As meetings go this one was pro forma. It was the last meeting in the old format. The next voting meeting will begin at 6 PM and the public will have the opportunity to speak before regular business. The next workshop meeting is scheduled for 9 AM on August 20, 2013, not at its regularly scheduled time of 1:30 in the afternoon.
The majority of the agenda items were approved with nary a comment. Councilmember Sherwood did pull Item 3, a new liquor license for the 99¢ store at 53rd Avenue and Glendale Avenue. It was pulled to assuage the concerns of downtown merchants who had expressed their disapproval and wanted council to deny this applicant. We all learned more about 99¢ stores than we cared to. It appears that this retail chain has revamped its model and now desires to sell beer and wine to increase its revenues. Perhaps someday we’ll see shoe stores and clothing stores selling liquor “to increase revenues.” A specious argument used ad nausea by applicants applying for a liquor license. The new license was approved despite empty reassurances from various councilmembers that they supported downtown Glendale.
It does bring up some interesting thoughts for your consideration. When does an area have enough liquor stores and can a lot of liquor stores in a small geographical area stigmatize it? A topic best saved for discussion in another blog.
The other discussion that proved most interesting was that of the car cruising event that was held in downtown Glendale. It is Mayor Weiers’ baby and he put a lot of effort into its promotion. Apparently with some success as it brought people to downtown Glendale in the middle of the summer and the merchants loved it. Now it appears that the woman who produced the event has betrayed him. She is moving the event to Westgate where apparently they are willing to pay her for her production. This is in sharp contrast to producing the event in downtown under the city’s thumb. It appears far more attractive to her to be paid for her work rather than paying the city hefty permit fees for permission to hold her event. There was much gnashing of teeth by the mayor, vice mayor and Sherwood and Martinez, promising that they would “look into it” because they were behind the downtown merchants 100% — but not when it comes to denying a new liquor license. It is also noteworthy that Weiers still hasn’t the foggiest idea of how to run a council meeting. He often forgets where he is on the agenda, takes items out of order or has to be corrected by Vice Mayor Knaack.
Lastly and not surprisingly Councilmember Alvarez did not attend and did not call in to participate in the meeting. It appears she has injured herself once again. How many meetings has she missed due to injury? Feel free to do the research but it’s been a bunch. Sometimes she did call in to participate. Often she did not show or call in. She lost her effectiveness as a councilmember a long time ago and for the good of her district she should resign. She does stand for reelection in 2014 and she would be well advised not to do so. Except for a few Ken Jones types and the Tohono O’odham she has lost the support of many in her district due to a combination of her antics and absences. For the first time I have added a poll question on the left side of this article. It provides you with an opportunity to cast your vote on the question of Alvarez’ resignation.
Vacation’s over, folks.
©Joyce Clark, 2013
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CM Martinez started to make a comment on the agenda item with the changes for the City Council voting meeting, workshops and order of business. Then he stopped and said nothing but he did vote “NO” on this item. Earlier, in the consent agenda items there was another liquor license request from the 99¢ only store on 67th Ave and Loop 101 (Cholla District) and Manny did not have anything to say about this request.
You are right about the Mayor getting lost in where they are on the agenda. I don’t remember Mayor Scruggs worrying about restating who made the motion and who seconded it like Weiers does. I also found it strange that the Mayor mentioned that CM Alvarez had injured herself and would not be there but he thought she would join the meeting by phone and then at the end of the meeting, the Vice Mayor had a note asking to excuse CM Alvarez from the meeting. You would have thought that she would bring that up at the start when the Mayor mentioned it.
Other than the one speaker from Tempe who had his conspiricy theory that Glendale was setting a trap (the guy was ticketed by Glendale PD for 15 over the limit, found guilty in Glendale court and had to pay $280 dollars to the city), the only thing missing was the entire council singing “Kumbaya downtown merchants, Kumbaya.”
(Question: In the past, when Deborah Black has addressed the council, the graphics shown on Glendale 11 have refered to her a “Acting”. Last night the “acting” was gone. So when was this change made?
Ms. Black, along with other staff, were recently approved for their positions by the new City Manager. She is no longer “Interim” but now permanent Chief.
I believe Bowers made the positions permanent. Inappropriate since he knew the city was in final stages of selection for permanent City Manager. Now City Manager has do deal with someone elses selection for immediate subordinates.
I believe you got your facts about the car cruise totally incorrect. I have not moved out of downtown Glendale to go to Westgate at all. You certainly have a source that is wrong. Westgate is on Wednesday nights,has nothing to do with the 3rd Saturday of the Month at all. The reason is was so crowded in July was because I did a fundraiser for Glendale Fire, and raised a bit short if $20,000 for them to give to Yarnell 19 families. They came in 110 degrees for that reason. it was cancelled in August because of just that, the heat.
I have always liked you and had the utmost respect for you, I wish you would have contacted me before you wrote this, I wish I could have attended, and spoke myself, I am out of town, as my boyfriend just had surgery for cancer, and I needed to be there. I brought a lot of business to the downtown merchants, and did not by any means leave them to go to Westgate , although there a few folks in Glendale, that would make it very easy to leave. That being said I am a proud resident of Glendale, and very much enjoy helping other businesses in our community flourish. I do as many charities as possible, but you are right about one thing, I do like occasionally being paid for my work,
Nancy,
Thank you for correcting any misconceptions. I took my material from the council meeting last night. I believe it was Mayor Weiers who responded to a citizen remark implying that you were moving to Westgate. Mayor Weiers indicated that he had called you repeatedly with no response. If I got the impression that you were moving your event from downtown to Westgate then so did many others.
I would have contacted you but I had no contact information for you. Based on remarks offered at the meeting, I assumed you were out of town.
I think it is only fair that you get paid for being creative and innovative. If it’s a choice between paying fees to the city or getting paid to produce the event it’s a no brainer for me. I, too, would choose payment. I think you have done a remarkable job and my blog implies that the fault lies with the city and several councilmembers and certainly not with your work.