Glendale News Press, CA
Council aims to nix tensions
Members are set to explore the possibility of a permanent human relations unit.
By Jason Wells
Published: Last Updated Friday, July 4, 2008 11:22 PM PDT
GLENDALE – Racial tensions that have played out in various forms
throughout the city over the past year have renewed calls for a
permanent human relations commission to address the public rifts and
facilitate greater cultural understanding.
Mayor John Drayman on Tuesday called for a report on how to go about
forming the commission following a string of incidents in the past
year that have belied racial tensions throughout Glendale, from high
school campuses to City Hall.
`I don’t want to wait until we have another incident or issue,’
Drayman said.
At the political level, the tension has manifested itself multiple
times during the election campaign, the fight over federal block grant
funding and a ban on outdoor grilling.
It was perhaps strongest early this year as the City Council moved
forward with, and eventually approved, a change to the absentee ballot
application process to disallow third parties from handling completed
applications.
The city’s large Armenian community framed the change as an attack on
the voting rights of recent immigrants, calling proponents of the
proposal `hateful malcontents’ who were perpetuating discrimination
and bigotry.
The ongoing battle between neighborhood activists and Armenian
restaurant and banquet hall operators has also been a constant strain
on cultural relations with some restaurateurs and their attorneys
claiming the protest is over racial bias, not the environmental impact
of their businesses.
For some city officials, the signs of community discontent among
neighbors are too many to ignore.
Graffiti was discovered at St. Peter Armenian Church in February and
deemed by church and police officials to be `hateful;’ a large-scale
fight broke out at Glendale High School in May 2007 between mostly
Armenian and Latino students; and spray-painted swastikas were found
Montrose.
`The indications are all around us,’ Drayman said.
Glendale has had mixed results with establishing a community-based,
member-driven human relations commission. The last time the city had
such an actively involved body was in the years immediately proceeding
the 2000 stabbing death of 17-year-old Raul Aguirre outside Herbert
Hoover High School.
Two Armenian teens were ultimately convicted on attempted murder and
voluntary manslaughter charges in the death, which spawned ongoing and
sometimes violent scuffles between Armenian and Latino youths and
gangs.
But as the memory of the incident faded, so too did interest in the
Glendale Human Relations Commission, and it eventually became defunct
little more than a decade after its creation in the mid-1990s.
With tensions apparently steaming in a large city that has strong
Armenian, Latin and Asian immigrant communities, the council appears
ready to form a more permanent, city-sponsored human relations
commission that would be proactive heading off future
misunderstandings through public education and more active
communication.
`I think it’s a good idea,’ Councilman Frank Quintero said. `Any urban
city in American needs to work to bring different groups together.’
Congressional representatives and Los Angeles County officials have
offered to assist Glendale in its quest to determine how the
commission should operate and under what guidelines.
A report on those options will come back to the council later this
year for further direction and public input.