Weaver’s Absence Leaves Issue of Biased Comments Hanging
August 7 , 2008

Glendale, CA - The controversy over the stereotyping comments made by Councilman Dave Weaver continued at the August 5th meeting of the Glendale City Council. Councilman Weaver failed to appear at the meeting, citing a family emergency. Due to his absence, Council members withheld most of their comments on the matter and Mayor John Drayman stated that the issues cannot be solved in Mr. Weaver’s absence. The Mayor stated that all of the speakers are welcome to podium at next week’s council meeting to address Dave Weaver directly.

During the Council meeting, Chairman of the Armenian National Committee – Glendale Chapter Artin Manoukian condemned the Councilman Weaver’s spiteful comments and called for a public apology.  Manoukian stated “The kinds of remarks most recently displayed by Councilman Weaver deeply damage the fabric of the Glendale community and they destroy the hope of overcoming prejudice in society.” He continued to say that “in the absence of a public apology perhaps the right thing for Councilman Weaver to do for the City of Glendale is to submit his resignation.”

Also present at the meeting were representative from Pasadena Weekly, Editor Kevin Uhrich and Publisher Jon Guynn. They profusely apologized for miss attributing Mr. Weaver’s interview to Mayor Drayman. When asked by Councilman Najarian to confirm or deny the accuracy of the quotes line by line Uhrich clearly verified and confirmed that the comments were indeed made by Councilman Weaver. He added that according to the reporter’s notes, Weaver was asked several times if those comments were in reference to the Armenian-American community and Weaver responded “yes”.

This story started to unfold during the July 29th meeting of the Glendale City Council. Mr. Barry Allen, Executive Director of the Vanguardian, a government watchdog publication, condemned John Drayman for the comments in an article published in The Pasadena Weekly. The article incorrectly attributed Councilman Weaver’s quotes to Mayor Drayman. After more than an hour of often heated and very critical discussion of the quotes Weaver hesitantly admitted that he was the one who interviewed and quoted by the newspaper, not Mayor Drayman

Councilman Dave Weaver’s comments caused outrage and disappointment amongst the council, the citizens of Glendale and most definitely in the Armenian-American community. The Armenian National Committee Glendale Chapter placed an action alert on the same week. They urged Glendale residents to logon to their website at www.ancglendale.org and send emails to the Glendale Mayor and Council members requesting them to condemn Councilman Weaver’s continuous unethical behavior on the dais and to request a public apology from him.  As of August 5th, approximately 800 e-mails were sent in response to Dave Weaver’s hurtful comments.

This was not the first time that Councilmember Weaver made spiteful comments towards the Armenian-American community. During the January 22nd, 2008 meeting of the City Council, Weaver went as far as to question the intelligence of non-English speaking voters and noted that if one does not understand English, he/she has no business voting.

The Pasadena Weekly article published on June 26, 2008, entitled “Butting In,” in which Councilmember Dave Weaver made racially charged comments about the Armenian-American residents in Glendale when referring to the smoking ban currently under consideration by the Glendale City Council may be found by visiting

http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/cms/story/detail/butting_in/6097

The Armenian National Committee-Glendale Chapter advocates for the social, economic, cultural, and political rights of the city's Armenian American community and promotes increased civic participation at the grassroots and public policy levels. It is the voice of this vibrant community, which seeks to advance and enrich Glendale.

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