Laws

Assembly Speaker John Perez, in the face of a battle with a member of his own caucus and a lawsuits from the Los Angeles Times and others, has ordered a full-scale examination of the legislature's open-records laws. In a letter to assembly members released Monday, Perez said Rules Committee Chairwoman Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) would lead the study of the current rules and suggest changes to be adopted next year. “I believe that updating our policies to reflect the 21st century world we live in is a vital step ... ," Perez said in the statement.

KIMBERLIE ZAKARIAN A woman I know once said: "We can't expect God to protect us when we are not following the laws of the land." She was talking to a young mother who did not believe in buckling her youngster in a car seat as she drove around because she assumed that God would protect her child. As Christians, we must remember that God commands us to obey earthly laws: "Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give account" (Hebrews 13:17)

As a citizen of Glendale, I am just wondering if loitering, smoking and littering laws are in fact still laws within the city. On any given day or night (mostly night), you can find groups of teens and young adults hanging around in parking lots all across the city. They play their music, smoke cigarettes and throw all their trash right where they stand. They try to intimidate others and make the parking lots very uncomfortable places to be. The parking lots next to Carl's Jr. on Glenoaks, the 7-Eleven on the corner of Glenoaks and Highland and the Ralphs parking lot on Glendale Avenue near Glendale Community College are just a few of the hot spots.

Gretchen Hoffman A host of new laws take effect today, ranging from healthcare measures to traffic precautions. Of the 2,191 bills introduced during the 2002 legislative session, Gov. Gray Davis signed 1,168 into law and vetoed 264. Among the bills to take effect today are legislation by state Assemblyman Dario Frommer (D-Glendale), Assemblywoman Carol Liu (D-La Canada Flintridge) and Sen. Jack Scott (D-Glendale). Frommer's AB 2873, which was inspired by corporate scandals like Enron, requires audit documents and records to be retained for a minimum of seven years.

The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies that serve them. The people in delegating authority do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created. (Brown Act (54950)-Policy Declaration) The headline in the Aug. 12 News-Press ("Comments by Yousefian spark debate")

For the second year in a row, Glendale’s clampdown on secondhand smoke got a glowing endorsement from the American Lung Assn., being named one of just three cities in the state to get an A grade on its annual report card. Last year, Glendale was the only L.A. County city to get the top grade. This year, Calabasas joined the A Club. Certainly, having an ordinance on the books that bans smoking in just about every accessible public space — from most outdoor dining patios to parks and parking lots — is about as comprehensive as a city can get in trying to protect nonsmokers from the unhealthful effects of secondhand smoke.

Some laws can be nonsensical and obsolete. But once they are in the books, instead of revising them, we often choose to ignore them. If you’ve ever driven on Chevy Chase Drive and have tried to actually stick to the 15-mph speed limit, you’d know exactly what I mean. Going up to my friend’s house, I followed all the posted speed limits last week. First there was the 35-mph speed limit. Fair enough, it was manageable. Then there was the 25-mph speed limit.

Editor's Note: Numerous instances of plagiarism have been discovered in Dan Kimber's “Education Matters” column, which ran in the News- Press from September 2003 to September 2011. In those columns where plagiarism has been found, a For the Record specifying the details will be appended to the piece. Back when the biggest housing development in Glendale's history, Oakmont V, was proposed, I had a question about oak trees that was never answered. Like most of people in our community, I was opposed to extending Oakmont IV, arguably the most unsightly development in our city's history, and I was interested to know how it was that a developer was able to side-step ordinances in place that protect our magnificent oaks.

GLENDALE — Police officers will start enforcing two new cell phone laws today that prohibit drivers from using hand-held phones. Laws went into effect at midnight, when police began ticketing drivers talking on cell phones without using hands-free devices, unless they could prove it was an emergency, Glendale police Sgt. Dennis Smith said. “We are going to be vigorously enforcing the new laws,” Smith said. “There is no grace period.” Glendale police officers will not set up sting operations aimed at citing motorists who are using hand-held cell phones, but officers will be looking for motorists who aren’t following the laws, he said.

The Glendale News-Press visited R.D. White Elementary and asked students, "What is the most challenging part of running your class government?" "Getting the bills passed to become laws because there's so many steps to get them passed." Paulo Bautista, 12 "Making the government the best it could be. The cabinet members are always trying to find ideas for what's best for the class. It's hard because if they're presenting a bill and they don't get it passed, then they have to rewrite it. All that hard work and they can't make it."

