It has been 18 years and 46 days since the city’s pledge to build the West Branch Library.
Light rail appears to be the most divisive issue in Glendale’s history. It appears to be more divisive than the Coyotes or the casino. If you look at the mini-poll to the left of this column you will see the respondents to the question are split 50/50. There is no clear public consensus. This will be an issue that city council will have to decide. No matter which way they go it is a sure bet that half of Glendale will be unhappy with their decision. For them it is a no-win proposition. Knowing that, they are charged with making the best decision possible for the city based upon knowledge they may have not generally available to the public. No matter how individual councilmembers decide it is incumbent upon each and every one of them to publicly share their rationale for their decision.
Valley Metro hosted a Glendale light rail meeting at the Glendale Women’s Club on January 20, 2016. A lot of Glendale residents attended (at least 100) signaling that there is a great deal of interest in the issue. When 100 people or more attend a Glendale public meeting it makes the city council sit up and take notice. For an apathetic Glendale demographic that is a lot of people.
Valley Metro is planning on scheduling further community meetings to explain their recommended concept and to gain further community input. The issue is scheduled to go before the Glendale city council in late March or early April for a vote. If city council rejects the recommended alternative Valley Metro has indicated it will continue to work on an acceptable solution with Glendale.
At the Glendale city council workshop meeting of January 19, 2016 council took up most of what could be considered light weight issues. How about the Jazz Festival and chickens? Council seems to be leaning on allowing any Glendale resident to have chickens. Currently the policy is to allow the fowl in agricultural zoning districts. The state legislature has a bill before it to allow chickens anywhere in any municipality. If it should pass it will become a moot point no longer requiring a council decision. Council has called for a series of public meetings to determine whether the fowl are welcome throughout Glendale. I can see it now… Arrowhead residents flocking to obtain chickens.
Another pressing issue of relative non-importance was council discussion of bringing back the Jazz Festival. It was cut out of the budget about 4 years ago when council was looking to pare down the budget and it learned that of all of the major festivals Glendale hosts; it was the one with the least attendance. It will cost a little over $200,000 to produce and earns about $60,000 in revenue to offset its costs. In terms of priorities and how $140,000 (net expense) could be used this doesn’t constitute a major priority. Perhaps that $140,000 could be used to restore some library hours or reinstitute some recreational programs for Glendale’s children. Surely there is a better use for the funds.
It appears that Chavira and Aldama are ready to jump into the festival business big time. In anticipation of council’s approval of the Jazz Festival resurrection Chavira and Aldama have taken it upon themselves to seek out sponsors for the event. Be wary. Remember Chavira’s and Aldama’s last festival fling? Dia de Muertos? Each contributed $2500 of their council budgets (taxpayer money) to support the event which turned out to be highly political by allowing various Democrat candidates to have booths at the event…a real no-no. To this day there has never been an audit of the event even though there have been repeated requests for it.
Add to that peccadillo Chavira’s involvement in a Hispanic Firefighters Association event that ended up costing said association a lot of money resulting in a move to boot Chavira from the organization. City Council should develop policy guidelines to address councilmember involvement in the city’s event business.
Lastly council, quickly and without a smidgeon of discussion, nominated Cactus Councilmember Ian Hugh to another term as Glendale’s Vice Mayor. He was unanimously approved by council at its last formal meeting of January 26, 2016. Congratulations to Vice Mayor Hugh. He’s quiet and steady and will continue to serve well as Glendale’s Vice Mayor in 2016.
It was a far different scenario from last year when Chavira and Aldama backed the now recalled councilmember Gary Sherwood for the position. It demonstrates how quickly political dynamics can change. From a gang of three there is now a gang of two: Chavira and Aldama. The two are leaderless and now constitute a minority…an uncomfortable position for both of them. It shows the enormous amount of influence Sherwood had over his two buddies.
