Glendale City Council candidates' Q&A

With the current economic meltdown, Glendale needs to implement a viable plan that will safeguard Glendale's financial future. We need to create jobs that will not only assist the Jewel City with its financial dilemma, but will also keep our surroundings green.

By converting the San Fernando Road Corridor into a revitalized center for green technology, we will be investing our resources into cutting-edge technology that will entice businesses to set down roots in Glendale and generate taxes, revenues and new jobs.

Glendale will become a hub for the research and development of innovative and environmentally friendly technology. In following this plan of action, our resulting budget gaps will be eliminated, in turn causing Glendale's budget to increase on a yearly basis and the city to return to prosperity once again.

Explain your position on Measure U.

While some taxes are necessary in a civilized society, Measure U falls short of clearly demonstrating some basic factors. The language of the measure is vague and it fails to state where the money will be spent. As a result of such vagueness, I believe if I state my position, it can wrongly influence the decision of the public. The public must study the measure carefully, and then decide how to vote on this matter.

(Editor's note: Varpetian stated at a council election forum Thursday that he did not support the measure.)

Explain your plan for retaining existing businesses and attracting new ones amid this harsh economic climate.

To retain existing businesses, the city must help to promote them in Glendale as well as the neighboring cities. In case of attracting new businesses, by providing incentives to businesses that will employ from the residents of Glendale, and by actively promoting Glendale in various conventions such as the International Council of Shopping Centers and others, we can entice new small and large businesses to make Glendale home.

Upon taking office, what would your top two priorities be, excluding the budget crisis?