An unapologetic cigarette smoker, Ginger suffered from emphysema and other respiratory problems over the last several years.  Indeed, it was a controversy that revolved around smoking that first brought me to know Bremberg, not as a politician or city official, but instead as a person.

In 1992, when Bremberg was in the middle of her third council term, city officials instituted a “No Smoking” policy for  all city offices.  Bremberg answered that she’d stop spending time in City Hall, and instead work from home.  She said she’d attend council meetings, but would otherwise stick to locations where she was welcomed to light up.

Jeff Prugh, then editor of the Glendale News-Press, gave Bremberg’s declaration front page, above-the-fold treatment, and followed with a blistering editorial scolding Bremberg.  As anyone who has know Bremberg can tell you, the one way NOT to convince her of something was to yell at her.

Rather than ignore the newspaper’s lecture, or laugh it off, Bremberg fired back with both barrels.  She declared she’d never again speak to the News-Press through the rest of her term.

A short time later, and without the benefit of actually knowing the woman except as a city official, I wrote a column scoffing at Bremberg’s threat.  I noted that, as Mayor she’d obviously HAVE to talk to the local newspaper when important issues arose, and when citizens deserved to hear from their city’s figurehead leader.  Moreover, I added with no small amount of smugness, when reelection time rolled around in 1993, she’d surely come crawling back with lists of her good deeds to be published.

For the next one or two years, until the end of her term, Bremberg never again gave a quote to any reporter or editor for the GNP.  If quotation marks appeared around her words in a GNP story, the words were actually addressed to anyone watching a council meeting, or some other public event.  Bremberg remained absolutely cordial with reporters and this columnist, and was willing to discuss issues and answer questions.  But whenever she was asked for an on-the-record comment, she refused.  I had underestimated Bremberg, and had assumed she was a “politician.”

She made a couple of exceptions for me, but that was because she didn’t really consider me part of the newspaper that published my columns.  (Many from the newspaper agreed with her.)  I also received special dispensation because I’d been raised in Minnesota. 

Bremberg was raised in Tracy, Minnesota, farm and lake country she visited for several weeks nearly every summer until last year.  Bremberg said her mother was her political mentor, and her father, a surgeon, taught her discipline and reason.  After graduating from Beloit College in Wisconsin, she worked in several office jobs and as a teacher before she married Bruce Bremberg in 1951.

The Brembergs moved across the country as Bruce’s job called for a number of transfers, including a lengthy stay in Texas.  “That’s where she really got involved in helping her own community improve itself,” her son told me.

“My mother was always interested in waste management and recycling as far back as I can remember, “ Chuck said.  “I was just a dumb kid in high school and she used to tell me, “Where the hell are you going throw it when there’s no more `away?’”

“”It was a point she always drove home,” he said.

Bruce and Ginger Bremberg bought their house in Glendale in July, 1975.  Thereafter, Bruce Bremberg often explained, “For 25 years Ginger went everywhere and did everything because of me.  When we got to Glendale it was her turn.”

Ginger’s first run for office in 1979 was her only election loss.  She won in her second run in 1981.  It’s ironic that, given her fast trip from newcomer to city council member in just six years, Bremberg came to represent what many considered Glendale’s “old guard.”  An active Republican in a city that was then staunchly Republican and conservative, she was perceived as a pro-business office holder who had little time or patience for the rampant hillside and multi-family development many said was overrunning Glendale, a breed of development she called “rape and run.”

In her 12 years of service after that first election, Bremberg embraced waste management issues, and became renowned as a local and statewide expert in the field.  It was Bremberg who led the push to lock out the cities of Los Angeles and Burbank from using Glendale’s Scholl Canyon Landfill.  Bremberg insisted that, because those cities consistently failed to reduce the amount of trash they were depositing, Glendale would be better off protecting the “resource” than they would be collecting the roughly $2.5 million earned annually by allowing use of Glendale’s shrinking landfill.

Bremberg left office when her third term ended in 1993, but ran and won in 1997 with the slogan, “Ginger’s back!”  During her time away she’d become dismayed by some of the redevelopment schemes the city engaged in, and was especially perturbed at then-City Manager David Ramsay.

“There’s no damned accountability,” Bremberg told me at the time.  “The city manager handles problems by trying to make sure nobody hears about them, including himself.”

From her 1981 start on the council, through April, 2001 when she left after completing her fourth term, the biggest controversies Bremberg became personally embroiled in were almost always related to something she’d said.  Bremberg took no small amount of delight in her reputation for shooting from the lip.  The headline “Ginger Snaps” was applied to her more times than I can count.

