Housing Department

CITY HALL — A plan to close a projected $9.9-million gap in the city’s budget for the next fiscal year with a 5% cuts across all city departments on Tuesday came laden with citywide program reductions, hiring freezes and potential layoffs in a report to the City Council. The plan, presented during a special budget study session, included provisions for increasing transfers to the general fund from Glendale Water & Power and other enterprise accounts, while at the same time reducing outflow to other programs, such as the capital improvement project budget.

CITY HALL — The Community Development Block Grant Advisory Committee put $35,000 that was earmarked for a joint-use park at Franklin Elementary School back into the pot for projects next year, because the park project has been stalled for several years. The city allocated the $35,000 in capital improvement project funds to the project in the 2002-03 fiscal year. But neighbors who lived near the school opposed a public park being there, and the project never got off the ground, said George Chapjian, director of the city’s Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department.

SOUTHWEST GLENDALE — It’s back to the drawing board for community development officials and PATH Achieve Glendale after a Los Angeles County independent review panel’s decision to uphold the rejection of a $1.85-million application for a 24-hour homeless shelter. The First Step Housing Program would have provided 25 beds for the city’s chronically homeless at PATH Achieve’s current site on San Fernando Way in an industrial alcove in South Glendale.

Eleven families watched their dreams of owning their own home take shape Saturday at a ceremony in front of the Glendale site where an 11-unit Habitat for Humanity condominium project is under construction. The families, as well as project donors, Glendale city officials and staff and volunteers with the San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity gathered in the 700 block of North Kenwood Street for a ?house-raising? ceremony that Major Ara Najarian likened to the old-fashioned barn-raising tradition of the Amish.

CITY HALL — The national economic downturn appears to have caught up with Glendale, with some on the City Council Tuesday issuing warnings to city executives leading into budget study sessions for fiscal year 2008-09 that they will face tough scrutiny over operational costs. The potential for future belt-tightening came after Jess Duran, assistant director of the Community Development and Housing Department, found himself defending his staff’s use of federal grant money to fund an extensive oversight system for local nonprofit organizations that receive government aid. Pointed questioning from council members serving on the Housing Authority about how administration costs could be reduced next fiscal year had Mayor Ara Najarian warning other department chiefs that they too would face the “same level of scrutiny.

GLENDALE — Administrators of a daily homeless meals program — the only one of its kind in the city — have suspended operations indefinitely, citing the need for a permanent location in the wake of what they say has become an ineffective system of rotating the program among a half-dozen churches. The Lord’s Kitchen program started serving warm meals to the city’s homeless population at various local churches that shared hosting duties on a rotating monthly basis after the Salvation Army Glendale ended the program in 2005 after 15 years.

SOUTHWEST GLENDALE ? More than 30 people Thursday night made their case to city officials for either sustaining or increasing recommendations for federal funds to community service organizations that in January felt the effects of leaner financial times. About half of the 25 nonprofits that submitted requests to the city for federal funds for the next fiscal year saw their recommended allocations reduced Jan. 31, when the city?s Community Development Block Grant Advisory Committee finalized its annual review.

Dual-language program discussed An informational meeting will be held for parents and community members interested in learning about the German dual-language program being developed at Franklin Elementary School. The dual-language program is planned to begin at the school for one or two classes of kindergartners in the fall. Any interested parent may attend, even if they have not completed their pre-enrollment forms for the program. Parents who have completed their pre-enrollment forms can pick up their enrollment packet at the meeting.