As published by Glendale News Press July 27, 2012
Councilwoman Laura Friedman recently stated Social Security and city pension benefits should not be compared ("Unions agree to share the fiscal pain,” July 6). She further stated Social Security “was never meant to be the pensions or the savings of this nation. It was meant to be something to keep people out of abject poverty.”
Were the city pensions initially given to city employees supposed to make them millionaires when they retired? Should a Glendale city employee be entitled to a pension after 30 years, receiving 90%, 75% or 60% of their last year of spiked earnings? Do Social Security recipients receive spiked earnings?
Many city employees are leaving Glendale with lifetime annual pensions of from $70,000 to more than $200,000.
Council members continue to receive political action committee funds legally from the city unions and then they approve salaries and pensions that are both unfunded and unsustainable.
The first obligation of all government is to find money to pay for those unsustainable pensions. What money is left over goes toward fixing potholes, dirty parks, dirty streets and libraries.
How does Friedman tell the people on fixed incomes, and struggling working families, that she finds it justifiable to keep supporting city employees first because she feels that Social Security and a government pension should not be compared?
Mike Mohill
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
MEGA COMPLEXES
Speech given at Glendale City Council 3/5/l3.
Over the
past 14 years, the Quality of Life in our “jewel city”, Glendale has not improved.
Council has
decided to change the landscape of our downtown with many mega complexes of
apts and condos. Controlled growth is nowhere to be found.
In a few short
years, this council has helped change the face of Glendale by approving every apartment and
condo development before them, including the corrupt public housing company,
ADI.
A partial
list of apartments and condos approved by this council with minimum parking without
a Traffic Circulation Infrastructure Plan includes:
Broadway
Lofts 208 lofts including 14
low-income housing units on Broadway/Maryland...Inadequate parking provided for
tenants and guests. Developer was given a $3 million parking concession over
the life of the contract, of taxpayers’ money, for tenant usage of the Maryland Street public
parking garage.
600 seat Laemmle Theatres with 42 lofts
on Wilson/Maryland. The City contributed
$1.1 million toward only one level of parking. Developer was given a variance
for 125 parking spaces. Developer saved millions of dollars by not requiring additional
subterranean parking and council again allowed the usage of Maryland Street Public
Parking Garage.
NOW on
Central the following properties:
Verdugo
Gardens 220
mega apartments on Central/134 Fwy.
Legendary
Towers 80 condos close to Central on
Lexington/Orange
Right across the street from Legendary Towers
close to Central again, Lexington and Orange 307 mega
condo units.
Right across
from the 307 mega condo units at 301 N. Central an 84 unit
apartment building.
Holland
Partners Properties located at Central/Wilson 153 mega rental units.
Salem Street near Central, the City allowed
demolishing of two single family properties in order to build 44 low income housing
units. The developer also allowed to use public parking lot #12.
Courtyard by
Marriot Hotel 173 rooms on Central and Wilson. Inadequate parking for all the amenities
for a hotel. Additional parking provided
by taxpayers at nearby public garages.
Developers save millions of dollars.
Across the
street at Wilson Ave.
and Brand a 235 mega apartment complex in the heart of Glendale.
Former
Jo-Ann Fabrics building on the southwest corner of Wilson and Orange, one block west of central 166
mega apartment complex.
The Hampton
Inn at the corner of Brand and Colorado,
five story 94 units with a variance of six fewer parking spaces.
And then
we have South Glendale, at the corner of San Fernando and Los Feliz, right across from Memorial Hospital, the Triangle Project, and a 287
mega apartment complex with 22 low-income units.
And right
next to that, at 435 Los Feliz, the Tropico mega apartment complex with 238
units and 12 low-income housing units. Also with parking variances.
In the last
4-6 years, this council has approved approximately 4,000 new units which will
bring in over 10,000 new residents in downtown and south Glendale.
By increasing the density at an alarming rate, we will only accelerate
and worsen an already congested situation.
This council
has absolutely no vision to allow developers to use the public parking spaces
paid by the taxpayers for in the future, when the business climate improves on Brand
and Central, folks who come to shop in Glendale
will not be able to find convenient parking.
This city
needs a new direction and leadership to improve our quality of life that we all
once enjoyed.
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