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Glendale council approves slate of commission appointments after debate over GWP nominee
Summary
The Glendale City Council approved several commission appointments Jan. 7, 2025, after a councilmember raised concerns about nominating a consultant who previously performed paid work for the city to the Glendale Water & Power Commission. The council voted to appoint Ted Flanagan to the GWP commission despite one dissenting vote.
The Glendale City Council on Jan. 7 approved a series of commission appointments, including the reappointments of Edith Fuentes (Planning Commission) and Regina Alcazar (Parks, Recreation and Community Services Commission), and the appointment of Ted Flanagan to the Glendale Water & Power Commission after debate over his prior paid work for the city.
Council members discussed a slate of nominations read into the record by city staff at the start of the meeting. Council Member [name not specified in transcript] moved to approve three nominations under item 3B and the motion passed on roll call. Council later took up the nomination of Ted Flanagan to the GWP Commission separately after concerns were raised about his past consultant contracts with the city.
Council Member Garpetian said the council should be “a little careful” about appointing consultants, activists or lobbyists to advisory bodies and noted Mr. Flanagan’s prior personal service agreement (PSA) work for the city in 2019–2020 and again in 2022.
City staff and other council members responded that Mr. Flanagan is a resident with extensive experience in energy efficiency and consulting. City legal counsel was asked whether Mr. Flanagan had been a registered lobbyist; staff said he was not registered as a lobbyist for the city. Supporters said enough time had elapsed since Mr. Flanagan’s paid work and that his expertise would benefit the commission.
On the Flanagan nomination the council recorded one dissenting vote and the appointment carried. The council also approved nominations to the Arts and Culture Commission and several other advisory bodies in a separate motion.
Votes at a glance: the council approved the nominations under item 3B (Edith Fuentes; Alex Parajon; Erasto Ongeko Jr.) and item 3C (Sue Bell Yang; Regina Alcazar). The nomination of Ted Flanagan to the Glendale Water & Power Commission was approved after separate consideration with one recorded “no.”
Council action on these nominations was procedural and advisory: the appointments place individuals on city advisory commissions and do not by themselves enact policy.
The council did not adopt new rules or change existing conflict-of-interest rules during the discussion. Several council members requested that staff provide any additional records about prior city contracting practices related to nominees if available.
Ending: The council moved on to the consent calendar after the appointments. Additional details about individual appointment terms and seat numbers were included in the agenda packet but were not discussed at length during the Jan. 7 meeting.
