Council Puts Beautification Under New Department

The Glendale City Council on Tuesday established a new department, the Environmental Services Section, to help beautify the city.

The new division will clean up graffiti, remove abandoned vehicles and make sure that neighborhood yards are maintained.

“This is just another example of what this staff and, modestly, the City Council, has done to make this a better place to live,” said Councilman John F. Day.

The council also approved a plan to spend $20,000 to get the program off the ground.

The council’s decision followed a staff recommendation. “We need to be aggressive and take a pro-active approach,” said City Manager David Ramsay.

Ramsay said that while all the environmental services are being performed efficiently, the effort will be better coordinated by placing them under a single department head.

Until Tuesday’s resolution, different environmental services had been performed by a variety of city departments: Public Works, Community Development, Fire, Police, Parks and Recreation, Planning, Zoning and Management Services.

One of the first tasks of the new department will be to find a name that is more “sexy” than Environmental Services, Ramsay said.