Welfare Officials to Seek Office Site in Glendale

After their proposal to set up a district welfare office in Burbank drew criticism from the city’s leaders, Los Angeles County officials appeared to back away from that idea Thursday, saying they would search for a site in Glendale, which already has such an office.

The decision to focus on Glendale “was decided on the basis of a number of issues, primarily parking and location,” said Ollie Blanning, an aide to County Supervisor Mike Antonovich. “A central location is important so people can get there easily, and there was a lack of parking in Burbank.”

The move by county welfare officials comes after Burbank officials complained to Antonovich that a regional welfare office in their city would harm neighborhoods in Burbank, which has relatively few welfare cases.

Burbank officials praised Antonovich’s efforts Thursday and said they would be open to a plan to supply one of the locations for the county’s welfare-to-work program, known as GAIN or Greater Avenues for Independence.

The Glendale district office, which has been at 225 E. Broadway for the past 21 years, provides such services as general relief, food stamps, Medi-Cal, in-home support and CalWorks. Of the 36,000 aid recipients that use the Glendale-Burbank regional office, about 17,365 are residents of Glendale, 13,570 come from the city of Los Angeles and about 4,000 live in Burbank.

Glendale officials said they have no objections to housing the regional welfare office. But they said it should be located in an area that is not prime real estate and has no parking problems.