Would the members of the Glendale City Council wake up on May 14 and recognize the need for a multi-unit residential amendment to Glendale's Fresh Air Ordinance - one that will protect the city's nonsmoking apartment/condo tenants from inter-unit drifting secondhand cigarette smoke. How about requiring, say, 80% of all apartment units in the city - 100% of contiguous ones - upon being vacated by their current tenants, being designated as permanent non-smoking ones. I know all too well how bad it can be, both from my own past experiences and from the tenacious, ongoing side effects that tend to linger long after the offending in-unit smoker or smokers have either belatedly quit the pernicious habit, moved away or, not surprisingly, died.

The Mid Devon District Council in southwestern England made headlines recently when it proposed to do away with apostrophes on street signs, changing King's Crescent into Kings Crescent and St. Paul's Square into St. Pauls Square. Regular readers of this column can make an educated guess about where I stand on this. As I often say, language evolution can look like an atrocity in the short term. But looking at the big picture, you see that "errors" are how the language evolves. In language, all things that are now right were once wrong.

I read with interest the Glendale News-Press front-page article, “City keeps its A on report,” on Jan. 17. It is positive news that our city has taken a stand for a smoke-free environment and that there is public recognition for this accomplishment. However, what has been established by ordinance is not what happens in the city. Within half a mile of my residence, there are six businesses whose customers and owner/employees frequently smoke on the sidewalk right in front of the buildings.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) was one of a growing chorus of lawmakers who took to the weekend political talk show circuit to call for stricter gun controls, improved school safety and enhanced mental health measures. Appearing on MSNBC the day after the mass shooting at a school in Connecticut left 20 first-graders dead, Schiff said the massacre of 26 people - 20 of them first-graders who were shot multiple times - at Sandy Hook Elementary on Friday should serve as a “tipping point” for enacting responsible gun control legislation, ranging from renewal of the Assault Weapons Ban to closing gun show loopholes.

The cost of installing solar panels in Glendale will drop significantly on Jan. 1 as a new state law takes effect. That's because at the start of the new year, cities will not be allowed to charge more than a $500 flat fee for a permit to install less than 15 kilowatts of solar panels on residential buildings. For commercial buildings, the price will range between $1,000 for 50 kilowatt projects to $2,400 for those systems larger than 250 kilowatts. An extra fee of $5 to $15 per kilowatt can still be added depending on the ultimate size of the project, according to a city memo.

Here is a traffic regulation violated so often in Glendale that I don't think many know it exists: 10.64.025, bicycle riding on sidewalks: “No person shall ride or operate a bicycle upon any public sidewalk in any business district within the city except where such sidewalk is officially designated as part of an established bicycle route. Pedestrians shall have the right of way on sidewalks. The prohibition in this section shall not apply to peace officers on bicycle patrol.” Not only is it violated often, but daily I see bicyclists traveling at speeds exceeding 20 mph on sidewalks, weaving around pedestrians.

The Pasadena law firm that defended Glendale in lawsuits stemming from a 2005 mudslide that cost the city nearly $15.4 million has agreed to pay $98,500 to settle a malpractice lawsuit, according to a City Council announcement this week. Glendale sued the firm, Sabaitis-O'Callaghan, in 2011, claiming that its legal advice led to the city losing out on an attempt to recoup a nearly $1-million payout to residents who had filed a damage claim, according to Los Angeles County Superior Court records.

The recent hubbub and political meandering regarding smoking restrictions for outdoor dining areas was extraneous and misplaced. In recent weeks, a divided City Council has attracted the ire of anti-smoking advocates from Glendale and beyond - not over some broad, overarching policy, but over a rule that affects just a few outdoor dining areas. The changes affect restaurants with 5,000 square feet or more of outdoor dining space - all of two or three businesses in Glendale. If they meet that high threshold, they will be allowed to have smoking in 50% of the floor area, up from the current 25%. That brought out the anti-smoking lobby en masse, with advocates claiming the city was rolling back public health protections.

For the third time, the Glendale City Council on Tuesday is slated to review a slew of options that could further restrict smoking in the city. The council was scheduled to consider changing rules that limit smoking inside apartment buildings and at restaurants in early August, but delayed the matter. There are two main, and seemingly contradictory, questions the council will tackle: Should smoking in individual apartment units be banned? And should strict smoking restrictions at outdoor restaurants be loosened?

I have seen several comments about the gun shows at the Glendale Civic Auditorium, which is close to Glendale Community College. Some people argue that this is not the place for a gun show because they fear that someone will purchase a firearm and go shoot up the campus. I want to make it clear for those who are misinformed that under California law, every firearm sale, including those between private sellers, is subject to a background check conducted by a licensed dealer and the sale is also subject to the state's 10-day waiting period.