Supporters and opponents of Measure N debate their positions

During a community forum on Tuesday, a supporter of an upcoming measure that would repeal a local tax said the city is using scare tactics such as threatening to close libraries and lay off police personnel and firefighters in hopes of preventing its passage.

Measure N goes before voters on June 7 and its approval would end the city’s utility users tax, which generates about $17.5 million annually for the city’s General Fund.

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Roland Kedikian, president of the Glendale Coalition for Better Government, said City Council members will have the final say on what should be cut if the measure passes, not City Manager Scott Ochoa, who has been outlining scenarios during council meetings that include significantly reducing police and fire services.

Those are worst-case scenarios, Kedikian said.

“The City Council decides what gets cut and what benefits get cut and who gets cut, not the city manager,” he told an audience of about 100 people at New Christian Life Church. “What was presented to you was the worst-case scenario that is going to make you vote no on [Measure] N.”

Kedikian wouldn’t go much into specifics on what kind of spending to cut, but he said that he thinks too much overtime is being paid for police and fire officials.

In the past 10 months of the current fiscal year, police officers earned $2 million in overtime pay, which is offered primarily to officers who are back-filling for others who are off, sick or in court, city spokesman Tom Lorenz said.

In defense of the tax, Tai Sunnanon, manager of the No on Measure N campaign, said overtime is how the city’s police and fire departments are able to maintain speedy response times.

“Until you have that experience of having public safety come to your aid, you can’t truly appreciate why we’re ranked fifth in the state for being the safest city. I care about that,” said Sunnanon, who’s also a Glendale resident.

That ranking is based on data compiled from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report.

It takes firefighters four minutes and 26 seconds, on average, to respond to a call, while the state average is six minutes and 52 seconds, according to city data. The same set of figures showed that it also takes four minutes and 49 seconds for Glendale police officers to respond to a 911 call versus an eight-minute average for the state.

On the chopping block if Measure N passes will be 53 full-time police officer jobs and 48 full-time firefighting positions, Lorenz said.

On top of that, elimination of the utility users tax and $17.5 million from the city’s budget would necessitate closing six of eight local libraries, Sunnanon said.

“Those amenities go away, and our children suffer, and our grandparents suffer,” he said. “Those are the ones that utilize library services more than anyone else.”

All of the cuts would have to be prioritized within a month and a half after the passage of Measure N as mandated by state law, he added.

“Within 45 days, all of this begins to unravel … The day after June 7 is ridiculous,” Sunnanon said. “If there’s a scare tactic, that’s it, and it scares me a lot.”

Kedikian said if Measure N passes, local residents should have a seat at the discussion table regarding what spending cuts should entail.

The utility users tax has been in place since the 1960s and costs each residence, on average, $7 a month, according to city data.

But Kedikian said there’s more at stake with Measure N than just the dollar amount at the end of the day — it’s also about responsible government.

The city, he said, controls local utilities so council members also have the power to raise the amount of tax the city can generate.

“If they want to increase the tax, they just have to increase your utility,” he said.

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Arin Mikailian, [email protected]

Twitter: @ArinMikailian

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