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Mayor Drayman faces first salvo
He moves the public comment part of the City Council meeting to the very end of the agenda, drawing ire.
By Jason Wells
CITY HALL — Mayor John Drayman’s decision on Tuesday to move the public comment portion of the City Council meeting to the end of the agenda has infuriated recurring speakers who say the move will stifle their ability to advocate their positions.
The announcement came four years after Councilman Bob Yousefian, when he was mayor, endured a firestorm of criticism for doing the same thing as a way to give city business priority at a time when dozens of attendees were speaking out against the Americana at Brand project.
He eventually relented and restored public comment, or oral communications, near the front of the agenda, where it has remained in some form ever since.
“If it’s working, don’t fix it,” said Margaret Hammond, president of the Glendale Homeowners Coordinating Council and public speaker who has addressed the City Council every week for years. “It’s definitely going to restrain people from coming.”
Drayman said he was making the change, which falls under his purview as mayor, in order to process the city’s business at a faster clip and to balance the schedules of those who attend in order to address individual action items with speakers who come before the dais “week after week.”
“We’ve lost track of what this is supposed to be about,” he said.
The change was one of many he made Tuesday to the structure of council meetings. He also eliminated the weekly city proclamations and commendations at the start of the meeting, which he said take about 30 minutes each Tuesday, and moved them all to the fourth Tuesday of each month starting in May.
His colleagues will also have to hold their questions on staff reports until after the presentations are complete, and their responses to speakers until after oral communications have concluded.
Drayman also announced his plans to have council members featured in on-air public service announcements, and called on them to attend more community events.
He also intends to create a new city television show to run on GTV6 where council members would interview city staff members, leaders and other administrators in pretaped episodes to answer questions submitted by the public.
But it was the change to oral communications that received most, if not all, of the attention Tuesday night.
Oral communications — designed for the public to comment on issues not listed on the council’s weekly business agenda — has increasingly become a place of public address for Glendale’s growing stock of recurring city critics and activists.
Under Councilman Ara Najarian’s tenure as mayor, he limited the section to one hour at the beginning of the meeting, giving preference to those who voluntarily limited themselves to three minutes.
Speakers who invoked their full five minutes ran the risk of being pushed to the very end of the meeting — which often runs past 10 p.m., sometimes beyond midnight — if the cumulative group went past the allotted hour.
It was a compromise that speakers eventually warmed up to, although at the time it was introduced, they too criticized the change as an infringement of their First Amendment rights.
Anticipating a backlash from the same group of about a half-dozen self-styled public advocates, Drayman sought to shield his colleagues, calling on opponents to direct their “angry letters” and “shaking fists” his way.
And they did.
Hammond called on viewers during her address to the council to write letters, send e-mails and call the mayor to express their opinions on the change.
“It’s time to stand up for our rights,” she said.
Herbert Molano — a longtime critic who often speaks at Redevelopment Agency and Housing Authority meetings in the afternoon before addressing the City Council in the evening on multiple agenda items — said many residents have told him they look forward to watching oral communications “because the information was not choreographed, sanitized and did not have the official point of view.”
Moving oral communications to the end of the council agenda will deprive those viewers of an alternative point of view, “which is what we bring,” he said.
But viewpoints, which will still be aired and online, aren’t necessarily what oral communications is for, Drayman argued, adding that the time should be used to bring grievances to the attention of a governing body that can actually do something about it, not so “these three to four people can say the same thing, night after night” and use the podium “as their megaphone to the public, rather than the City Council.”
“It’s a balancing of free speech interests,” Drayman said.
While frequent council speaker Barry Allen agreed that the change was the mayor’s prerogative, and that the public would need to work within the new parameters, he said he feared the change would be a barrier to legitimate points made over the city’s upcoming budget process and other city issues.
“It’s almost as if management wants to hide these issues,” he said.
Drayman’s realignment of the council agenda to be more business-oriented also has its proponents.
“I think it will encourage people like myself to speak on topics that are actually before the council,” said Peter Fuad, president of the Northwest Glendale Homeowners Assn., which has been active in a number of development-related issues.
“Until now, they’ve had to sit through the oral communications period, which can be quite lengthy.”
Glendale is not the only city to give preference to moving municipal business — which can range from multimillion-dollar contracts to sweeping policy changes — over public comment periods.
Santa Monica also reserves its version of oral communications for the end of council meetings, while other cities like West Hollywood impose strict time limits.
