Letter: High bond rating not important

Congratulations to Bert Ring on his Sept. 28 political cartoon. Our City Council has again come out saying the Los Angeles County civil grand jury report on the fiscal health of our city was not worth the paper on which it was printed.

Our financial health had the dubious position of being in the bottom quarter of the 88 cities evaluated. The city manager and council members gave “weather reports” why the grand jury report should be discounted.

“Garbage in, garbage out,” said our city manager. Councilman Ara Najarian arrogantly called the volunteers who worked on the report “clowns.” Mayor Dave Weaver said he’d lost a lot of respect for the county grand jury.

The City Council was elated when the Fitch bond rating company graded AA for Glendale city bonds as evidence that the city maintains a solid financial footing. Council member Zareh Sinanyan put a damper on the rating when he reminded the council that before the collapse of Merrill Lynch, it also had a high bond rating. Not mentioned were the high bond ratings of now defunct Lehmann Brothers, Enron Corp. or a city like Detroit, which filed for bankruptcy this year.

On the backs of struggling families and businesses in order to balance the books, the council continues to increase water and electric rates, old fees and new fees, taxes and new bonds.

Forget about the grand jury report or the Fitch bond rating. Ask the unemployed, ask the working families, and ask the last merchant who had to permanently close his doors. That is the report I would like to see.

Mike Mohill
Glendale