Disclaimer: The comments in this blog are my personal opinion and may or may not reflect an adopted position of the city of Glendale and its city council
On January 16, 2025, I submitted a Public Records Request to the City of Glendale for all records pertaining to Councilmember Bart Turner’s travel expenses and the use of his city ProCard. That request was completed and given to me on March 12, 2025. It included over 500 pages of documentation. In the past four months, I have reviewed them over and over again.
All of the information I have provided on this 5-part series on Councilmember Turner and his use of his city credit card, the ProCard, have been taken from the city provided documentation. They are facts.
What have we learned?
- Councilmembers Malnar and Tolmachoff have been transparent and accountable for their use of their ProCards. On the city Follow Your Money site they have listed all trips from 2018 to the present. Councilmember Turner has listed only 3 trips in 2019. Nothing is presented for his numerous trips through 2024. Turner throws out the buzz words, ‘transparency’ and ‘accountability’ whenever he can. He portray himself to be a watchdog of taxpayer dollars. Yet when it comes to spending your money on his numerous trips, it becomes a situation of ‘Rules for thee but not for me’. So much for practicing what he preaches. I did not compare with Councilmembers Baldenegro, Guzman or Conchas as they are new and have no history to date.
- Staff repeatedly gave Turner all policies related to expenditures and travel and made numerous requests for back up documentation and/or receipts. He was minimally responsive. Consequently, staff put together a chart showing his lack of response and back up. That chart reflects over $22,000 in travel expenses without the proper information required to back up his expenses. Turner needs to come out of the closet, take responsibility, and repay you, the taxpayer, for his poor judgement.
- Turner’s Renaissance Weekend trips totaling over $8,300 are clearly self-enrichment trips and are not related to city business. These trips show a clear lack of judgement and awareness. How he could possibly charge these trips to the city demonstrates his lack of ethical judgement. It appears to be an abuse of city policy.
- His Vertical farming trips are questionable as well. The city does not engage in farming, vertical or otherwise. They are not related to city business.
- City policy dictates that airfare upgrades, additional baggage fees, seat upgrades and tipping above 20% are not allowed. Turner violated all of these policies on multiple occasions.
- Turner’s Pro Card was deactivated in December of 2024. When I received the city provided public documents in March of 2025, there was nothing to indicate it had been reactivated. If it has, it occurred after March of this year.
This 5-part series is Bart Turner’s “Sammy Chavira moment.” For those of you who may not recall, former Councilmember Sammy Chavira took a trip to NYC on your dime to see the Pope. Unfortunately for Sammy, the closest he got to the Pope was to watch him on TV. Sammy abused you, the taxpayer, and your dollars and demonstrated his lack of ethics and judgement. In doing so, he lost his bid for reelection as councilmember.
Bart Turner has done exactly as Sammy Chavira did. He has abused you, the taxpayer and your dollars. As he berates everyone for not being fiscally responsible, he displays an arrogance toward taxpayers by refusing to acknowledge his trips publicly or to provide the necessary justification for the use of his ProCard as a business-related trip with proper documentation.
Councilmember Turner will undoubtedly run for reelection next year, 2026. All of the material, based on factual documentation in this 5-part series, should be taken into consideration when the time comes to vote on a Barrel district councilmember. His lack of financial disclosure and lack of ethics disqualify him for another term as the Barrel district councilmember. I suspect when the time comes there will be better choices for the Barrel voters.
Councilmember Bart Turner of the Barrell district has shown through his actions and his judgment his disdain for Glendale taxpayers. His public pronouncements are not the same as his actions when it comes to travel expenditures paid with taxpayer dollars. He does not deserve a single vote from Barrell district voters.
If the media or any potential Turner-opposed candidates would like to view the requested public information I am happy to share. Please email clarkjv@aol.com or text me at 602-320-3422.
© Joyce Clark, 2025
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