WEAVER FURY IS CALMING
By Jason Wells

Glendale News Press
Aug 21 2008
CA

At meeting, critic rebukes councilman while past opponent only watches
from the audience.

CITY HALL — The ongoing controversy surrounding Councilman Dave
Weaver’s alleged comments about Armenian smokers in a June 26 Pasadena
Weekly article appeared Tuesday to have fizzled.

Only one speaker at the City Council meeting, Vache Mangassarian —
a staunch Weaver critic — returned to berate the councilman over the
article despite expectations in the past week that a larger contingent
of critics would take to the speaker’s podium at the meeting.

Critics, including representatives for the Armenian National
Committee-Glendale Chapter, maintained their calls for Weaver to
resign, issue a full apology or for his colleagues to censure him
based on assertions in the Pasadena Weekly article that Weaver had tied
opposition to the city’s coming anti-smoking ordinance to Glendale’s
"substantial and politically influential Armenian community."

Last week, Weaver denied making those comments and publicly condemned
the reference after prodding from Councilman Ara Najarian.

No representatives of the Armenian National Committee attended
Tuesday’s council meeting.

Chahe Keuroghelian, a former council candidate who publicly admonished
Weaver last week, sat quietly in the audience.

Najarian, who has repeatedly pressed Weaver about the article, defended
his decision last week to drop the matter in order to avoid stoking
a controversy based largely on hearsay.

"If any new information comes out, I’ll be happy to reevaluate my
position," Najarian said.

The writer of the Pasadena Weekly article, Carl Kozlowski, and his
editor, Kevin Uhrich, are scheduled to address the controversy live on
"The Larry Zarian Show" tonight, about three weeks after it exploded
at City Hall.

Weaver declined an invitation from Zarian to join the panel, citing
fears that his comments would be either misinterpreted or taken out
of context.

"It’s in the eye of the beholder in so many of these things,"
Weaver said.

Defending himself on live television after having issued a public
statement last week would only fan the flames of a politically
motivated agenda pushed by the Armenian National Committee, he said.

"It’s all political," Weaver said.

"How far can you go with this?"

But Uhrich said the live television format should erase any fears of
being misinterpreted.

Uhrich was also disappointed Weaver had declined to appear on the
show because he and Kozlowski were "kind of confused by that statement
and would like some clarification."

A column addressing the controversy was also scheduled to appear in
this morning’s issue of the Pasadena Weekly.

Elen Asatryn, executive director of the Armenian National Committee
Glendale, said Wednesday that the organization would continue to
pressure Weaver for a full apology, or for more response from his
colleagues.

"We hope that in the future they will work together to unite the
community and not divide," she said.