Outlook Newspapers’ Glendale News-Press had especially good coverage of Ara Najarian’s failed over-reactive attempt to to create a scandal designed to impair the Design Review Board.
Recall that Ara Najarian made a point of mentioning (threatening) media coverage at the City Council meeting.
“More than two hours of discussing what one caller coined as “winegate” produced more headache than anything for the City Council this week.
Ultimately, four council members voted to formally codify a rule directly forbidding the consumption of alcohol during board, commission or council meetings. However, a separate motion to simply recognize the event in question — that a member of the Design Review Board was on two occasions seen sipping from a wine glass during a meeting — fizzled out on an unusual 2-1-2 vote.
Councilman Ara Najarian had requested that the item be set aside for discussion shortly after the incident, in which DRB member Francesca Smith apparently drank from a wine glass during the board’s Jan. 14 meeting and later toasted her fellow board members as they adjourned, while a public hearing was underway. However, he explicitly said he had no interest in discussing any potential reprimands or removals, at least not Tuesday night.”
One very important point that the Outlook made (and completely missed by the LA Times) was this:
“Brotman also capitalized on the suggestions that the issue was more politically motivated than it was principled, and added that Mayor Vrej Agajanian called previously to warn him that someone would bring up the issue and that he might avoid it by asking Smith to resign.
“The issue is about certain people being unhappy with what my appointed commissioner and I are trying to do,” Brotman said. “I nominated Francesca Smith because I wanted somebody who doesn’t accept the garbage that often passes for good design here, someone who believes that Glendale residents actually deserve better.””
Read the the complete article here. ‘Winegate’ Controversy Engrosses Council
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