u/After_then_5438

I get why Ardy would endorse Ellen and Dan —his colleagues on council who are running for reelection. I also get why he endorsed Alek, who is smart and involved in the city and brings his transit planner experience. As a progressive myself, I’m glad to see our mayor endorsing the progressive slate.

What I don’t get is why Ardy would then also endorse someone like Evelina Sarian who allegedly has had a DUI when street safety is a top priority for Glendalians. And also Evelina’s husband was ousted as CEO of a healthcare company for alleged financial mismanagement (including allegedly putting Evelina’s name on a financial account he shouldn’t have). Ardy is a smart guy. He knows these accusations. So why did Evelina days ago post a slick, highly produced video of her with Ardy endorsing her?

By endorsing a 4th candidate when there’s only 3 seats kind of says, well I like the progressive slate but I don’t back them 100%.

But why would Ardy support the progressive slate and then support a seemingly sketchy candidate like Evelina?

From the mailer Ronnie Gharibian (a more conservative candidate) sent out this week it looks like Ardy endorsed a 5th candidate for council.

Ardy is of course free to endorse whoever he wants and if he wants to endorse more candidates than there are seats that’s his prerogative too. But endorsing a seemingly shady multimillionaire, as well as progressive and conservative candidates —it gets confusing.

Sometimes when you stand for everything you end up standing for nothing. I also feel that it further betrays Ardy’s more progressive origins. Remember those days?

Has Ardy just grown cynical in his decades in office? Is he trying to please some rich folks so that he can call in some donations when he runs for reelection in a couple years?

I also am confused by Ardy’s endorsement of David George Gevorkyan for Treasurer. The current treasurer, Rafi Manoukian, is a CPA, has an MBA, and has grown the city’s portfolio quite a bit. And he’s a veteran. Kind of an ideal candidate.

So why would Ardy pass over Rafi and instead choose to support scandal ridden David George Gevorkyan who had an LA Times article written about him 10 years ago accusing him of embellishing his resume after which he promptly resigned from the Glendale Audit Committee?

Can someone please make these endorsements make sense? TIA

Okay, I was researching candidates and was looking at the candidate statements in the sample ballot for City Treasurer. The guy who’s been doing it for a while, Rafi Manoukian, seems pretty solid: CPA, MBA, grew the city’s investment portfolio significantly. He’s even a veteran.

Then I looked at the guy running against him, David George Gevorkyan, and I saw some certification I’ve never heard of before, “Certified Government Investment Professional”.

So I did a little searching around and ended up finding a LA Times article from 2016 in which there’s a scandal concerning Gevorkyan: he was accused of embellishing his resume and then he promptly resigned from his appointed position on the Glendale City Audit Committee.

“On Nov. 4, local blogger Ara Manoogian told the council that Gevorkyan falsely identified himself as a Certified Treasury Professional and misstated his undergraduate major.
“I’m not sure what the vetting process is, but clearly these are very relevant pieces of information [that] were somehow overlooked when Mr. Gevorkyan was appointed,” Manoogian said.”

After digging a little more I found reports that he had allegedly never completed course work and repeatedly failed the exam.

So maybe in the past 10+ years Mr. Gevorkyan has in fact completed the coursework and passed the exam. It would be nice to have some confirmation. But at the end of the day it just leaves me wondering…can this guy actually be trusted with our city’s money?