Study Blames City Employees for Overbuilt Glendale House

Favoritism and incompetence by Glendale city employees allowed a prominent developer to erect a gigantic mansion that is 5,750 square feet larger than city-approved plans permitted, according to a city study.

That is the conclusion of William K. Shearer, an independent investigator hired by the Glendale City Council to determine how a 13,750-square-foot house on secluded El Tovar Drive was built on a site approved for an 8,000-square-foot house.

Brought to the council’s attention by enraged neighbors last year, the scandal over the house has eroded confidence in the city’s Building Department and stained the reputation of City Hall.

In a 36-page report, Shearer concluded that Aram Kazazian, a former appointee to two city commissions, received favors allowing him to skirt numerous restrictions. The report was prepared by investigators with Shearer’s San Diego law firm, based on thousands of documents and interviews with 32 people connected with the matter.

According to the report, a “so-called customer-friendly policy of the city clearly works to the advantage of unscrupulous contractors and developers.” But the report also placed most of the blame for the massive home on Kazazian, who allegedly used his position in the city to get what he wanted.

City officials called the report “an embarrassment,” and said they would work to eliminate any appearance of preferential treatment. Kazazian, meanwhile, denied any wrongdoing or favoritism, and said he has become a “scapegoat” for errors made by city officials.

“I am very embarrassed by this,” City Manager David Ramsay said. “This is clearly unacceptable.”

Ramsay said the report, which cost about $100,000, was “thorough” and solved the long-running City Hall whodunit as to how the house escaped normal scrutiny. Ramsay said city staff members and the council will use it to develop more stringent inspection guidelines to prevent a repeat of the events.

But Ramsay contended most of the blame for the fiasco lay not with city employees or procedures, but with Kazazian.

Kazazian, who served on Glendale’s Building Commission from 1981 to 1985 and then on the Board of Zoning Adjustments from 1985 to 1993, is a longtime architect and developer in the Glendale area. He insists he did nothing wrong, but was the victim of economic troubles that caused him to lose his “dream home” on the El Tovar Drive property to foreclosure in 1993.

“I have never asked for any favoritism or for any inspector to overlook anything,” Kazazian said. “[The house] was absolutely legal. They are looking for a fall guy.”

Kazazian says he received all necessary approvals to build the house, but contends city building officials lost the final approved set of plans--thus accounting for the discrepancy between the final plans on file with the city, approved in 1989 for 8,000 square feet, and the size of the existing house.

But in the report, Shearer asserts there is no evidence that the city ever approved the larger house, and says Kazazian has failed to reveal a set of approved plans he claims to have for the mansion.

Shearer’s report says it’s possible a city inspector unwittingly signed off on modifications to Kazazian’s building permit in 1992, when Kazazian was granted an occupancy permit to live in the house while it was under construction. Still another possibility, according to the report, is that the developer intermingled portions of the approved plans and his own, larger construction drawings.

Shearer’s report cites “a great deal wrong . . . with the city’s building oversight,” “inadequate supervision” of building inspectors, and a “general perception among the inspectors and other city employees that there is an unwritten rule that city insiders and the elite in the community are to get their way.” It recommends new guidelines and policies on plan checks and building inspections be implemented.

The report recommends no criminal or punitive actions be taken against any city officials or employees who dealt with Kazazian.

Homeowners’ groups, who have assailed the El Tovar Drive house as both an eyesore and a symbol of incompetence and favoritism at City Hall, said the report did not go far enough and encouraged the City Council to probe the matter further.

“I don’t think they have investigated the full scope,” said Gene Mestel, president of the Glendale Homeowners Coordinating Council. “I was very disappointed that [the investigators] felt no need to hold people accountable for this. If nothing further is done, I don’t think the residents of Glendale, nor the leaders will feel that much was accomplished.”

Mayor Sheldon Baker, however, said he felt the report was comprehensive and illustrates the need to “root out any perception” of favoritism in the Building Department.

“We have to make it clear to everyone that this is not acceptable. If it’s going on, it’s got to stop.”