Study Groups Urge Greater Child Care

A wide range of actions to expand the availability of child care to working parents has been suggested by two study groups of the Greater Glendale Child Care Council.

The non-government study groups identified a myriad things that employers and the Glendale Chamber of Commerce could do to encourage development of accessible, affordable and quality day care.

The leading recommendation was creation of a full-time child-care coordinator in the community. But the organization’s cautiously worded document did not specifically recommend that the position be part of the Glendale municipal government.

“That would have to evolve from the grass roots here in Glendale,” Pam Desario, a member of the Child Care Council, said in an interview. “We don’t want to push too hard.”

The cities of Los Angeles, Pasadena, Burbank and Santa Monica all have child-care coordinators. They offer guidance and encouragement to employers, developers and parents seeking to improve child-care options, Desario said. They pursue state, local and federal grants for child care and serve as liaisons between people trying to set up child-care centers and city licensing, zoning and fire officials.

Former school board President Jane Whitaker, who also is president of the Child Care Council, said she was uncertain whether the City Council would fund such a position.

In describing the need for child care, Whitaker cited a study last year at Glendale Community College that found local centers could accommodate fewer than 4,000 children, although the city has an estimated 14,000 children whose parents work. Even when researchers factored in relatives and unlicensed baby-sitters, they calculated that 5,500 children would soon be without care unless many centers are built or expanded.

The college study, done at the request of the Child Care Council, said child-care needs had reached a crisis level in Glendale.

The council’s study groups said a child-care coordinator could:

* Write a clear checklist to help commercial developers and child-care directors comply with safety and planning requirements.

* Encourage developers and others to build more child-care centers and expand existing ones by holding seminars on licensing and quality indicators.

* Promote child-care benefits at work.

They recommended that the city consider giving preference or waiving fees for developers that include child-care services in their projects.

Other institutions in the community could help also, the groups said. For example, the Chamber of Commerce could hold seminars on running child-care centers as businesses.

Glendale Community College could recruit and train people interested in opening family day-care centers, the groups said, and sources might be found to make inexpensive loans to help them comply with licensing requirements.

Desario said that in spite of obstacles she hopes that most of the recommendations can eventually be carried out. She would not have been as optimistic a few years ago, she said.

In 1987, Councilwoman Ginger Bremberg, who was mayor at the time, said she opposed any financial support for child care by the city, saying it was a “bottomless pit.”

“I don’t see any reason why tax dollars should go to help yuppie women get BMWs and a $350,000 house for status symbols when the tax dollars have many other things they can be used for,” Bremberg said.

At the same time, Councilman Larry Zarian, who is now mayor, expressed reservations about subsidizing child care for married couples, saying it might be construed as an unfair tax on people without children.

Bremberg said this week that she still believes that child care is solely the responsibility of employers. She said she would oppose a city child-care coordinator because of the expense.

Zarian, however, said he is open to hearing suggestions of the council and is willing to discuss hiring a coordinator.

The 16 members of the Greater Glendale Child Care Council task force are volunteers representing parents, child-care centers, businesses, various city departments and schools.

The council is not affiliated with the city’s own task force on child care, which has been reviewing licensing and development standards.

“Basically, our task force is just limited to streamlining the process--to making sure the city isn’t a roadblock to the development of new child-care facilities,” said Steven Adams, assistant to the city manager.

“What we’ll probably be looking at is negotiating with developers coming in with redevelopment plans, urging them strongly to include child care,” Adams said.

But task force members oppose giving special treatment to developers who included child care in their plans, and developers’ fees “weren’t looked favorably upon as a financing tool,” he said.

The city task force report probably will go to the City Council within a few months, Adams said.

Whittaker said people are welcome to comment on the recommendations during the next meeting of the Greater Glendale Child Care Council, to be held at 7:45 a.m. May 23 in the Council Room of Verdugo Hills Hospital.