Ginger was once in the midst of railing about the latest dealings of a nefarious council colleague who had served along side her through multiple terms.  She was as well-informed on his conflicted interests and self-serving votes as any investigative columnist.  But I couldn’t help but notice the two also had a very warm, public relationship, and I asked if that wasn’t hypocritical of her.  She said, “I’m only making sure that, instead of stabbing me in the back, he’ll have to stab me in the front.”

Indeed, as deeply as Bremberg could hold a grudge, and she had few peers in that, when it came to doing the city’s business few observers would ever know she was often cheerfully finding compromise with individuals she didn’t much care for.

One of Bremberg’s “secrets” was doing her homework.  Former City Manager Jim Rez told me, “When she came into a budget study session, she was one of the few council members who had really studied the budget.  She came in already knowing what she liked and what she didn’t, and with really good questions.”

There were many issues on which Bremberg and I disagreed, but there were none where I wondered what she really thought, or where I could accuse her of telling one audience one thing, and another audience something different.  I sure disagreed with Bremberg, but I never had a problem trusting her.  Rez made the same point. 

“It was one of the great things about her.  You always knew where she stood.,” Rez said.  “She was my boss, and she was my very dear friend.”

Martha Thayer, another longtime pal, had been visiting Bremberg with Rez routinely in the last several months when they would bring the former Mayor her favorite Chinese food for lunch.

“She was still watching council meetings,” Thayer said, laughing.  “She knew everything that was going on, and she still knew what she liked and didn’t like.”

“She was such a special lady,” Thayer said.  “I am so happy the city named that building after her.”

“That building,” is Glendale’s Integrated Waste Management Facility, and when it was opened in 2006 it was named after Ginger Bremberg.  Incredibly, some in City Hall were a bit nervous Bremberg would be offended by the naming honor, and she told me some approached her cautiously with the news.  Bremberg cackled with laughter at that idea.

Bremberg made her name in trash, so to speak, boasted of her relationship with the city’s sanitation workers, and was proud her visionary work on the vital issue of waste management had seen her dubbed “the Garbage Lady.”

The facility’s opening ceremony took place just days after Bremberg’s husband had died.  But Bruce had been so pleased to learn of the honor, and he knew how thrilled she was, that she told me she had no second thoughts about attending.  She said she’d wear his favorite dress, and “I know he’ll be looking down and thrilled for me.”

Chuck Bremberg told me his mother never had aspirations for higher office, and thought work on the community level was most important and most effective.  “She used to tell us, “I can only do what I can do in my community, and hope others doing the same in theirs.”

Ginger Bremberg did more than her share for her community, and in other cities it takes a lot more than one tiny lady to do what she did on her own.

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Ginger Bremberg is survived by her two sons and their wives, Chuck of Campbell, California, and Blair, who lives in Saudi Arabia.  There are also four grandchildren, of whom Ginger was immeasurably proud.

COUNCILMAN NOT READY FOR HIS CLOSE UP!

October 24, 2007

Glendale - Just when you think the Glendale City Council can’t get more ridiculous, more petty, more concerned about appearance over substance than members already are, those sons of bitches do something to prove we haven’t even scratched the surface of their potential for absurdity.

According to City Manager Jim Starbird, the officially-unnamed councilman making the request was advised it was unusual, but was promised the directive would be issued to the television crew.

Though no one had previously publicly declared on the record that Yousefian is the council member who made the bizarre request, the culprit is obvious.  First, anyone watching this week’s council meeting will note that, before discussion of the TV camera edict came up, Yousefian was the only council member whose comments were covered by a tiny, distant camera that offers a shot precisely like that described above.  Everyone else got the close-up, single-shot treatment. 

The wide shot is about on a par with a color security camera covering the comings and goings of customers at Home Depot.  There isn’t much of a clue as to who is speaking unless they’re inclined to gesture and hold up documents as they speak.  Yousefian is so inclined.

The second “tell” as to who made such an odd request is the fact that it was revealed by councilman Dave Weaver.

Virtually everyone I know who heard about the request before it was mentioned at the meeting was guessing it had come from Weaver himself, probably out of concern for the pink-faced, red and bleary-eyed impression he typically conveys at meetings.  But since news of it came from Weaver, the target for well-deserved embarrassment HAD to be Yousefian.

In Weaver’s mind, specifics obviously aren’t too important, all embarrassments are equal, and so outing Yousefian’s goofy request doubtless has Weaver cackling.  If only Weaver’s tangible transgressions generated as much ridicule and derision as Yousefian’s obsession is likely (and rightly) going to inspire.

