live on “The Larry Zarian Show” tonight, about three weeks after it exploded at City Hall.

Weaver declined an invitation from Zarian to join the panel, citing fears that his comments would be either misinterpreted or taken out of context.

“It’s in the eye of the beholder in so many of these things,” Weaver said.

Defending himself on live television after having issued a public statement last week would only fan the flames of a politically motivated agenda pushed by the Armenian National Committee, he said.

“It’s all political,” Weaver said.

“How far can you go with this?”

But Uhrich said the live television format should erase any fears of being misinterpreted.

Uhrich was also disappointed Weaver had declined to appear on the show because he and Kozlowski were “kind of confused by that statement and would like some clarification.”

A column addressing the controversy was also scheduled to appear in this morning’s issue of the Pasadena Weekly.

Elen Asatryn, executive director of the Armenian National Committee Glendale, said Wednesday that the organization would continue to pressure Weaver for a full apology, or for more response from his colleagues.

“We hope that in the future they will work together to unite the community and not divide,” she said.

 JASON WELLS covers City Hall. He may be reached at (818) 637-3235 or by e-mail at jason.wells@ latimes.com.