The public comment period there for items not on the agenda is just 20 minutes long.
JASON WELLS covers City Hall. He may be reached at (818) 637-3235 or by e-mail at jason.wells@latimes.com.
The announcement came four years after Councilman Bob Yousefian, when he was mayor, endured a firestorm of criticism for doing the same thing as a way to give city business priority at a time when dozens of attendees were speaking out against the Americana at Brand project.
He eventually relented and restored public comment, or oral communications, near the front of the agenda, where it has remained in some form ever since.
“If it’s working, don’t fix it,” said Margaret Hammond, president of the Glendale Homeowners Coordinating Council and public speaker who has addressed the City Council every week for years. “It’s definitely going to restrain people from coming.”
Drayman said he was making the change, which falls under his purview as mayor, in order to process the city’s business at a faster clip and to balance the schedules of those who attend in order to address individual action items with speakers who come before the dais “week after week.”
“We’ve lost track of what this is supposed to be about,” he said.
The change was one of many he made Tuesday to the structure of council meetings. He also eliminated the weekly city proclamations and commendations at the start of the meeting, which he said take about 30 minutes each Tuesday, and moved them all to the fourth Tuesday of each month starting in May.
His colleagues will also have to hold their questions on staff reports until after the presentations are complete, and their responses to speakers until after oral communications have concluded.
Drayman also announced his plans to have council members featured in on-air public service announcements, and called on them to attend more community events.
He also intends to create a new city television show to run on GTV6 where council members would interview city staff members, leaders and other administrators in pretaped episodes to answer questions submitted by the public.
But it was the change to oral communications that received most, if not all, of the attention Tuesday night.
Oral communications — designed for the public to comment on issues not listed on the council’s weekly business agenda — has increasingly become a place of public address for Glendale’s growing stock of recurring city critics and activists.
Under Councilman Ara Najarian’s tenure as mayor, he limited the section to one hour at the beginning of the meeting, giving preference to those who voluntarily limited themselves to three minutes.
Speakers who invoked their full five minutes ran the risk of being pushed to the very end of the meeting — which often runs past 10 p.m., sometimes beyond midnight — if the cumulative group went past the allotted hour.
It was a compromise that speakers eventually warmed up to, although at the time it was introduced, they too criticized the change as an infringement of their First Amendment rights.
Anticipating a backlash from the same group of about a half-dozen self-styled public advocates, Drayman sought to shield his colleagues, calling on opponents to direct their “angry letters” and “shaking fists” his way.
And they did.
Hammond called on viewers during her address to the council to write letters, send e-mails and call the mayor to express their opinions on the change.
“It’s time to stand up for our rights,” she said.
Herbert Molano — a longtime critic who often speaks at Redevelopment Agency and Housing Authority meetings in the afternoon before addressing the City Council in the evening on multiple agenda items — said many residents have told him they look forward to watching oral communications “because the information was not choreographed, sanitized and did not have the official point of view.”
Moving oral communications to the end of the council agenda will deprive those viewers of an alternative point of view, “which is what we bring,” he said.
But viewpoints, which will still be aired and online, aren’t necessarily what oral communications is for, Drayman argued, adding that the time should be used to bring grievances to the attention of a governing body that can actually do something about it, not so “these three to four people can say the same thing, night after night” and use the podium “as their megaphone to the public, rather than the City Council.”
“It’s a balancing of free speech interests,” Drayman said.
While frequent council speaker Barry Allen agreed that the change was the mayor’s prerogative, and that the public would need to work within the new parameters, he said he feared the change would be a barrier to legitimate points made over the city’s upcoming budget process and other city issues.
“It’s almost as if management wants to hide these issues,” he said.
Drayman’s realignment of the council agenda to be more business-oriented also has its proponents.
“I think it will encourage people like myself to speak on topics that are actually before the council,” said Peter Fuad, president of the Northwest Glendale Homeowners Assn., which has been active in a number of development-related issues.
“Until now, they’ve had to sit through the oral communications period, which can be quite lengthy.”
Glendale is not the only city to give preference to moving municipal business — which can range from multimillion-dollar contracts to sweeping policy changes — over public comment periods.
Santa Monica also reserves its version of oral communications for the end of council meetings, while other cities like West Hollywood impose strict time limits.
The public comment period there for items not on the agenda is just 20 minutes long.
JASON WELLS covers City Hall. He may be reached at (818) 637-3235 or by e-mail at jason.wells@latimes.com.
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