The City Council is in the process of determining how to close an $8.4-million budget gap for this fiscal year alone, with millions more in needed cuts projected for fiscal year 2009-10.
Unlike most capital improvement funds, the $1.4-million cut from the pool’s identified funding could be diverted to the general fund for fiscal year 2009-10, helping the council to bridge projected budget shortfalls, city officials said.
Still, the magnitude of coming budget reductions spurred major disagreement over whether to move forward with the project, with Councilman Dave Weaver calling the pool “the wrong use of money.”
As the City Council considers everything from cutting positions to reduced spending on public programs as a way to close the gap, “to think about a swimming pool?” Weaver asked.
“It’s not a good idea,” he said before walking out of the chambers in protest.
His position put him squarely at odds with the pool’s most ardent supporter, Councilman Ara Najarian, who has repeatedly pushed back against efforts to scale down the project’s scale.
Calling Weaver’s decision to leave the chamber a “hit-and-run” tactic, Najarian defended the pool as a “desperately needed recreational facility” that should never have been removed in 2003 as part of a joint project with the Glendale Unified School District to build Edison Elementary School.
“It’s not a luxury, it’s a necessity,” Najarian said, adding that a pool would serve far more people from a broader cross-section of the community than any one sports field.
