COMMUNITY COMMENTARY: PAPER’S STANCE ON ISSUE IS DISTURBING
By Rafi Manoukian
Glendale News Press
May 8 2009
MA
Our independent local media, in the tradition of Bob Woodward and Carl
Bernstein, and I’m sure after extensive research and analysis, have
concluded that "it is no longer prudent to leave such an important
post up to the whims of the voting public" ("Treasurer should be
appointed," May 2). Of course the editorial refers to the post of
Glendale city treasurer.
Before I write to the wisdom of the statement, I would like to address
some of the letter writers who spew hatred toward me individually,
and through me to the Armenian National Committee, the Glendale Young
Democrats and unnamed ethnicities.
Just to clarify, I am not affiliated with the Armenian National
Committee. I was just one of the many candidates endorsed by them
after exhaustive interviews. I am a Democrat and proud to have had
the endorsement of the Glendale Young Democrats. Those who would use
their dislike of me to attack a certain ethnicity or organization,
please stop. I’m sure you can aim your hatred at me without unfairly
targeting the youth and innocent civilians.
As to the last election, I would like to relay my appreciation to all
those who considered my candidacy and those who didn’t and thank them
all for voting and participating in the fundamental civil rights that
are afforded to the public, whether on a whim or not.
The office of the city treasurer is created by the city’s Charter,
and the function of the city treasurer is to "receive and safely keep
and pay out as directed in this Charter all moneys belonging to the
city and all moneys received into the hands of any office, board,
department or employee of the city and shall keep an exact account
of receipts and disbursements." Basically, it’s the cash management
of the city.
The office of the controller already exists in the form of
finance director. The City Council is the body responsible for the
administration and investment of the assets of the city and grants
the authority and responsibility of investing the city funds to the
city treasurer.
Now, does the same fuzzy logic of "whims of the voting public" apply
to the City Council? After all, they control more than $600 million
of the taxpayers’ funds in addition to the investment funds.
Should the premise that we cannot leave an important post to the whims
of the voting public also apply to all the other elected positions
such as the state treasurer, the governor, state representative and
the president, to name a few? Are they not important posts? Why should
we leave them up to the whims of the voting public?
The voters of Glendale in the past have voted five times to keep
the office of the treasurer an elected office — I guess not on a
whim. The question that begs an answer from the Glendale News-Press
editorial staff is, why did they feel the need to take a position
on such an issue now, after this election, and not four years ago or
before? And who is this voting public that voted for treasurer on a
whim this time and not last?
I would suggest that to better serve a community and to serve as
the independent monitor of power, an independent news reporting
agency should embark on a voter education campaign to minimize the
"whims of the voting public," as opposed to printing inflammatory,
hateful letters and advocating the curtailing of voting rights and
civil liberties of the public.
BRAFI MANOUKIAN is a former mayor of Glendale and previous candidate
for city treasurer.