It has been 17 years and 314 days since the city’s pledge to build the West Branch Library.
Tonight, November 10, 2015 Ray Malnar was sworn in as Glendale’s newest councilmember representing the Sahuaro district. Gary Sherwood is definitely gone and to be forgotten. Councilmember Malnar, in his acceptance speech, set just the right tone. It was positive and hopeful as he suggested that Glendale can have better days ahead.
Many people have said that there are apparently two more sleazebag councilmembers that need to hit the brick road…Councilmembers Chavira and Aldama. Councilmember Chavira is up for reelection in 2016 and Councilmember Aldama faces reelection in 2018. We’ll see what the future holds for both.
I wanted to share an Arizona Republic news story by Chris Coppola. In it Coppola reports that Chandler is starting its search over again for a new city manager. Here is the link:
Kevin Phelps, under consideration as one of two finalists for Glendale’s position of city manager, was one of the five finalists for city manager in Chandler ultimately rejected by their city council.
Let’s hope Glendale has the strength of fortitude exhibited by its sister city, Chandler, and rejects its two finalists and starts over. Glendale’s consultant, Slavin, did a poor job of securing candidates for the city. If Chandler can start over, so can Glendale. Glendale deserves better.
For the better part of an hour Glendale’s city council rubber stamped every agenda item. Not one agenda item was pulled for further questioning. Yet we know that while some of the items may have been “of a routine nature or discussed in workshop,” that was not the case with every agenda item. They appeared to show very little interest in the items they approved and on several occasions Mayor Weiers seemed to practically plead for some council input on anything. It was disappointing and literally painful to watch. Has this council slipped back into the modus operandi of previous councils?
© Joyce Clark, 2015
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I’ll say again, I understand why individuals may be shy or not interested in Glendale given all of our current issues, but hopefully that corner has been turned, but we won’t find that out for a while yet.
However, WHY is it so hard to find a person with integrity to fill these City Manager positions? {I look to Ferguson, MO and who they hired even if interim} Could it be that people are truly happy where they are at and they are not looking elsewhere?
Hopefully the city of Glendale will take caution in considering either of the two gentlemen that made it to the final round. If it doesn’t feel right, trust your instinct and start another search. I’m am sure the Glendale tax payers would rather spend money again and find a city manager with integrity and not someone who is only going to stay a little while or later find out some controversy surrounded this person at their previous job and will end up causing drama here, that is the last thing that Glendale needs.
On the property downtown, Why do we not just sell or get rid of Camelback Ranch. we owe over 100 million we get almost no taxes from the site, we the city is responsible for maintenance of the facility.
I think city council should have Camelback Ranch as a city council workshop topic of discussion. I suspect that it is far more complicated than just deciding to sell the property. The Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority (AZSTA) is involved and I suspect there is not only contractual obligations with both teams that use the facility but with AZSTA as well. This is a topic that merits a public discussion.