© Joyce Clark, 2016
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Hi Joyce,
I think on this one we will have to agree to disagree on backyard chickens and yes I definitely have an opinion. Us chicken lover’s need to be heard. <3
I am the individual who brought this to council’s attention back on June 23rd. We had to re-home our girls (chickens) after our neighbor complained about them. That said neighbor had no problem taking fresh veggies from our garden and fresh eggs from our hens just 3 days earlier before filing her complaint. We had had our chickens for 2 years at this time.
Some may think that the chicken issue is of no importance, as you imply in your blog post. However, more and more people are becoming more aware of where their food is coming from. There are many residents in the city that have chickens already and their neighbors do not have a problem with it, however, there are probably just as many residents who want to have chickens who have neighbors that are against having them. Why should it be illegally okay for some residents to own chickens because their neighbors are “okay” with it and other’s even if illegally not be able to have them, because their neighbor is not okay with it? Roosters would be illegal, although I am sure there are a few out there.
There was no other way to get this ordinance changed or even looked into other than to bring it straight to council’s faces, going through planning and zoning was getting nowhere, as I explain below.
Anyone who has not owned chickens does not know the benefits of having chickens. They are more than bug eating, food generating animals. They are a peaceful creatures and provide quiet possibly reduce more stress & anxiety than a dog. I could go on and on….the pros and cons are exactly the opposite of each other if you ask people for and against.
This is something that the city can do for their residents that does not cost money.
CHICKEN HISTORY with City of Glendale, the state and other things people may not be aware of:
This issue has come up about every 18 months since 2011 with the city of Glendale, and so far has been avoided being introduced to council. It has been handled by planning and zoning Sam McAllen and Jon Froke. They have continuously denied any request and are basically not chicken friendly or not wishing to make any ordinance change. However, if chickens are treated like any other nuisance then it is a non-issue. The only way to bring this to council’s eyes was for a resident to bring it up at a council meeting. City ordinance requires follow up with a resident request within 30 days. Since this request was made just before the summer council break it was not brought up again until a workshop meeting on August 4th and it was brought up as an item of special interest by Councilmember Turner for staff to look and see the pros and cons and to see what other city councils are doing in the state.
The following cities allow chickens in the metro Phoenix area: City of Mesa, City of Peoria, City of Phoenix, City of Scottsdale, and City of Tempe. Does this make sense? Personally, I would rather hear a chicken while they are laying an egg than a barking dog or a feral cat pooping in my garden.
The SB1140 law mentioned in the workshop was introduced January 19, 2016 in spring of 2014 if failed as SB1151, there is no guarantee that it will pass again, and again, this law would not impact any HOA bylaws. AND there is more to Glendale than the Arrowhead & Westgate area it’s time Glendale look at the bigger picture and see all of their residents.
*There is a misnomer that you need a rooster in order for a chicken to lay an egg. THIS IS FALSE YOU DO NOT NEED A ROOSTER FOR A CHICKEN TO LAY AN EGG!!!!
*Chickens are food producing pets, they have names and personalities, therefore they are pets with benefits.
*Most hens do not lay eggs daily, during the winter months, during the hot summer months and while there are molting their production slows down.
*Chickens are normally quiet and keep to themselves unless they are laying an egg and they are quieter than a barking dog while doing this in most cases
*They put themselves to bed every night when the sun goes down
*Chickens do not smell unless their owners are not keeping up on their droppings and still that is not as bad as a cat litter box
*Neighbor permission is not required to keep a barking dog
*Feral cats leave their feces in your yard & garden and climb on your car and leave tracks on it, yet that isn’t against city ordinance as evidenced in our front yard.
*Pigeons and feral cats are more of a nuisance than chickens
*The city allows macaws and parrots which are much louder than chickens
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On another note, I think it would be nice to have the Jazz Festival, I feel that this should be revitalized, however, I do agree with you on maybe using the money to extend library hours.
Shelly Honn
Shelly, Chickens rule!!