Evans, recently blasted by KFIAM 640’s John and Ken for her comment that “living within our means is meaningless”, must not read any of them. Her entries, including today’s, reflect an entrenched, entitled approach to expanding state revenues to meet “moral obligations”.

Here is what she wrote today about Governor Schwarznegger’s latest proposals (which do reflect the comments section of Evans’ blog):

In addition, the governor is holding the state hostage. As part of a budget agreement, he has submitted a list of new demands – sweeping policy changes – which could have been submitted with one of any of his four May Revision budget proposals. Now, he wants to reduce what the state contributes in pensions for new hires, change state retiree health care, scale back eligibility for people in the welfare-to-work program, create rules to root out fraud in-home services, and change portions of Medi-Cal.

While I am not averse to discussing these issues, none of them are simple subjects with simple solutions. The governor can’t lose focus on the real problem. His new demands don’t solve the immediate cash crisis. We have 30 hours until California faces financial ruin.

If Evans and her colleagues are “not averse to discussing these issues,” why have they not seriously addressed them in the legislature over the past few months? Polling and voting results make it clear Californians want to see the state reduce demands on taxpayers to pay for public sector wages/benefits (including legislators’ expenses) and social services prone to fraud and abuse.

Check out Carol Platt Liebau’s commentary today on How Politicians Bankrupted California. Liebau challenges the rising chorus of media and political voices calling for an end to Proposition 13 and the two-thirds majority requirement for California tax increases. She also takes a big swing at Evans’ recent rhetoric on budget issues.

Sunroom Desk contacted Elaine Wilkerson, who worked on Laura Friedman’s campaign and became very interested in the election process, for background on this year’s ballot counting and certification.

Wilkerson and 3 other campaign volunteers stayed at city hall on election night from 8 p.m. till 1 a.m., watching as the returns were tallied. She said it was fascinating to see the returns come in by precinct and reflect the campaign’s targeted canvassing. “I’ve never seen it up close; its quite an experience, and makes you realize you should get involved.”

The Friday certification took just one hour, said Wilkerson. Contractors fed ballots into a machine for the final count and produced a one-page summary report. The city manager and deputy city manager were on hand for the certification (on election night they were not in the room with city staff processing the ballots).

A fairly thick detailed report, with voting results listed by precinct, can be obtained from the city.

Ron Borucki won the race for against Rafi Manoukian by 446 votes.

Laura Friedman’s vote numbers slipped to second place with 9237 (15%) votes; Ara Najarian received the highest number, at 9473 votes (15.4%). Frank Quintero had 8857 votes (14.4%). Fourth place went to Bob Yousefian with 7427 votes (12.1%).

Councilwoman-elect Laura Friedman, first-time challenger who received the largest number of votes for city council, had strong backing from local homeowner groups. Her five years on Design Review Board as a consistent force for neighborhood compatability and code enforcement gave her a running start with this important constituency.

Ann Ransford, also a first-time challenger, received the largest number of votes for a seat on the Glendale Community College Board of Trustees. Ransford has an exemplary record of service to the college, where she worked most recently as Executive Director of the college foundation raising more than $10 million for endowments, scholarships and programs.

Incumbent Ara Najarian received the second largest number of votes for city council; the points he stressed in voter forums and mailers were his confidence in and good working relationships with Glendale’s Fire and Police departments, and his ability to represent Glendale on the MTA board in regional transportation planning.

Incumbent Frank Quintero, also a strong proponent of city public safety staffing and budgets, has strongly supported neighborhood preservation and been attentive to homeowners’ concerns during his campaigns and council terms. Quintero’s years of work supporting the local business community also worked in his favor.

Voters were reluctant to hand two school board seats to candidates backed by the Glendale Teachers’ Association. They re-elected incumbents Greg Krikorian and Joylene Wagner, who have resisted past union demands. The union spent large amounts to promote Christine Walters and Eric Sahakian. While Walters, a long-time PTA member with two sons in Glendale schools, managed to unseat incumbent Chakib Sambar, Sahakian trailed in fifth place in final returns.

Re-elected community college board incumbents Armine Hacopian and Anita Quinonez Gabrielian, who supported Ann Ransford in joint election advertising for the three open positions, held strong leads as a result of their past board service records.

The Glendale City Clerk, who ran unopposed and was re-elected, has posted final election results on glendalevotes.org.

Stepanian discussed the ANC’s controversial role in assisting with absentee ballots, and stated in his email:

I don’t know whether this is legal or a common practice, but I strongly object to it and firmly believe that it will cast serious new doubts over the fairness or even the legitimacy of the elections.

…In my opinion and for future reference: The practice of allowing so many people to vote either by absentee ballots, or early and outside of official polling stations and on other days than the election day, diminishes the importance of the act of voting. Among other things, it gives the distinct impression that casting the ballot is something one does at his or her convenience and need not be regarded as anything more than a chore that one does when one gets the chance to do it.

The city clerk responded by forwarding two sections of the California Elections Code. The section apparently relevant to “day ahead” voting states:

(7) You have the right to return a completed vote by mail ballot to any precinct in the county.

In a phone conversation this morning, Kassakhian told me that voters can request mail-in ballots at the city clerk’s office, including the day before the election, if they certify that they are unable to vote on election day. He also said his office has no control over how others advertise this fact, although in recent years there has been a big increase in vote-by-mail applications, spurred by campaigns’ and political action committees’ get-out-the-vote programs.

The absentee voting page on the ANC’s website states in its FAQs sections: “You can also just drop by the City Clerk’s office between March 9, 2009 and April 7, 2009 to cast your vote early.”

The federal stimulus bill is not going to revive our local or state economy. It won’t solve our city’s infrastructure problems. Glendale and other California cities need to look to themselves, to make do, to cut back, and to get creative.

Additional cuts to fire and police department budgets, the role of union contracts in the city’s current financial state, and the Scholl Canyon expansion plan, were all plainly discussed. Citizens including employees of large businesses in the city (Nestle), realtors, parents of school children, homeowners, and volunteers who work in police community resource programs attended to make their voices heard.

Of the public speakers, six spoke against any further cuts to police and fire department resources, and one of these, Greg Krikorian, asked that a previous cut (which eliminated police resource officers at Glendale middle schools) be reversed. Krikorian said that the first rule with school budget cuts was “stay away from the classroom,” and said that the corollary for the city would be “stay away from police and fire.” Only one speaker said too much money was already allocated to these departments.

Renegotiating contracts with the city’s unions was a different option staff presented for addressing the shortfall; others included approaches to managing Scholl Canyon’s expansion, replacing civil servant-run programs with private contracts, and cutting back on workweeks/employee furloughs.

Trash to Energy is one very interesting idea that surfaced during the discussion. Scholl Canyon will be filled at some point; other communities and other countries have developed gasification methods that convert waste into energy. Bob Yousefian said equipment like this exists currently, and the fuel it generates could be used to run Beeline buses! Here’s a public works project that sounds like a great forward investment for Glendale, especially if it could generate fees from surrounding communities and forestall the city of Los Angeles installing such equipment near the Glendale/Los Angeles border (near the 5 and 134 interchange).