Ara, Ardy, and Vartan Avoid Vote to Support Community Picnic

Another day, another pathetic city council meeting in Glendale.

This time, Ara Najarian, Ardy Kassakhian, and Vartan Gharpetian used every tool at their disposal to avoid granting GlendaleOUT $5000 for their annual Pride in the Park Community Picnic, open to all residents of Glendale. (If you want to bypass council nonsense and just donate, you can here.)

At the previous meeting Ara Najarian rejected funding the Pride event because he claimed without evidence the head of

@glendaleout.bsky.social is behind our website. Grey James, the frequently harassed + vilified artist spoke eloquently and bravely, noting the community contributions of glendaleOUT to ALL of Glendale.

James was followed by a striking apology by a speaker from the previous meeting on May 6th who’d opposed funding the event. She clarified it was only because she opposes funding ALL events in order to prioritize issues like affordable housing (ED: we think there's enough money for both, but noted). This speaker admitted being duped by misinformation & offered an emotional apology for harm caused to James the LGBTQ+ community. If only Ara and Vartan and Ardy were this courageous! (or could time-travel back to 2019.)

From September 24th, 2019, before their brains broke.

Another half dozen+ speakers and callers emphasized the positive contributions of glendaleOUT and the importance of an inclusive family friendly Pride event in the city.

After the overwhelmingly supportive public comments from actual constituents, council members bloviated in response.

Najarian made it clear he was looking for ways to avoid funding the project. First he stated that glendaleOUT is not a 501c3 so it was too “opaque” for city funds. When the suggestion was made the funding could be allocated to respected 501(c)3 Glendale Arts who could then sponsor, Ara tried to say that was improper because a member of Brotman’s family serves on the GA commission. The city attorney clarified there was no policy in place that would prevent this Glendale Arts from accepting the grant and running all expenses (food truck, craft table, etc.) for the picnic through their organization, providing receipts to the city.

Next up was Ardy Kassakhian, who initially tried to leave the meeting at 9pm for "childcare reasons" before Najarian shifted the order of the agenda to get the picnic grant vote moved up. 'Progressive' Ardy (who attended last year’s event) did his typical waffling. He does not 'like the pageantry of activism' (whatever that means.

Bruh, just take the vote. Nobody is asking for a pageant.

After pontificating for several very long minutes, Kassakhian ultimately said he’d be okay with funds going to a Pride event but only if the money if goes to a nice, safe organization who will make sure the event (a picnic at a playground) is “age-appropriate.” Ardy attended this very picnic last year, so it seems unnecessary to infer from the dais as an elected official that somehow it would be anything other than a safe, age-appropriate picnic.

Finally, we have good ol' Vartan Gharpetian - on his second term as councilmember - who as usual appeared confused about the process of discussion, public comments, and council agendas.

Gharpetian hid behind his inability to follow the plot and stated he could not vote to support the grant without more information. He assured everyone that this has nothing to do with the LGBTQ+ nature of the event. He promises! His rambling is too tedious for us to bother clipping here but you can watch his bumbling if you want to lose a few more brain cells. We expect nothing less from the man who still doesn't understand what greenhouse gases are. (Side note: Gharpetian mentioned our G-wagon graphic, but he supports free speech. Phew).

If you're not on social media, why don't you have time to ever read a meeting agenda and figure out how city council procedures work?

The city staff remained remarkably patient responding to these bad faith dingbats. Conversation devolved into overly technical waffling about how to fund a Pride event without including glendaleOUT, again the org who has put on a totally volunteer funded public event every year for four years now.

Finally, Mayor Najarian then took the mic to get to the heart of the issue- his wounded ego and obsession with our website. Ara, somehow a bar-certified attorney, believes he can depose a private citizen simply because he thinks he runs a website Ara doesn’t like.

At long last, a vote was taken to agendize the request to fund Pride in the Park- passed 3-2. It will likely appear on the next meeting’s agenda and we expect a similar display of craven grudge-holding and procedure-related excuses to justify another year of Glendale City Council ignoring the LGBTQ+ community. It will now take another week to settle on whether or not a city with a $325 million dollar general fund budget can find $5000 for a public picnic.

Hey, maybe the Glendale Police Department can spare some money and sponsor the event instead? We're not holding our breath. If this spectacle makes you want to donate, you can here.

the allocation for GPD for fiscal year 2024-2025.