Glendale’s Community Newspaper
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Vol. 75 No. 19
INSIDE
This Week
NEWS...............8 Men charged for holding unsanctioned MMA events
YOUTH .......... 23 Apollo senior earns Dorrance Scholarship
OPINION ................... 12 FEATURES ................ 16 RELIGION.................. 18 SPORTS .................... 20 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT .... 22 YOUTH ...................... 23 BUSINESS ................ 24 CLASSIFIEDS............ 26
May 9, 2019
Council assistant discussions turn heated BY DARRELL JACKSON Glendale Star Staff Writer
With tentative approval of the fiscal year 2019-20 budget on the horizon, discussions over adding a council assistant for each councilmember turned contentious during an April 30 workshop. Currently, city council has three assistants, each of whom assists two councilmembers. Yucca District Councilwoman Joyce Clark, however, proposed that each councilmember receive his or her own assistant. Clark suggested the addition of two council assistant positions to the budget. Barrel District Councilman Bart Turner agreed. “I would say council office does not operate efficiently under the current three-to-
one (assistants to councilmembers) model, and I believe this will go a long way to solving issues in the council office,” said Clark, who called the proposal “long overdue.” But the discussion turned contentious when councilmembers who said they do not need a fulltime assistant — Councilmembers Ian Hugh and Lauren Tolmachoff — requested the funds that would be required for such a proposal be used within their districts instead. The cost to add one council assistant position and reclassify an executive assistant to council assistant would amount to $114,945, according to Vicki Rios, director of the budget and finance department. “One fully funded council assistant is
Chemicals found in drinking water at Luke AFB
around $92,000 (salary and benefits), and if half that budget comes from my budget and half from Councilmember Hugh’s, I believe we should be able to use that other half within our districts,” Tolmachoff said. But Clark argued, “Four of us are not well served by the present system, and apparently two of you are. We are asking for a mechanism for each of the four who have suffered under the current system.” Tolmachoff and Hugh argued it was not about the extra money, but if they do not use the entire budget of a system they should be allowed to improve their district for their constituents. “I don’t consider it a reward, but what kind of councilmember would I be if I allowed another councilmember’s district to SEE COUNCIL PAGE 3
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BY DARRELL JACKSON Glendale Star Staff Writer
The U.S. Air Force reported it found the water in wells and groundwater at Luke Air Force Base tested positive for toxic chemicals. The U.S. Air Force report covers Luke AFB and the Gila Bend Air Force Auxiliary Field. Testing was conducted to determine if two chemicals — perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoic acid — from a foam firefighting agent were evident. The foam had an usually high concentration of the two chemicals. The base firefighters began using the foams to SEE WATER PAGE 2
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