Of course, Starbird himself may be playing an impish role in the episode.  That is, Weaver and his colleagues learned of the strange request when Starbird circulated a memo describing it.  That led to Weaver’s suggestion the council discuss policies for television coverage of city meetings.

None of us recall memos being circulated to announce Weaver was asking for and receiving free police security and other city services for his beauty pageant.  And the one time city staff addressed Weaver’s Rose Parade fundraising efforts, the resulting report got substantial facts irrefutably and patently wrong, and failed to mention others, such as the direct role some city department heads play in the effort – including some who signed off on the “report.”

For that reason, it’s credible that today we’re seeing the effects of a new policy of openness.  But coming in the aftermath of a nasty exchange between Yousefian and Starbird just last month, perhaps we’ll be forgiven for looking a bit sideways at Starbird’s role in this latest.

Still, there’s no need to speculate on who made the camera shot request.  I did what is apprently unthinkable for some.  After talking to enough sources that I was sure I knew who made the request, I asked Yousefian. 

“Of course!  he said.  “Sure, it was me!”

Obviously, Yousefian has once again forgotten the maxim about never doing or saying something in private that you don’t want blared across the front pages.  Then again, Yousefian has grounds to claim he’s equally tone-deaf about some of the things he says and does in public.

Yousefian did explain the rationale of his request, which after all was NOT for more close ups, or for more attention to himself. 

In short (though that’s not how I got it from Yousefian,) he got an ugly piece of hate mail alleging, among other things, that he talks a lot at council meetings to keep his mug on camera.  Moreover, the author opined that Yousefian’s mug isn’t very attractive.

On top of that, Yousefian says he’s dismayed at the activities of council members when colleagues or members of the public are speaking.

“People watching at home don’t know that one councilman is leaving the room, and another one is busy texting messages,” Yousefian said.  Nobody listens to each other, or to the public speakers, and when the camera is in a close up on the talker no one can tell that’s going on.”

So, between the two motivations, he asked for an end to his close-ups.  One suspects a fit of pique over the nasty letter nicely meshed with the complaints he's made for months about how some of his colleagues show a lack of respect for speakers.

I’ve heard Yousefian’s complaints about disrespectful council members from others before, and in other cities where locals believe the cameras unintentionally mislead viewers into believing officials are engaged and attentive.  But Yousefian doesn’t seem to realize the long-shot he’s advocating doesn’t provide a lot more information.

Even on my large screen TV, to say nothing of watching that shot via streaming video on the city’s web site, it’s often impossible to tell whether Mayor Ara Najarian is typing away with his thumbs on a Blackberry, or if he’s staring placidly at a speaker behind the public podium.  Hell, it’s hard to be sure which middle-aged guy is Najarian!

I “get” Yousefian’s rationale, but none of it seems to me even close to a sufficient excuse  for hurling yet another monkey wrench into what are already the gnashing and grinding gears of a dysfunctional council.   Indeed, it's telling that those council members aside from Weaver who mocked the request relayed in Starbird's memo never took a moment to just ask Yousefian what he was doing and why.

I have no problem with public ridicule (obviously).  But I always prefer informed ridicule to reflexive ridicule.  Indeed, perhaps some might have objected just as strongly to the prospect of the council overseeing camera work, but they'd have done so while tempering their implications.

This week, with the matter not actually on the agenda, the council still magically sidled into a position that Yousefian’s request will henceforth be denied, at least until there’s later council discussion of a formal policy.  Let’s hope Yousefian has the good sense and good counsel to drop this latest before then, and to immediately pull back from some or even all council members playing ANY role in determining how the city’s TV crew covers council meetings, except to request they do it in a professional and objective manner.

There were some BIG surprises in the results of Glendale's municipal election.

CLICK HERE for a pdf version of the entire column.

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DRAYMAN WINS, AND WEAVER TAGS ALONG!

April 4, 2007

Don’t ask me how.  Don’t ask me why.  But Glendale councilman Dave Weaver has managed to pull another term out of his backside, and incumbent Rafi Manoukian will be involuntarily stepping down when his current term ends.

CLICK HERE for a pdf version of the entire column.

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LIFETIME REWARDS FOR PUBLIC SERVANT?

September 28, 2006

Mayor Dave Weaver proposes Glendale elected officials are entitled to free health insurance for life, even after they've left office.

CLICK HERE for a pdf version of the entire column.

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WEAVER GOES 'ROUND THE BEND… AGAIN

September 15, 2006

It’s been a while since Glendale Mayor Dave Weaver engaged in one of his petite mal rants, but on Sept. 5 he gave us a doozy.  As usual, his familiar red-faced, blustering episode of anger came after having been caught red-handed.  In a new development, however, you can see the fit for yourself.

CLICK HERE for a full pdf version of this column.

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THE OTHER “700 CLUB”

March 28, 2006

Elected and appointed officials in California are required to file a “Disclosure of Economic Interests” within 30 days of taking office, and annually from then on.  It tells the public in very vague terms what officials own and where they’ve invested their money.  Some Glendale officials haven’t been very attentive to their duty, and one has even been openly hostile to it.

CLICK HERE for a full pdf version of this column.

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Editor's Note: See the March 28 update below this column.

A Gauntlet is Thrown

Oh, what a tangled web is Weaver,

            Or is it a source who is the deceiver?

March 16, 2006

Though he didn’t respond to my requests for his comments about the claims of sources for the story immediately below this one, Councilman Dave Weaver did later answer (some) questions asked when reporters from the Daily News and Glendale News-Press newspapers followed up on my column.  That’s led to a unique challenge from one of my sources.

According to stories published in the two newspapers, Weaver confirmed he’s the subject of an Fair Political Practices Commission  investigation.  But he says he found the problems himself, and at least implicitly denies that an investigator is the one who first pointed out his violations.

Weaver says late last year he was cleaning out his house, and in the process he came across his campaign finance reports from his 2005 reelection campaign.  According to the articles, Weaver says he reviewed those materials and concluded he made some mistakes, and so reported himself to the FPPC.

The News-Press and Daily News articles state that Weaver declined to describe the problems he found.

Neither story indicates whether Weaver was asked if he took cash contributions.  Neither article addressed the issue as to whether donors of the contributions identified thus far in Weaver’s reports can be located, or mentioned the other oddities described below.  Further, neither story includes any mention of the Dreaming of Roses financial records, or Weaver’s previous reporting failures.

Sources for my report have responded forcefully to Weaver’s claims as described in the newspaper articles, with a scatological reference to the excretions of male cattle being a descriptor shared by most.  The  sources are conceding it might be fair to conclude that, when confronted with his violations by investigators who informed him they had an obligation to report them, Weaver may have subsequently turned himself in.  But one of those sources, especially angry about Weaver’s portrayal of the process and his refusals to admit specifics of the violations, made the following offer.

“I will allow myself to be identified when I sit down for an independent polygraph examination (lie detector) if Dave Weaver will agree to sit down at the same time for a polygraph with the same certified examiner.  We can both answer the same questions about how the issue of Weaver’s violations first arose, what those violations are and whether he has taken multiple large cash donations, including donations he reported under the names of people other than those who handed him the cash.  These things (polygraph exams) can be pretty damned expensive, so I propose we agree in advance that whichever of us is found to be deceptive be the one to pay the examiner’s bill.”

The source says he came up with the idea after remembering that I once made a similar challenge in a dispute with a city official over the substance of a one-on-one exchange.  I don’t recall the incident, but confess it’s an appealing idea.

This offer has been forwarded to Weaver.  I’ll let you know whether and when he responds.

Editor's Note:  As of March 28, Councilman Weaver has not responded to the offer described above.  City staffers have confirmed the proposal was delivered to him.

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RAISING SOME QUESTIONS

July 15, 2005

On July 14 the Daily News in Los Angeles reported that Glendale city council members voted to approve for themselves the "council’s first raise in 20 years." The officials did this by crafting this week an ordinance that will be formally voted on next week. Councilman Bob Yousefian was quoted in the story saying, "We waited 20 years to do this." The same day, the unofficial newspaper of record for Glendale offered readers a similar story, following up on a report it published a day earlier. The Glendale News Press declared the council was weighing a proposal that "would grant members their first raise in nearly 20 years."

Given these reports, all of which focused on public servants selflessly going almost two decades without boosting their own pay, many readers might have concluded Glendale’s city council members haven’t had a raise in 20 years. Obviously, both from the report presented by city staff at this week’s meeting, and based upon statements at the meeting wherein the idea was discussed, that’s exactly what Glendale’s City Hall wants you to believe.

How many will be stunned to learn it isn’t true? Council members voted to increase their own pay by more than 60% in May, 2002, and that vote involved four of the five officials in office today.

CLICK HERE for a prf version of the entire column.

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